‘Granny flats’ – do I need a Building Consent?

You may have heard about the Government’s proposal to enable people to build ‘granny flats’ (small, self-contained, detached homes) up to 60sqm in size without a building or resource consent.

The Government sought feedback on the proposal in June-August 2024 and is currently assessing this feedback to see what any changes might look like.

In the meantime, a building consent is still needed for self-contained, detached buildings larger than 30sqm.

And, if you are looking to construct a building up to 30sqm in size, there are still rules that you need to follow, which can be found in Schedule 1 of the Building Act 2004.

Some things to note:

• The biggest you can go is 30sqm
• It must be its own height off the boundary and any other building
• It must be associated with a main dwelling
• It can’t have its own plumbing or drainage
• There are also rules in the District Plan that you may need to consider. Please contact our Customer Service Planner to discuss if these might be relevant to you.

Find out more about the Government’s ‘Making it easier to build granny flats’ proposal here.