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Our response to housing intensification law changes

Central government has taken a stronger role in planning the growth of New Zealand’s largest cities. They have introduced new rules to increase urban density and housing choices in areas that are close to public transport, shops, jobs, schools and parks.

What we are doing

We are making changes to the Auckland Unitary Plan to accommodate these new rules.

There are two significant legislative reforms that Auckland Council is required to put in place. These are:

National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD)
Amendments to the Resource Management Act.

See Plan Change 78 to find out about the changes we are proposing to the Auckland Unitary Plan.

National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD)

Under this policy, we are required to allow for greater building heights and building density.

This includes:

buildings of six storeys or more within walkable distances to our city centre
buildings of six storeys or more within walkable distances to our ten large metropolitan centres, train stations and rapid busway stops
requirements for us to enable greater heights and density rules in and next to town centres and local centres across Auckland.

Amendments to the Resource Management Act

This requires the rapidly growing cities of Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Wellington and Christchurch to enable greater housing supply.

The Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS) are part of the amendments to the legislation. These new standards allow three homes of up to three storeys high to be built on most residential sites in urban Auckland.

Both the NPS-UD and the MDRS aim to achieve more intensification across our largest cities, boosting housing supply and enabling more types of homes.

The legislation also requires changes to our design rules. These have now been set by central government and relate to how sites can be developed.

Past submissions

Submissions to Plan Change 78 in the Auckland Unitary Plan were open from 18 August 2022 until 29 September 2022.

Feedback was considered by an independent panel of experts. It informed their recommendations about our city's planning rules.

More information

See Growing together to learn more about our growing city and the future of development in Auckland.