Quick answer
A granny flat built under New Zealand's 15 January 2026 consent exemption needs a real kitchen, not a kitchenette. The exemption only covers a self-contained dwelling, which MBIE defines as complying with all Building Code requirements for the classified use 'Housing – detached dwelling'. That pulls in clause G3: space for a refrigerator, means for utensil washing and waste water disposal, means for cooking food, and a surface for food preparation. A bench and a bar fridge is a sleepout, not a granny flat. The kitchen is what legally makes it a dwelling, so spec it before the plan is locked.
Key points
- 'Self-contained' means complying with every Building Code requirement for the classified use 'Housing – detached dwelling', so the kitchen is a condition of the exemption.
- Clause G3 requires space for a refrigerator, means for utensil washing and waste water disposal, means for cooking food, and a surface for food preparation.
- G3/AS1 sets hard numbers: a sink holding a 300mm by 125mm deep cylinder, a cooker with an oven and a hot plate, and a 0.5m³ food store.
- The exemption caps the dwelling at 30 fixture units, and a kitchen sink and a dishwasher take three each under G13/AS1.
- No waivers apply — section 67 of the Building Act 2004 does not apply here — and the homeowner carries the liability.
The kitchen is what makes it a dwelling.
Picture a back section in Papatoetoe: 1960s bungalow on the street front, eleven metres of flat grass behind it. Since 15 January 2026 that grass can take a 70m² dwelling with no building consent and no resource consent. Most people ring a builder first and get to the kitchen around week six, once the plumber wants to know where the sink goes. By then the drainage is in the ground.
This is about the kitchen, not the whole build. The exemption is useful — it takes a plan check and a consent queue out of a small project. It is not a lower standard: same Building Code, council's front-end review removed, liability left with you.
Why the kitchen is the legal test
The exemption covers a small standalone dwelling that is new, single-storey, standalone, self-contained and 70 square metres or less. Four of those you settle with a tape measure. Self-contained does the work, and MBIE's checklist defines it without room to argue: it complies with all the requirements of the Building Code that apply to the classified use of 'Housing – detached dwelling'.
Then the guidance draws the line using the kitchen itself. It separates granny flats from sleepouts, sheds and garages on the basis that those do not have all the necessary facilities to be self-contained — and the two examples it reaches for are a bathroom and a kitchen. Same footprint, same cladding, same builder. One is a dwelling; one is a shed with a bed in it.
What clause G3 actually asks for
Clause G3 is Food preparation and prevention of contamination. Its functional requirement G3.2.1 applies to Housing: buildings shall be provided with space and facilities for the hygienic storage, preparation and cooking of food. What sits underneath is a kitchen scope written into law.
- G3.3.1(a) — space for a refrigerator, or a perishable food store capable of being cooled and protected from vermin.
- G3.3.1(b) — means for food rinsing, utensil washing and waste water disposal.
- G3.3.1(c) — means for cooking food.
- G3.3.1(d) — space and a surface for food preparation.
- G3.3.2(a) — interior linings and work surfaces impervious and easily cleaned.
- G3.3.3 — an adequate energy supply, located for cooking and refrigeration appliances.
- G3.3.4 — space and facilities within each household unit.
Read that as a spec and it is a sink with a waste, a bench, a cooker, a fridge space, a wipeable surface behind them, and the power to run it. That is a kitchen. Sold on what it removes, the exemption reads as permission to build something lighter. It is not.
The numbers hiding in G3/AS1
G3/AS1 is the acceptable solution for G3, and following it means the work is deemed to comply. Go the alternative-solution route and you are proving compliance yourself, on a project where you have already removed the council's involvement.
The sink must have free draining surfaces with continuous falls to the outlet, and be capable of fully containing a solid cylinder 300mm in diameter and 125mm deep. That rules out the little round bar sink. The cooker clause is blunter: a cooker with an oven and a hot plate, or a wall oven and a separate hob, shall be provided. A microwave is not a cooker. The perishable food store needs a minimum 0.5m³ for two people, with refrigeration or ventilation to the outside air.
