In early 2023, New Zealand was hit by back-to-back extreme weather events—the Auckland Anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle—which caused widespread flooding and landslides, put lives at risk and left billions of dollars’ worth of damages in their wake.
As extreme weather events become more and more common, homeowners—and potential homeowners—need to be thinking ahead to make sure their properties, and their loved ones, are protected.
The Tāmaki Makaurau Recovery Office was established to support Auckland homeowners affected by the 2023 storms, and is leading Auckland Council’s efforts to mitigate any further risk to life as a result of future severe weather events.
We spoke with Mace Ward, Group Recovery Manager at the Tāmaki Makaurau Recovery Office, to find out what we need to be thinking about when buying, selling or owning a home in Auckland, or around New Zealand, in response to our changing climate.
FOR ANYONE LOOKING TO BUY
The most important thing is to make sure you’re doing proper due diligence.
For most people, buying a house is the biggest financial commitment we ever make, so you want to be confident that the investment is a good one.
You wouldn’t think twice about getting a building report done to help identify any structural problems—and you also need to be doing your research to understand any natural hazard risks associated with a property as well.
So, where do you start?
1. The property's Land Information Memorandum (LIM report)
One of the best places you can go is the LIM report, which you can get (for a fee) from your local council.
The LIM contains a bunch of detailed information about a property, including whether the home has previously been ‘damaged’ or categorised as being ‘at risk’ as a result of a natural disaster, and whether any other flooding, erosion or slip risks have been identified.
LIM reports are pretty complex documents, so unless you’re well-versed in decoding them, it’s a good idea to get an expert opinion from someone who is—usually your lawyer—who can help you make sense of the information and planning maps included.
2. Take a look at your local council's Flood Viewer website
In the wake of the Auckland Floods and Cyclone Gabrielle, Auckland Council launched its Flood Viewer website—a free online resource which lets you search for any address in Auckland to find out whether it’s near a flood plain or flood bank, or is otherwise at risk of flooding during extreme weather events.
Many local councils throughout New Zealand offer (or are in the process of building) their own hazard viewer resources—so, if you’re looking to buy outside of Auckland, it’s worth checking to see whether something similar is available in your area.
3. Review the property file
The property report covers a raft of information that’s not included in the LIM—so it’s always a good idea to get your hands on both documents.
Property files contain a record of all information held by your local council relating to a specific property—including (in Auckland) whether the property has been registered or categorised as part of the Auckland Council risk categorisation process.
You can request property files from your local council, again for a small fee.
4. Check with the Natural Hazards Commission
If an area has been impacted by some sort of natural hazard in the past, there’s a good chance that (without intervention) similar events could occur again in future.
A lot of the homes affected by landslides in Auckland in 2023, for example, were in areas where there were known land instability risks—and had been impacted by a number of significant landslides in the past.
The Natural Hazards Commission (formerly EQC) has a free online portal available that allows you to search for settled claims, to help you build an understanding of any natural hazards that have previously affected the area where you’re looking to buy.
5. Auckland Unitary Plan hazards maps
Included within the Auckland Unitary Plan is a detailed hazard map of the wider Auckland region.
The map allows you to search for any address in Auckland to get an idea of the risk that various natural hazards may present to properties in the area—including flooding, coastal erosion, severe winds, tsunamis, volcanic and earthquake hazards.
For anyone buying outside of Auckland, most councils around the country also have similar tools available.
6. Talk to your real estate agent
If you’re buying through a real estate company, the agent has an obligation to disclose anything they know about potential risks associated with the property—so don’t be afraid to ask questions.
7. Speak with your insurer before you buy
Banks won’t lend on uninsured properties—so if your road to home ownership involves getting a mortgage, you really need to be proactive about getting insurance sorted before you go unconditional.
That means having conversations with your insurer—or prospective insurer—ahead of time, to understand what (if any) risks are associated with the property, and what impact they may have in terms of insurance premiums or exclusions.
The last thing you want is to commit yourself to a property, only to find out that insurance is prohibitively expensive, or worse, that the house is uninsurable.
Home insurance providers work closely with the Natural Hazards Commission, which means they’re often a good source of information about any potential risks associated with a property—so it’s a good idea to chat with them anyway as part of your wider due diligence before you buy.
Do I still need to be thinking about natural hazard risk even if I'm buying a new build?
The short answer is yes. You might not think that people would seek to build on a known flood plain, but it does happen.
The Building Act stipulates that, as long as the developer is taking appropriate measures to mitigate flood risk, there are very few situations in which local councils can flat-out refuse Resource Consents and Building Consents within known flood zones.
If you’re looking to buy a new build, it always pays to check the title, which will include notice of any natural hazards that have been identified on the property.
Work is being done at both a central and local government level to help future-proof our approach to managing natural hazard risk.
At a national level, the Ministry for the Environment is in the process of developing its climate adaption framework—outlining the risks posed by rising sea levels, increasing temperatures, and more extreme weather events, and what’s required to manage those risks.
Auckland Council is also making changes to its Natural Hazards Plan, looking at the implications that our changing climate has within our local communities and backyards.
FOR ANYONE LOOKING TO SELL
There are often things that can be done to help mitigate flood or landslide risk on a property—and when the time comes to sell, having that work done is going to help make your property a whole lot more attractive to prospective buyers.
In some cases, it could be as simple as staying on top of your regular drain and gutter maintenance. In others, there may be infrastructure work required to upgrade drainage systems or install retaining walls to prevent landslides.
Before you list your home for sale, it’s worth finding out what your options are to help mitigate natural hazard risk—and improve your chances of selling (and selling at a good price).
FOR EXISTING AUCKLAND HOMEOWNERS
If you live in Auckland, and your home was impacted by flooding or landslides as a result of the early 2023 extreme weather events, it’s worth checking to see whether you’re eligible to undergo a property risk assessment through Auckland Council.
The assessment process is designed to determine the level of risk that future severe storms may present for residents of a particular property—and to provide support to homeowners where there is deemed to be intolerable risk to life.
Once assessed, homes will receive one of the follow categorisations:
- Category 1: Where there’s no serious risk to life from future severe weather events, and where action can be taken by the homeowner to sufficiently mitigate the likelihood of flooding or landslides in future.
- Category 2P or 2C: Where an intolerable risk to life has been identified, but that risk can be mitigated via either property-level (2P) or community-level (2C) interventions. For properties in category 2P, financial support is provided to homeowners to enable them to carry out the work required.
- Category 3: Where an intolerable risk to life has been identified and cannot be mitigated or reduced. While the previous categories focus on resilience, the strategy here is one of voluntary retreat. If the homeowner wants to participate, Auckland Council will offer to buy the homeowners out of the property, and then remove the dwelling from the site.
As of 6 September, Auckland Council had received over 3,100 applications, with 2,078 being categorised so far —including 1,376 Category 1 homes, 86 Category 2P homes, 5 Category 2C homes, and 743 Category 3 homes.
For more information on the risk assessment process, or categorisation system, check out the Auckland Council website or call 09 301 0101—or start your registration online.
Please note that registrations close on 30th September 2024.