The Changes
The government has amended building consent rules for small single-storey accessory buildings — the sheds, garages, and sleepouts that property owners want to build for practical, everyday purposes. Two key changes:
- Under 10 square metres: the setback requirement from property boundaries has been removed entirely. A small garden shed or bike store can now be positioned at the boundary.
- 10 to 30 square metres: the required setback has been reduced to one metre. Previously, structures in this size range required a setback equal to the building’s height — a requirement that, on small urban sections, could place a garden building impractically far from the boundary or require it to be built lower than functionally useful.
Building Minister Chris Penk described the previous requirements as generating frustration that appeared prominently in the government’s Red Tape Tipline: “Forcing people to put sheds in the middle of their lawn or pay for a consent doesn’t make sense.” ACT Minister David Seymour noted that “space is tight and building costs are high” — the context in which the previous rules were most acutely felt.
What Is Not Changing
The changes apply to small, simple single-storey accessory structures. They do not extend to habitable rooms requiring plumbing connections, structures above the relevant size thresholds, or any structure that does not meet the basic Building Code requirements for the intended use. An owner who wants to build a sleepout with a bathroom remains in the consenting system; the relaxation addresses the simpler and more common case of a storage building or basic sleepout without services.
District plan rules still apply. A relaxation of building consent setback requirements does not override resource consent rules where those apply — building owners should confirm both their building consent position and their resource consent position before proceeding.
The Practical Impact
For builders and building consent authorities, the change reduces the volume of straightforward consent applications while the structures themselves remain subject to Building Code requirements at the point of construction. The practical effect for property owners is greater freedom to utilise their sections efficiently — to add covered storage, create a home office, or provide basic additional accommodation — without the cost and delay of the consenting process for structures that present minimal risk and minimal impact on neighbours.
