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Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ’s

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It depends on what you want to do. We can discuss that with you and once we have a basic understanding of where you may wish to go – including some options – we can cost it out for you.
Quite possibly! If you contact us with your property address, we should be able to provide you with a quick initial answer.
A desktop assessment of your property’s development potential can be undertaken with one of our development experts free of charge. Additional stages of feasibility reports for funding purposes or due diligence reports to clarify specific development point will incur a fee based on hourly rate. We will give you an estimate if this seems the best course of action to take.
The first step in understanding your property’s potential for development is to contact one of our Directors who can let you know about Council and planning requirements, any issues that we can readily identify, the practicality of achieving subdivision or building development and the economics of any physical construction required on site. Most of this can be given in an email as a desktop exercise, however we will sometimes suggest that there is a need for further investigation, including a site visit.
Infill subdivision can be completed within a year from start to finish. The extent to whether this can be a shorter or longer time will depend primarily on how much construction is required – the more the need for construction of service connections, driveway, etc, the more design, consenting and construction time that will be required. We can normally provide a reasonable time (and cost) estimate at the stage of our initial advice.
Our subdivision experts can advise you on the best subdivision options for your property. Our initial consultation providing this advice is free.
An infill subdivision will generally require at least the services of a land surveyor, a planner and an engineer. Other disciplines, such as geotechnical engineering and traffic engineering can be required for larger projects.
To complete a subdivision the services of a Licensed or Registered Professional Surveyor are required. Subdivision is a core service we provide – we can guide you from the start through to the subdivision being completed.
There are many types of resource consent, and often more than one resource consent that is required for a particular development. There is a huge advantage in involving a consultant who can identify what resource consents are required, and guide clients through the process of gaining those consents. This is a core part of what we do. Our planners are trained to understand council rules, to work alongside our other specialist staff to prepare resource consents and to work through the process of obtaining the consents.
On behalf of our clients, we prepare the resource consent application and manage the process through to approval. The process often begins with a pre-application meeting with Council staff at which time any necessary modifications to the development are discussed with our client. The application is then prepared and lodged. The Council will often then ask for further information (the “Section 92) and we work though that until Council staff are happy, they have everything they need to finalise the consent. Almost all applications follow a “non-notified” process, although there is often the need to consult with tangata whenua and neighbours.
We can advise at our initial meeting how long it will take to prepare a resource consent application. This will depend on the complexity of the project and how many inputs will be required. For a very simple proposal we may be able to prepare an application within two weeks. A very large development may take 6 months to prepare. Our advice to clients is to take care in preparing applications so that they are comprehensive and cover what we know the Council will be expecting – this saves frustration and time later in the process.

Even the simplest resource consent will cost $2,000 to prepare and process through Council. Complex resource consents can cost many thousands in consultant and Council fees. Our initial estimate will outline what the likely costs will be.

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