1. Searching By Address, Street or Suburb

The address search function in Property Guru allows you to search for either a specific property or for a wider area, such as an entire street or suburb. Firstly, ensure that the ‘Address tab’ or ‘All tab’ is selected before you enter the property address.

To search for a particular address, click in the address bar (as shown below) and start typing the street number and name, followed by the suburb. A list of possible results will appear after the first 5 characters are entered, matching what you have entered into the address bar. The more characters you enter, the more refined the results list will be.

If after typing a full address no results are returned, the most common reason is due to a typing error, so check you have entered in the address correctly.

Under the search bar you will find additional filters that, if used, will help refine your results. You are able to further filter your search by property type (for example, residential, commercial, rural) and sale period (in the last 6 months, in the last 12 months, in the last 2 years or anytime).

…all results function. If there are too many results to list, the search will offer you a … all results option that will list all the results for you to either refine or select from.

Once you select a single property/address from the address bar results displayed, Property Guru will present you with a ‘Property Summary Report’ (refer to Module 4 for more information on this).If you are searching for a street or suburb you will be presented with a list of results, as shown below.

When searching for a street or suburb, start typing the street name first (without the number). Property Guru will return a broader search result, for example a whole street. Again, the list of possible results will narrow, the more of the address you enter. The use of commas (,) to separate out the details (street, suburb and town) can help the search engine recognise what it is you are after.

From this list you are able to select any property simply by clicking on the address of the desired property (all listed addresses are underlined in blue) in order to display individual Property Summary Report information.

You can also preview the individual property details by placing your mouse cursor over the address. This will enable the ‘Property Summary Preview’, which is a pop-up summary view as shown below:

2. Searching by Title Reference

Most blocks or parcels of land will have one or more titles associated with them. Each Title has a unique identifier associated with this parcel of land – called a ‘Title Reference’. Using the ‘Title Reference’ search, you can locate either an individual property or multiple properties depending on the title.

Again, the list of possible results will narrow as more of the title is entered. The drop down box willdisplay all matching title identifiers with the land districts specified, as well as the owner details. For example: 100/2300 (WN) Owner: BLOGGS, JOE

Titles in the past were allocated by different regional authorities, and there maybe duplication in title numbers shown. Property Guru will always display the different land districts in brackets against the title, so you can easily identify which title relates to which region. For example, WN 31D/72 will be a property in the greater Wellington district

3. Searching by Owner

You can search for properties by entering the current individual owner name(s) or company name. The more common the name is that you enter (for example Smith, Jones) the more likely you are to have multiple results returned. The Property Guru predictive search function will provide you with additional details to help you define the owner you are looking for. However, the more information you provide (for example using a middle name) the more precise your result set will be.

Select the Owner tab then type in the Surname first, followed by a comma and then the first and/or middle names. If there is more than one property displayed under the owner search then the owner may either have a relationship with all properties shown or share the same name as another person/s. Where there is only one result for the owner, it will give the land district and title reference to enable you to ensure Property Guru has identified the correct owner.

4. Searching by Valuation Number

Each property in New Zealand has a unique valuation number or reference (an example format is 1234/567890). By using the Valuation tab and entering the unique valuation reference, you will easily be able to locate a specific property. As it is a unique number, you can only locate individual properties using the valuation reference. It is often the best reference to use when searching units. Ensure that the Valuation tab is selected as shown below;

Again, the list of possible results will narrow, the more of the valuation reference you enter. The address of the property will also display in brackets beside the valuation number to help you select the correct address.

5. Searching by Legal Description

All properties have a legal description (appellation or lot number). You can search by the full legal description length (e.g. LOT 1 DP 3240), or by the deposited plan type and code e.g. DP 3240.

6. Searching by Region

Property Guru allows you to restrict your searches to a specific region, helping narrow your query to the area of interest and limiting the result set returned. By clicking on the hyperlink (as highlighted below) a pop up box will appear that allows you to restrict the search results to a specific search area or region. Once this setting has been changed, it will apply until it is changed back (i.e. if you set the area to ‘Wellington’ all subsequent queries will search only the Wellington region until this is changed again). Once changed, the hyperlink will reflect the region selected.

7. Searching using the Map

There are different ways to access the map view:

• By selecting the ‘Map’ tab before starting your search. This tab is found on the home page after having logged into Property Guru (as shown below). You can then complete a map search using any of the search types, as described above
• By clicking on the thumbnail map images in the Property Summary report.

When using the map tab, if an individual property is searched for, the relevant land parcel will show on the map, with the property boundary highlighted in red.

Refer Module 7 for more information on the Aerial Prospector and Mapping module.