Covenants Explained
If you’re buying land, considering subdivision, or reviewing a title, you’ll likely come across the word covenant at some point. Most people have a rough idea it means “some kind of restriction,” but aren’t sure exactly what it commits them to. A covenant is a legal restriction or obligation attached to land. It might restrict certain activities, protect an environmental feature, control future development, or protect a neighbouring property’s interests such as views. Because it’s attached to the land rather than the person, a covenant usually stays in place through a change of ownership, so future owners have to comply with it too, whether they were involved in creating it or not.
Covenants get created for different reasons. Some protect property values within a development, by keeping building standards consistent. Others exist to protect an environmental feature or to ensure land gets used a particular way regardless of who owns it. In most cases, a covenant is a tool for balancing development against something worth protecting, whether that’s neighbourhood character or a piece of significant land.
A covenant is registered against the title itself, so it doesn’t just apply to your ownership period, it carries through to whoever owns the property next. Some covenants have an expiry date, while others are valid in perpetuity.
Common Types of Covenants in New Zealand
Land covenants are often part of residential subdivisions, restricting things like building materials, house size, building location, further subdivision, or commercial activity, in order to keep a development consistent.
Environmental and conservation covenants protect natural values, native bush, wetlands, waterways, significant habitats, important landscapes. QEII covenants are the best example of this type of covenant.
Reverse sensitivity covenants protect an existing activity such as a farm, pump station or telecommunications tower, from future complaints by new neighbours who move in nearby. We see these regularly on rural lifestyle subdivisions bordering farmland or orchards, usually as a “no complaints” covenant on the new lot’s title, so owners are aware upfront that noise, odour, or other effects are part of living there.
What Is a QEII Covenant?
A QEII covenant is a voluntary agreement between a landowner and the QEII National Trust that permanently protects an area of significant natural or cultural value on private land. TSC has been a trusted survey contractor to QEII National Trust for over 20 years, and we have surveyed hundreds of these covenants across Hawke’s Bay, Tararua, Wairarapa and beyond.
QEII National Trust was set up in 1977, and since then landowners have voluntarily registered more than 5,300 covenants protecting upwards of 187,000 hectares of private land nationwide, forest remnants, wetlands, tussock grasslands, coastline, and areas of real ecological and cultural significance. Nearly 70% of New Zealand is privately owned, and a lot of our most threatened habitat, wetlands especially, sits on private land rather than in national parks. QEII exists because protecting that land properly depends on landowners choosing to do it voluntarily.
The covenant is registered against the title and stays there permanently, regardless of who owns the property in the future. This isn’t just theoretical either. A Supreme Court decision in 2025 (Kaimai Properties Ltd v QEII National Trust) confirmed exactly how binding this is, upholding a covenant against a company that bought covenanted land and later tried to argue its way out of the restriction to expand a quarry. The covenant held, which is a testament to how strong this protection actually is.
How Do Covenants Affect Development?
A covenant doesn’t automatically prevent development on your property, but it can influence where buildings can go, what future subdivision potential looks like, how access gets arranged, where infrastructure sits, and where earthworks can happen. Understanding any registered covenant properly should be part of the early investigation phase of any subdivision or development project. We do this as part of our initial free investigation and site visit, where we also look at site constraints, title restrictions, and other environmental factors.
Can a Property Still Be Subdivided If It Has a Covenant?
Generally, yes. We’ve worked on plenty of properties where a covenant sits alongside a successful subdivision, the covenant area simply becomes a fixed design constraint rather than an obstacle. The real questions become: where exactly do the covenant boundaries sit, how will access be provided to the rest of the property, how will services get installed without crossing into the protected area, and what activities are actually restricted within it. Every property is different, which is why this needs site-specific advice rather than a generic answer.
How Can I Find Out If My Property Has a Covenant?
Check the Record of Title, existing survey plans, council property files, and your LIM report. A surveyor or solicitor can talk you through exactly what a registered covenant means in practice and how it’s likely to affect your plans. It’s common for landowners to discover a covenant on their title they weren’t fully aware of, particularly on rural land that’s changed hands a few times.
Get in Touch
If you’re considering establishing a covenant or want to understand an existing one on your title, get in touch. We’ve been doing this work for over two decades and would be glad to help.
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