What “no road frontage” means
A block has road frontage when its boundary runs along legal road. Many blocks don’t: their boundary touches only other people’s land. The way in is then something else, such as:
- a right of way: an easement over a neighbour’s land;
- a private access lot, owned in shares with the other titles it serves;
- a Māori roadway (see the guide to Māori roadways).
A road you can see may not be legal road
On an aerial photo, a gravel road running up to a block looks like road frontage. In most of the blocks like this that we checked by hand, the road ran inside a surveyed easement over the neighbour’s land, or across a private lot. The photo shows a road; the record shows a right of way. What the right of way allows, and who it serves, is set out in the title’s instruments, not on any map.
How common it is
Across New Zealand, 54,607 blocks (13.5%) have no legal road frontage in the records. Of those, 25,418 (46.5%) have LINZ surveyed easement areas on or beside them. Another 5,788 blocks reach a road only through a lot they share with other titles.
| Region | Blocks checked | No legal road frontage | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auckland | 39,004 | 6,274 | 16.1% |
| Bay of Plenty | 23,519 | 4,138 | 17.6% |
| Canterbury | 51,187 | 4,745 | 9.3% |
| Gisborne | 7,800 | 1,217 | 15.6% |
| Hawke’s Bay | 18,177 | 2,526 | 13.9% |
| Manawatū-Whanganui | 39,862 | 4,843 | 12.1% |
| Marlborough | 8,921 | 2,248 | 25.2% |
| Nelson | 1,052 | 297 | 28.2% |
| Northland | 46,121 | 8,581 | 18.6% |
| Otago | 29,470 | 3,225 | 10.9% |
| Southland | 21,847 | 1,280 | 5.9% |
| Taranaki | 18,349 | 1,417 | 7.7% |
| Tasman | 11,078 | 1,574 | 14.2% |
| Waikato | 58,494 | 7,459 | 12.8% |
| Wellington | 18,954 | 3,853 | 20.3% |
| West Coast | 10,314 | 929 | 9.0% |
What the records show, and what they don’t
LINZ publishes the easement areas drawn on survey plans. They show where an easement was surveyed. They don’t say what it allows or who benefits: that is in the instruments registered on the title. The title can also list rights that have no surveyed area on our map. No road frontage in the records does not mean a block has no legal access. Ask a lawyer to check the title.
How Lotline finds this
We compare each block’s boundary with LINZ’s road parcels, and list LINZ’s surveyed easement and covenant areas that lie on the block or touch its boundary. A report shows each one with the survey plan it comes from and the date we read the records.