Figure 1 gives the plan: three bays of 600mm — cooker, food preparation area with the food store, and sink — or the width of the facility where greater. An 1800mm minimum run, with clear floor space in front of at least 800mm, or 600mm to a fully open oven door. Treat it as a floor, not a target. Usefully, 600mm is the module the New Zealand cabinet industry already works in, so the standard cabinet sizes used in townhouses drop straight in, and the layout trade-offs are the usual galley-or-small-L ones.
The smallest kitchen the Code will accept.
The conditions that quietly redesign your kitchen
One condition caps the whole dwelling rather than any single room: every plumbing and drainage system must keep the total to a maximum of 30 fixture units. Following G13/AS1 and AS2, you meet it by limiting discharge to 30 discharge units as defined in Table 2 of G13/AS1.
| Fixture or appliance | Discharge units | Min trap and pipe |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen sink (domestic, single or double, with or without waste disposal unit) | 3 | 40 mm |
| Dishwashing machine (domestic) | 3 | 40 mm |
| Water closet pan | 4 | 80 mm |
| Shower | 2 | 40 mm |
| Basin | 1 | 32 mm |
| Laundry (single or double tub, with or without a clothes washing machine) | 5 | 40 mm |
| Running total | 18 of 30 | — |
Eighteen. The cap is real but almost never binds on a sensible one-bedroom. Worth pocketing: a double sink costs the same three units as a single, and a waste disposal unit is free. The rest of the conditions are where the design moves.
| Exemption condition | What it means for the kitchen |
|---|---|
| Self-contained — meets all Code requirements for 'Housing – detached dwelling' | Clause G3 applies in full. A kitchenette spec can fail the exemption outright. |
| No pumped systems within the dwelling | An island sink must reach the drain on gravity fall. No macerator to rescue a late change. |
| Single-storey, no mezzanine floor | No loft over the kitchen. A mezzanine disqualifies the whole build. |
| Independent point of supply for electricity, and gas if used | Oven, hob and dishwasher run off the flat's own supply, not an extension lead. |
The no-pumped-systems condition bites hardest, because pumping waste is the standard fix when a sink lands where the drainage was not expecting it. Here that fix does not exist. If the client wants the sink in the island, the decision gets made while the drainlayer is setting levels. Made in week nine, it is a redesign.
Ventilation, and what changes when you rent it out
Clause G4 Ventilation applies, alongside E3 Internal moisture, and a tightly built 70m² box with someone boiling pasta in it is a moisture problem waiting to happen. The room you are dumping steam into is also the lounge — in a studio, the bedroom.
The exemption does not require the flat to house family, so rental use is fine — and the moment it becomes a tenancy, Healthy Homes applies on top. The ventilation standard requires kitchens to have an extractor fan venting to the outside, or continuous mechanical ventilation meeting the criteria, and for fans installed after 1 July 2019 in a room with a cooktop, a minimum 150mm diameter including ducting or an exhaust capacity of at least 50 litres per second.
That kills the recirculating rangehood as a standalone answer. A carbon filter blowing warm wet air back into the room does not vent outside, and it is what gets specified when the kitchen is picked from a brochure late. If you are renting it out, ducted versus recirculating is a compliance decision, and the Healthy Homes touchpoints are worth a pass before you order.
You can always tell which granny flats had the kitchen drawn first. The waste lines up, the sink's on a wall that can take it, and nobody's asking me to pump water uphill.
What it costs
A compact granny flat kitchen — melteca doors and carcasses, a laminate top, a 600mm oven and hob, a sink and a dishwasher, supplied and installed — sits in the lower five figures plus GST. A stone top and integrated appliances is a known step-up, smaller than in a four-bedroom house: four metres of bench, not twelve. Into a tenancy, a premium handleless 2-pac kitchen is money you will never see again at the rent review — the Auckland pricing bands hold up, and a compact kitchen that feels bigger beats any finish upgrade.
