NZ Council Records Access

Homes.co.nz displays council records including capital values, land values, zoning, and rating information for New Zealand properties. This page documents where that data comes from and the options available to Pillow.

Where Homes.co.nz Gets Council Data

Homes.co.nz purchases property data directly from local councils. Their primary data sources are:

District Valuation Roll (DVR) — Each of NZ’s 67 Territorial Authorities maintains a ratings database containing capital values, land values, improvement values, zoning, and property boundaries. Homes.co.nz licenses this data in bulk from councils.
LINZ Data Service — Address data, property boundaries, and title records (freely available with registration).
Ministry of Education — School enrolment zone boundaries.

The property details shown on homes.co.nz (CV, land value, zoning, council name) come from the council’s ratings database. If the data is wrong on homes.co.nz, users are directed to contact their local council — homes.co.nz cannot manually adjust it.

What Pillow Already Has

The codebase includes several NZ enrichers that partially cover this data:

Enricher	Source	Data Provided
`councilrates`	Koordinates API	Annual rates, CV, land value, improvement value, council name, ward, zoning, flood zone, heritage, earthquake risk
`qv`	QV (qv.co.nz) API	CV, land value, improvement value, valuation date, land/floor area, year built, local authority, legal description
`linz`	LINZ Data Service API	Title number, title type, land district, legal description, land area, territorial authority, zoning, survey reference
`oneroof`	OneRoof	CV, land value estimates
`realestatenz`	realestate.co.nz	Supplementary listing data

The homes-co-nz connector also extracts Capital Valuation directly from the homes.co.nz listing pages via the embedded JSON state (property_details.capital_value).

Available Data Sources

1. Individual Council Websites (Free, Per-Property)

Most NZ councils offer free property search on their websites. You can look up individual properties and get rates, valuations, zoning, and consent history.

Key councils with online property search:

Council	URL	Notes
Auckland Council	aucklandcouncil.govt.nz	GeoMaps GIS viewer, ArcGIS REST API
Wellington City	wellington.govt.nz	Property search by address
Christchurch City	ccc.govt.nz	Online property file
Hamilton City	hamilton.govt.nz	Property search

Limitation: Per-property lookups only. Bulk access is commercially restricted.

2. Auckland Council Open Data (Free, Bulk)

Auckland Council publishes geospatial datasets through their ArcGIS-powered Open Data portal:

Portal: data-aucklandcouncil.opendata.arcgis.com
Search API: OGC API - Records compliant, supports filtering, aggregations, and programmatic access
Categories: Planning, Natural Hazards, Parks, Environment, Community
GeoMaps: geomapspublic.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz — GIS viewer with property rates and valuations

This is the most accessible bulk council data source for Auckland properties.

3. LINZ Data Service (Free, Bulk, Registration Required)

LINZ provides the most comprehensive free geospatial property data in NZ:

Portal: data.linz.govt.nz
NZ Property Titles: Layer 50804 — title records linked to parcels (updated daily, excludes ownership)
APIs: ArcGIS REST FeatureServer, WFS (JSON), Changeset API for incremental updates
Changeset API: Incremental downloads — only fetch changed data between revisions (ideal for keeping data current)
Bulk download: Available in multiple formats
Rate limit: Max 2,000 records per API request

Included: Title number, type, status, land district, legal description, parcel boundaries, survey references. Not included: Valuations, rates, zoning (these come from councils, not LINZ).

Our existing linz enricher (connectors/enrichers/nz/linz/enricher.go) already uses this service.

4. Koordinates (Free Tier + Commercial)

Koordinates hosts geospatial data from multiple NZ councils and government agencies:

Portal: koordinates.com
API: REST API for querying vector datasets, exporting data, and catalog browsing (apidocs.koordinates.com)
Relevant datasets: Council rating data, property valuations, zoning boundaries

Some councils publish their ratings data through Koordinates-compatible platforms. The depth of data varies by council.

Our existing councilrates enricher (connectors/enrichers/nz/councilrates/enricher.go) already queries the Koordinates API.

5. data.govt.nz (Registry of Datasets)

New Zealand’s central data catalogue at data.govt.nz indexes datasets from councils and agencies:

Rateable Property (Taupō District): dataset — Combines LINZ titles with rates data, updated every 24 hours, accessible via ArcGIS Hub and Esri REST API.
Rangitikei District Council: Property valuation details, valuation boundaries, monthly valuation snapshots (capital value, improvements, land value, total rates).

Limitation: Coverage is patchy — only a handful of councils publish bulk data here.

6. QV / Quotable Value (Commercial)

QV is the dominant provider of property valuations in NZ. They conduct rating valuations on behalf of most councils.

Website: qv.co.nz
Individual lookups: Free basic property information
e-Reports: Paid individual property reports
Bulk/API access: Commercial licensing through PropertyIQ (QV is a 50% shareholder)

Our existing qv enricher (connectors/enrichers/nz/qv/enricher.go) queries the QV API.

7. PropertyIQ (Commercial, Bulk)

PropertyIQ is the primary commercial provider of bulk NZ property data:

Licenses the District Valuation Roll from Territorial Authorities
Provides data to platforms like homes.co.nz, Trade Me Property, and OneRoof
Offers both raw data feeds and API access
Pricing is commercial and typically requires a licensing agreement

This is most likely the route homes.co.nz uses for bulk council data. The Ombudsman has ruled that councils can deny bulk data requests to protect existing commercial relationships with providers like PropertyIQ.

8. NZ Property Spine (Government Only)

LINZ maintains the NZ Property Spine, which includes the complete national District Valuation Roll:

Access: Restricted to government departments, Crown entities, and statutory agencies
Not available to commercial or private use
Contains: Full DVR data nationwide, linked to LINZ parcels

Recommendation

For Pillow’s purposes, the practical options in order of preference are:

Short Term (Free)

Continue scraping CV from homes.co.nz — the connector already extracts capital_value from listing pages
Expand LINZ enricher — leverage the free LINZ Data Service for title, boundary, and section data
Auckland Council Open Data — use the ArcGIS REST API for Auckland-specific property data (rates, valuations, zoning)
data.govt.nz datasets — use the few councils that publish open data (Taupō, Rangitikei)

Medium Term (API Integration)

Koordinates API — the existing councilrates enricher needs an API key; evaluate their pricing and coverage
QV API — the existing qv enricher needs validation; check if the API is publicly accessible or requires a key

Long Term (Commercial)

PropertyIQ licensing — if bulk DVR data is needed nationally, this is the standard commercial route. This is what homes.co.nz and other major NZ property platforms use.

Data Available per Source

Field	Homes.co.nz Scrape	LINZ	Council Websites	Koordinates	QV	PropertyIQ
Capital Value	Yes	No	Yes	Some councils	Yes	Yes
Land Value	No	No	Yes	Some councils	Yes	Yes
Improvement Value	No	No	Yes	Some councils	Yes	Yes
Annual Rates	No	No	Yes	Some councils	No	Yes
Zoning	No	Some	Yes	Some councils	No	Yes
Title / Legal Description	No	Yes	Some	No	Yes	Yes
Property Boundaries	No	Yes	Some	Some	No	Yes
Flood Zone	No	No	Some	Some	No	Yes
Heritage Status	No	No	Some	Some	No	Yes
Building Consents	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
Valuation Date	No	No	Yes	Some	Yes	Yes
Bulk Access	Scraping	API (free)	No	API (key)	Per-property	Licensed
Cost	Free	Free	Free	Free tier + paid	Free/paid	Commercial