Aotearoa New Zealand Building Heights
An above-ground height for every building in New Zealand, measured from open LiDAR, plus what has
changed between LiDAR surveys across its cities. The interactive map needs JavaScript; this
summary is for search engines and browsers without it.
What it shows
A single measured height for roughly 3.3 million buildings nationwide, taken as the roof
(90th percentile) minus the ground beneath the LINZ building outline. For nine cities it also
compares repeat LiDAR surveys to show which buildings were built, removed, or changed height
over time, and a Photos view crops the open aerial imagery for any building, one frame per year.
Cities with change over time
Christchurch, Auckland, Wellington, Hamilton, Tauranga, Whangārei, Nelson, Gisborne, and
Queenstown. Every other building in the country carries its measured height in the national layer.
How it is made
Heights are derived from open LiDAR digital surface and terrain models published by Toitū Te
Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), with footprints from the LINZ Building Outlines.
Per-building change is classified as a weight of evidence across the LiDAR, and, for the Photos
view, open aerial imagery. All source data is licensed CC BY 4.0.
Open this page in a browser with JavaScript enabled to explore the map, search for a building
or address, and step through the aerial photo history of any building in the country.