Questions, answered
Plain answers about property hazard reports, official council data, and what iQHOME is (and is not) before you buy.
Plain-English hazard summaries
iQHOME checks official council hazard layers at your property pin and explains what they mean for a home you are considering.
Not a LIM or legal advice
iQHOME is a fast screening tool. It does not replace a LIM, engineering report, survey, or advice from your lawyer or qualified professionals.
Home buyers across New Zealand
Use it before or during open homes, when comparing suburbs, or when you want clearer context than raw council maps alone. Available in eight supported regions today.
Select your city on the iQHOME homepage, enter the property address, use your location at an open home, or drop a pin on the map. iQHOME runs a property hazard check using official council layers at that pin.
Preview one hazard layer free, then unlock every layer for that property from $1.95. See our property hazard check guide for supported cities.
iQHOME turns published council hazard mapping into a plain-English report for a specific property address or map pin. You see flood, coastal, ground, and related layers summarised at the location you care about.
Reports use official hazard layers published by city and regional councils through open GIS services. When you generate a report, iQHOME geocodes your address, places a pin, and queries the layers available for the city you select.
For most layers, data is queried live from council GIS at report time, using the same published mapping as the council’s own hazard maps. One exception is Auckland shallow landslide susceptibility, which uses a local copy refreshed when council data changes (see How current is the data? above).
Sources vary by region, including Auckland Council; Wellington City Council and Greater Wellington Regional Council; Christchurch City Council; Hamilton City Council and Waikato Regional Council; Tauranga City Council and Bay of Plenty Regional Council; Rotorua Lakes Council and Bay of Plenty Regional Council; Dunedin City Council and Otago Regional Council; and Queenstown Lakes District Council and Otago Regional Council.
See Data you can trust on the homepage for layer-by-layer sources.
For most hazard layers, iQHOME queries live council GIS when your report is generated. That is the same published data you would see on the council’s own hazard maps at that moment.
One exception is Auckland shallow landslide susceptibility. That dataset is too large to pull live on every report without timeouts, so iQHOME uses a local copy that is refreshed when council data changes.
Council datasets themselves are updated on council schedules. iQHOME reflects what the council has published at the time your report runs.
iQHOME does not draw its own hazard zones. Results come from council-published polygons and models. Accuracy depends on the council’s underlying data, scale, and how recent the study is.
Reports are intended for indicative, regional desktop screening (flood plains, liquefaction areas, landslide zones, and similar mapped hazards). They are not a site-specific geotechnical, engineering, or survey report.
Pin placement matters. A wrong address, or a pin on the road instead of the section, can change what the report shows. For bare land or new sections, use the explore map to place the pin on the property itself.
No. A LIM (Land Information Memorandum) is a formal council document with legal and planning records for a property. iQHOME focuses on hazard mapping only, in language buyers can read quickly. Always confirm important decisions with the appropriate council, your lawyer, and qualified professionals.
Layer coverage differs by city. Your report only includes layers published for the region you select.
Auckland (11 layers): flood plains, overland flow paths, flood prone areas, flood hazard areas, coastal storm inundation, coastal erosion & instability (ASCIE), tsunami evacuation zones, shallow landslide susceptibility, large-scale landslide susceptibility, landslide inventory (mapped events), and liquefaction vulnerability.
Wellington (8 layers): regional flood exposure, storm surge, tsunami evacuation zones, liquefaction, shallow landslide susceptibility, rural wildfire hazard, earthquake groundshaking potential, and earthquake-induced slope failure potential.
Christchurch (6 layers): river and stormwater flood, coastal inundation, tsunami evacuation zones, tsunami inundation, liquefaction vulnerability, and slope and rockfall hazard.
Hamilton (5 layers): flood hazard, flood extents, overland flow paths, regional river flood, and earthquake ground shaking.
Tauranga (6 layers): flooding from rainfall, flood hazard plan area, harbour inundation, tsunami evacuation zone, liquefaction vulnerability, and slope hazard zones.
Rotorua (5 layers): stormwater flood, river flood, liquefaction vulnerability, landslide susceptibility, and geothermal system mapping.
Dunedin (6 layers): district plan flood hazard, coastal hazard (2GP), storm surge, land instability, and tsunami affected areas.
Queenstown Lakes (5 layers): ORC flood hazard area, rainfall flooding, damburst flooding, landslide areas, and liquefaction susceptibility.
See the full grid on the homepage under What iQHOME checks for you, our city hazard check pages, or read our hazard guides.
At your pin means the hazard polygon or zone intersects the property point you entered.
Nearby means council mapping exists within roughly 50 to 200 m of the pin, depending on the layer type. That distance varies because some hazards (such as narrow overland flow paths or river corridors) need a wider context than others.
The report wording reflects which case applies so you are not misled by a hazard mapped across the street being treated as on your section.
Yes. Enter the address before you visit, or use Use My Location on your phone while you are standing at the property. You can also drop a pin on the explore map for bare land or new sections without a street number yet.
iQHOME currently supports eight regions. Each uses its own council hazard datasets, so layer names and counts differ. Select your city on the homepage before you search.
Auckland (11 layers), Wellington (8), Christchurch (6), Hamilton (5), Tauranga (6), Rotorua (5), Dunedin (6), and Queenstown Lakes District (5). Queenstown Lakes covers Queenstown, Wanaka, Arrowtown, Glenorchy, and Kingston.
See What iQHOME checks for you on the homepage for the full layer list by city.
iQHOME is designed for home buyers checking individual properties: at an open home, on a shortlist, or before you make an offer. To keep council data sources reliable and the service fair for everyone, we limit how many full reports can be run from one connection in a short period.
If you reach that limit, wait a few minutes and try again. Automated or bulk lookups are not supported. Checking several homes over a day is fine; running dozens in a few minutes is not.
Free: search any supported property and preview the interactive map with one hazard layer at no cost.
Full Property Report: NZ$1.95 for one property with all available hazard layers, plain-English summaries, and the full report map.
30-Day Property Pass: NZ$19.95 for unlimited full reports for 30 days. Email only; no password or signup required.
Prices are in NZD. You are only charged after a full report has been generated successfully. No charge if generation fails. See Pricing on the homepage for details.