NZ Address Points

LINZ maintains a point layer of address points allocated by local councils for rateable properties. The principle purpose of this dataset is to allocate voters to the correct electorate. The set is actively maintained, but is still incomplete and some locations are incorrect. Nevertheless it is by far the most comprehensive address database available.

It includes all rural address points (RAPID numbers), commercial addresses and many flat numbers. So numbers are not numeric, there are all sorts of formats included here, sorry. Addresses are not unique.

Road names in the address are derived from the ASP (Authoritative Streets and Places) database. All road names in this database are official, with a locality (suburb or town) allocated to make the complete address unique within a local council district. Unfortunately there is only one entry linked per road name, which is not always the case for long roads, where the road is a suburb boundary or a road is cut by a TLA boundary. Road names are unique if you include the location and local authority name as part of the name. The postcode does not make an address unique because they cover too large an area.

These addresses are a "situation" or "location" address, not a "delivery address" or "property address". It does not have complete flat or unit numbers, although there are some due to confusion between the purpose so you will see some.

NZ Post uses this dataset to maintain their PAF file which is a subset of this data because they only supply addresses that they deliver mail. Therefore no commercial or rural addresses are included in the PAF but PO Boxes are. The postcode has been added from a postcode map, not from the PAF. It is not part of the LINZ or ASP. Postcodes are for bulk mail sorting, not for defining a unique address. NZPost are now supplying all address points for a fee.

Note that an address number is related to the road centreline. No road - no address. It is a linear referencing system, starting at one end, continuing in sequence to the end of the road with odd numbers on one side and even numbers on the other. In towns the spacing is approximately 20 metres, and in the country it is 200 metres.

Addresses are NOT related to parcels and should not be a property key because they are not unique, consider a corner section. They do not define property boundaries. Think of addresses as the location of the letterbox marking the entrance to the property, not the building. The point is generally located 15 metres from the centreline at the entrance. Address ranges on a point are deprecated, a single number should be allocated to the principle entrance so the fire service can find it quickly and unambiguously.

This is different from address ranges with parity and direction on a road centreline which would be really useful and are common overseas but do not exist for NZ. Even private sets are not done properly.

See Where The Hell Are You? for more explanation on the confusion between an address and a property.

Source LINZ Bulk Data Extract Jan 2010, ASP, Postcodes Nov 2006