Three sections, one planner

It said strong development potential. Then I scrolled. Road widening, on the one I liked. Three sections, one planner. Which one gets the meeting? Three sections on the shortlist, none of them bought, and one planner on Monday morning, by the hour. So: one address, and the right questions before I pay for any.

Step one: sign up and search your address. Boundary, zone, pipes, hazards, in seconds. Zoning works in four councils; pipes and hazards, Auckland. That's the council's building. Mine stay blurred. Step two: Site research, in your account.

What the zone allows, in plain words: up to three dwellings without a resource consent, if they meet the standards. Height, coverage, yards, one grid. Click the zoning layer and the whole street comes up in zone colours. In Auckland, anyway. So site two: tidy, up to three, bit boring. Back to the strong one.

And to be fair, it did say. In amber. I skimmed. Auckland overlays, on the actual parcel. Red, we've met. Amber: a volcanic viewshaft over the top. Green says twenty-one metres. Amber says, maybe not. Where the pipes run, roughly: about three metres to the boundary, and it tells you the positions are approximate.

It even tells you to lodge a before-you-dig. And clear, on the hazards, is a map, not a promise. Saved all three, so I can flick between them. Site two, good. Site three, limited: the villa usually stays. And every page says indicative only. Every single time. So, three's off. Two doesn't need a planner. One does.

Pro view: same site, much bigger map. Zoning, buildings, services, flood. In Auckland. The title tab: title facts from LINZ. How many owners, not who. The rest? Available with a data licence. Reads as a freehold lot. That's something. One pager: print it, or save a PDF.

Map, title, zone, overlays, services, hazards, on one page. And that's what goes to the planner. One page, and three questions worth paying for. Road widening: how much? Viewshaft versus twenty-one metres? Pipe at three metres: can I build over it? It even tells you to ring the planner. Fair enough.

Start with your address. Full depth in Auckland, public council data, not AI, and not a LIM or advice. Sign up at qsme.co.nz.