New Zealand Post

Postal Address File (PAF)

What is the PAF?

The Postal Address File (PAF) is our definitive file of New Zealand Post's postal addresses.

Can the PAF be licensed directly?

Yes. Read more about purchasing the PAF.

Is the PAF in a format that can be used directly or does it need a third party?

The PAF is raw address data broken into its smallest possible component elements, consisting of approximately two million active addresses. The PAF itself is, therefore, not a tool or service, but purely an address reference data set. It requires software to be able to take the PAF data and compare it with customer addressing data for the purpose of address matching, cleansing and/or validation. Software can be obtained from Data Solution Providers or developed internally by the customer.

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If an address is removed from the PAF file, will New Zealand Post use the DPID for another address? NEW

The DPID will not be used for another address; it will be retired and only used if the exact address is re-established.

Can New Zealand Post provide a list of suburbs and their valid aliases? NEW

This is published as a table in the PAF which includes suburbs as well as cities.  You can license this if you wish to access this information or you can ask your Data Solution Provider who will have access to this.

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Are alternate suburbs which are allowable as per the PAF, valid matches for the purposes of the SOA assessment? NEW

If the alternate suburb you have in your mailing database is included in the list of alternate suburb names within the PAF, then they will be considered a valid match for SOA.

The table below shows examples of suburbs that are not to be used as an alternative for a given suburb. The list reflects some unlikely addressing combinations. We review this type of content for each PAF release, but don't consider this to be a file that is likely to change markedly over time.

Suburb name matching will be built into the data cleansing completed by your Data Solution Provider.

1 Suburb_Name Town_City Alt_Suburb RUID
2 Alicetown Lower Hutt Wellington 1003
3 Avalon Lower Hutt Wainuiomata 1003
4 Eastbourne Lower Hutt Wainuiomata 1003
5 Mount Cook Wellington Avalon 1003
6 Mount Cook Wellington Stokes Valley 1003
7 Mount Cook Wellington Tawa 1003
8 Mount Victoria Wellington Pukerua Bay 1003
9 Mount Victoria Wellington Wainuiomata 1003
10 Mt Cook Wellington Avalon 1003
11 Mt Cook Wellington Stokes Valley 1003
12 Mt Cook Wellington Tawa 1003
13 Mt Victoria Wellington Pukerua Bay 1003
14 Mt Victoria Wellington Wainuiomata 1003
15 Ngaio Wellington Heretaunga 1003
16 Petone Lower Hutt Eastbourne 1003
17 Petone Lower Hutt Wainuiomata 1003
18 Petone Lower Hutt Wellington 1003
19 Tawa Wellington Pauatahanui 1003
20 Tawa Wellington Porirua 1003
21 Tawa Wellington Pukerua Bay 1003
22 Wainuiomata Lower Hutt Eastbourne 1003
23 Wainuiomata Lower Hutt Naenae 1003
24 Wilton Wellington Porirua 1003
25 Wilton Wellington Tawa 1003

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Most vendors provide the PAFs on a quarterly basis.  As SOA certificate renewal is required on an annual basis, do I also need to take the quarterly PAFs? NEW

SendRight™ Certified Partners must keep up to date with the PAF, which is updated and released on a quarterly basis.

However, our customers only need to get an SOA assessment once a year.  Requirements for SendRight™ Certified Partners and customers are different and should be considered separately.

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