Researching the Property

The neighbourhood

Research the street before the house

Visit at different times — a quiet street at 11am can be a rat-run at 5pm.
Check real travel times to work and school, and confirm school zones rather than assuming.
Look at what's planned nearby: zoning, consented developments, new subdivisions. Growth areas change fast — that paddock over the fence may not stay a paddock.
Talk to the neighbours. Nobody knows a street better.

The three key documents

LIM report

The council's file on the property: rates, consents and code compliance certificates, drainage, zoning, and known hazards like flooding. Read it with your lawyer, and watch for work on the property that isn't in the consent record.

Record of title

Your lawyer's title search shows the legal owner, ownership type, and anything registered against the land — mortgages, easements, covenants, caveats. Covenants matter in newer subdivisions: they can dictate everything from fence heights to what's allowed on the driveway.

Building inspection report

A pre-purchase inspection by a qualified inspector covers structure, roof, cladding, plumbing and moisture readings. A few hundred dollars that can save you six figures. Structural or land questions — common in post-quake Canterbury — call for an engineer's report too.

Order of operations: you can do this research before making an offer, or make your offer conditional on satisfactory reports (see stage 4). Before an auction, though, all research must be done in advance — you're bidding unconditionally.

Know the red flags

Leaky buildings

Homes built from the late 1980s to mid-2000s with plaster-look monolithic cladding, flat roofs and minimal eaves carry a higher risk of weathertightness problems. Plenty are perfectly sound — that's what a specialist inspection with moisture testing is for — but repair costs can be enormous, and insurers and lenders are wary.

Problem building materials

Asbestos — common before the late 1980s; fine undisturbed, a controlled-removal job when renovating.
Dux Quest piping — 1970s–80s plumbing with a failure history; insurers may decline or surcharge.
Weatherside cladding — a wood-fibre board that swells and fails with moisture.

A good inspector spots all three. None is automatically a deal-breaker — but each belongs in your price thinking.

Natural hazards

Check the LIM for hazard notations, ask about past EQC/Natural Hazards Commission claims, and confirm any quake repairs were consented and documented. Get an insurance quote on the specific property before you go unconditional.

Meth contamination

Rare but expensive to fix. If the property's history raises questions, a toxicology screen is cheap peace of mind — and can be a condition of your offer.

← Stage 2: Finding a property Next: Making an offer →

This guide is general information, not legal or financial advice — always get independent advice before signing anything. See also the Real Estate Authority's settled.govt.nz and the Natural Hazards Commission.