A home occupation is any business, including a profession, carried out within a residential unit by someone who lives permanently in that unit. Home occupations should be smaller in scale than the residential use of the site.

Home occupations are permitted in all residential zones other than Residential Central City if the following standards are met:

  • The gross floor areas of the building and any outdoor storage area used for the home occupation must be less than 40m².
  • A maximum of two full-time equivalent people who don't live on the site can be also employed in the home occupation.
  • The only retailing permitted is the sale of goods grown or produced on the site, or internet-based sales where no customer visits occur.
  • The site can only be open to visitors, clients, and deliveries between the hours of: 
    • 7.00am to 9.00pm Monday to Friday; and 
    • 8.00am to 7.00pm Saturday, Sunday and public holidays. 
  • Visitor or staff parking areas must not be located in the road boundary setback (the area between the front of the building and the road).
  • Signs must have a maximum area of 2m², except that on sites with frontage to Memorial Avenue or Fendalton Road no signage is permitted at all. 

If any of the above standards cannot be met, a resource consent is required for the home occupation.

The application must address the effects resulting from the scale of the activity, traffic generation, access safety and/or hours of operation, depending on which particular standards are not met. 

In the Residential Central City zone, any non-residential activity that is not already provided for under other rules is permitted, if it meets the following standards:

  • Maximum gross floor area of 40m²  (including any area of outdoor storage).
  • Only people who live permanently on the site can be employed in the activity.
  • The site can only be open to visitors, clients or deliveries for the activity, other than for guest accommodation, for a maximum of 40 hours per week, between the hours of: 
    • 7.00am to 9.00pm Monday to Friday, and 
    • 8.00am to 7.00pm Saturday, Sunday, and public holidays.
  • The maximum number of vehicle movements per site, other than for residential activities, is: 
    • heavy vehicles: two per week 
    • other vehicles: 16 per day.

If any of the above standards cannot be met, a resource consent is required for the home occupation. The application must address the effects resulting from the scale of the activity, traffic generation, access safety and/or hours of operation, depending on which particular standards are not met. 

Home occupations need to comply with the transport requirements of the District Plan if the home occupation uses more than 10% of the gross floor area of the residential activity.

The overall parking space requirement for the property will be a combination of the parking required for the residential activity (1 car parking space if the house is smaller than 150m2, 2 spaces if it is 150m2 or larger, plus 1 cycle park for any residential unit without a garage) plus the parking required for the home occupation. 

Examples of the car parking requirements for typical activities undertaken as home occupations: 

Type of home occupation Visitor requirement Staff requirement
Commercial service  Car parking: 4 spaces per 100m2 gross leasable floor area

Cycle parking: 1 space per 500m2 gross floor area		 Car parking: 0.5 spaces per 100m2 gross leasable floor area

Cycle parking: 1 space per 200m2 gross floor area
Office Car parking: 5% of the staff requirement, with a minimum of 1 space

Cycle parking: 20% of the staff requirement (minimum 2 spaces) outside the Central City; 1 space per 500m2 gross floor area within the Central City		 Car parking: 2.5 spaces per 100m2 gross floor area

Cycle parking: 1 space per 150m2 gross floor area

 Note:

  • Where car parking spaces are provided for the home occupation there must be one mobility parking space provided. On private property this can be used by any person, but must be marked out and meet the dimensions for a mobility space.
  • Any calculation of fractional spaces of 0.5 or higher must be rounded up to the nearest space.
  • There are additional requirements around the design of parking spaces, access, etc. For more information please email our Duty Planner

If the required car or cycle parking is not provided, a resource consent is needed so that the effects of the shortfall can be assessed.

A home occupation will trigger a development contributions assessment only when an application for land use consent, building consent, service connection or certificate of acceptance is required.

Depending on the proposed use, a home occupation will be assessed either using the proposed floor area, or the actual proposed usage (e.g. anticipated water use and trip generation).

For more information please visit Development Contributions(external link) or contact our Development Contributions Assessors at develomentcontributions@ccc.govt.nz.

The District Plan also allows the following other work-from-home activities in Residential zones:

  • Care of non-resident children within a residential unit in return for monetary payment to the carer, provided that a maximum of four non-resident children are being cared for at any one time and at least one carer lives permanently within the residential unit. 
  • Bed and breakfast where a maximum of six guests are accommodated at any one time; at least one owner of the residential unit lives permanently on site; and no guests are given accommodation for more than 90 consecutive days. This activity cannot include the sale of alcohol. 

If the above standards cannot be met, a resource consent is required. 

Changing the use of a building, or part of a building, can require a building consent or a written notification to the Council about the change. 

Refer to Change of use for information on building requirements where part of a building's use changes. 

For more information on the Building Act requirements contact our Duty Building Consent Officer.

If you have any questions or would like further information please email our Duty Planner.