Address layout standards

Clean up your addressing data and send your mail to the correct address to ensure fewer Gone No Address and Return to Sender mail.

Address layout standards

Addressing mail according to NZ Post’s addressing layout standards ensures mail reaches its destination quickly and qualifies your business for bulk mail discounts.

For NZ Post’s complete addressing standards view our

These standards include domestic urban, rural and delivery service postal addresses. They also cover the correct use of country names for mailing to foreign addresses.

Consolidated address format

From 1 July 2011 an addition has been made to the address layout standards to allow a consolidated address format.

In addition to the current formats you can now include the suburb, city and postcode on the same address line, using spaces only, not commas to separate the address elements.

For example, both of the following address formats are now acceptable:

Standard urban address Consolidated urban address
Mr A B Sample Mr A B Sample
123 Sample St 123 Sample St
Redwood Redwood Christchurch 8051
Christchurch 8051  

For more information refer to Address standards (PDF - 950KB).