Building Two Houses on One Title in rural Auckland

[BrendaWells]

Hi, We are hoping to build a 4 bed house on my in-laws 16 acre property in Waiuku, which also has a 4 bedroom house already on it. We don't want to subdivide as our family will be inheriting the property at some point anyway.
I didn't have much luck with the person at council I spoke to, who essentially said to hire a planner - and I've looked at the Unitary plan, but it didn't have any real information about this.
Does anyone know if it will be possible for us to build a second house (NOT minor dwelling) in rural Auckland without subdividing or setting up a cross-lease?

Any tips on who best to get more information from, and how to start the process? Will a local building company be able to help?

Thanks, Brenda

[Davo36]

Should be able to look up the rules in the Unitary plan online.

Find the zone you are in, then look at the rules for that zone.

It will have size of land, number of houses allowed etc.

[sparxNZ]

Most councils allow more than one dwelling per title in rural areas without a resource consent depending on the size of the block, yours isn't that big so best bet would be just talk to a RMA consultant. You're talking about a project costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, if you have to get a resource consent you'll probably use a consultant anyway, mad if you don't, so just go talk to one now. They make everything so much easier because they're experts on the RMA and your councils planning rules.