Transferable Rural Site Subdivision
Unlock value from existing bush and wetlands on your rural land.
- Generate development rights from qualifying bush or wetlands
- Create transferable development rights (TDRs)
- Establishing donor sites for the Countryside Living Zone
- Protect your land’s ecological areas while maintaining productive land
What are Transferable Rural Site Subdivisions (TRSS)?
TRSS’s are a subdivision mechanism under the Auckland Unitary Plan that rewards the protection and enhancement of native bush and wetlands.
Where qualifying ecological areas meet the required criteria and are permanently protected, landowners may:
- Create a new title on their own property, or
- Generate a TRSS that can be sold or applied to another site that you own
A TRSS can be used on a receiver site in the Countryside Living Zone, where it may enable an additional title beyond standard subdivision limits.
The smart way to add value to your rural land
Recent planning decisions confirm that qualifying areas do not need to be contiguous. Separate pockets of vegetation or wetland can be recognised, reflecting how rural landscapes function in practice. This allows landowners to:
- Focus protection on less utilised or erosion-prone land
- Maintain productive areas for farming
- Unlock value through subdivision or transferable development opportunities
- Improve long-term environmental and land value outcomes
What we assess
Our team takes an integrated approach, combining ecology and planning expertise. We assess:
- Whether bush or wetlands meet the qualifying ecological criteria
- Condition, extent, and potential for enhancement
- Areas suitable for protection, including covenanting and fencing
- Opportunities for on-site titles or TRSS
- Key planning considerations under the Auckland Unitary Plan
Not all vegetation will qualify, so early assessment is important to confirm your land meets the thresholds.
Where this approach adds the most value
TRSS are particularly relevant for:
- Rural properties with existing bush or wetlands
- Landowners looking to create value from remnant bush or degraded wetlands
- Properties where subdivision potential is otherwise limited
- Sites with gullies, steep land, or lower productivity areas
- Landowners who don’t want more neighbours
- Access and creation of new titles on site is not practical
Book a rural site assessment to explore your TRSS opportunities.
Contact us todayStart with the right advice
Existing bush and wetlands often have more value than you might realise, but qualification depends on ecological criteria and planning rules.
Early assessment helps confirm whether areas qualify. Our ecology, planning, and planning teams work together to assess your land, support covenanting and title creation, and guide the title transfer process through to completion.
Transferable Rural Site Subdivision FAQs
A Transferable Rural Site Subdivision (TRSS) is a subdivision mechanism under the Auckland Unitary Plan that allows a development right, generated by protecting qualifying environmental features such as native bush or wetlands, to be transferred from one property to another.
No. Qualifying bush or wetland can be made up of separate areas, provided they individually and collectively meet the ecological and planning criteria under the Auckland Unitary Plan.
To qualify, bush or wetland areas must meet specific ecological criteria and be permanently protected, usually through a covenant. Additional requirements may include fencing, ecological enhancement, and compliance with Auckland Unitary Plan subdivision rules. Because these requirements are assessed through the resource consent process, we recommend speaking with our team before carrying out any work or entering into covenant arrangements
Yes. The protected bush or wetland area remains part of your property and stays attached to your title. No land changes ownership. Instead, a Transferable Rural Site Subdivision (TRSS) creates a subdivision right that can be transferred and sold separately to a qualifying receiver site.
No. The owner of the receiver site, typically a Countryside Living site, is responsible for obtaining the resource consent required to use the Transferable Rural Site Subdivision. As the donor site owner, your role is generally limited to establishing and protecting the qualifying bush or wetland area in accordance with Auckland Unitary Plan requirements.