What goes wrong
- The kitchen gets designed after the drainage is in, and everything after that is a compromise dressed up as a design decision.
- Someone specs a kitchenette because the building is small and it feels proportionate. It is not self-contained, so the exemption does not cover it.
- The sink goes in an island with no gravity fall, and the pump that would fix it is banned inside the dwelling.
- A storage loft gets added because the stud height allows it. A mezzanine disqualifies the whole build, not just the loft.
- The fridge cavity is sized for a bar fridge and falls under the 0.5m³ food store the acceptable solution wants.
What to ask before you sign anything
- Is the kitchen designed and dimensioned before the drainlayer sets levels, or after?
- Does the sink waste reach the drain on gravity fall, with no pump anywhere inside?
- Does the bench give the three 600mm bays G3/AS1 asks for, with 800mm clear floor?
- Is the fridge cavity sized against the 0.5m³ food store minimum, or against a fridge someone owns?
- Is there an oven and a hot plate, rather than a bench-top appliance standing in for a cooker?
Frequently asked questions
Can I put a kitchenette in a granny flat instead of a full kitchen?
Not if you are relying on the 2026 consent exemption. It only covers a self-contained dwelling, which MBIE defines as meeting every Building Code requirement for the classified use 'Housing – detached dwelling' — including clause G3's sink and waste, means for cooking food, a preparation surface, and space for a refrigerator. G3/AS1 goes further, requiring a cooker with an oven and a hot plate, or a wall oven and a separate hob.
Does the plumbing and electrical in a granny flat kitchen need a building consent?
Not under the exemption, but the work still has to be done by the right people. Water supply, sanitary plumbing and drainage must follow set pathways — G12/AS1 or G12/AS3 for water supply, and G13/AS1 with AS2, or G13/AS3, for foul water — with plumbing by registered plumbers and drainlayers, and restricted building work supervised by an LBP. You then have 20 working days from completion to file the plans, Records of Work, Certificates of Work and safety certificates with the council.
Can I put the sink in an island in a 70m² granny flat?
Only if the waste reaches the drain on gravity fall, because the exemption prohibits pumped systems within the dwelling. That rules out the macerator that normally solves an island sink stranded away from the drainage. The exemption does allow a floor level up to 1 metre above the supporting ground, so there is often room underneath — but it has to be designed in while the drainlayer is setting levels.
What ventilation does a granny flat kitchen need if I rent it out?
Clause G4 Ventilation applies to the build, and once the flat is a tenancy the Healthy Homes ventilation standard applies on top. It requires kitchens to have an extractor fan venting to the outside, or continuous mechanical ventilation meeting the criteria, and for fans installed after 1 July 2019 in a room with a cooktop, a minimum 150mm diameter including ducting or at least 50 litres per second. A recirculating rangehood does not meet that alone.
How big does the kitchen need to be in a 70m² granny flat?
The Code sets a floor, not a target. G3/AS1 Figure 1 shows three 600mm bays — cooker, food preparation area with space for a perishable food store, and sink — or the width of the facility where greater, an 1800mm minimum run. It also wants at least 800mm of clear floor space in front, or 600mm to a fully open oven door. In practice a 70m² one-bedroom takes a 2400mm to 3000mm galley comfortably.
Getting a real number on it
Send us the granny flat's floor plan. No plan yet? A sketch with the wall lengths on it is enough — we quote off rough scope all the time and drawings sharpen the number later. Tell us whether it is for a parent or a tenant, whether you want a dishwasher, and where your drainlayer says the waste can go. A trade-priced number comes back inside 24 hours.
We have been making kitchens in East Tamaki for 23 years, over 2,000 of them, and we turn out ten-plus a week — which is why a granny flat kitchen is a five to seven day install rather than an event. No showroom, so you are not paying for one. We are Site Safe qualified and fit around your LBP and your drainlayer. Get the kitchen drawn first, because under this exemption it is the bit that makes it a house.