Parnell is one of the suburbs targeted for intensification under Auckland Council's replacement plan change. Photo David White, Stuff Sept 2025

fast facts

• Auckland councillors have no legal way to stop zoning for two million new dwellings next week.

• A vote will take place at the policy and planning meeting on September 24.

• Changes can be made through a submission process, but the requirement for two million new dwellings will remain.

Auckland must make room for two million more homes - whether city councillors like it or not.

They will get a vote, but it won’t be to reject the Government’s requirement for introducing zoning for the extra dwellings.

Their only choices will be to back one of two options for achieving the significant intensification - or to not vote at all.

On September 24, members of the policy and planning committee will vote whether to press ahead with Plan Change 78 (PC78), rules that allow three-storey buildings across most of the city, including in flood-prone areas.

Alternatively they can support a replacement set of rules allowing 10- and 15-storey blocks of apartments in selected areas, often those with good public transport.

The latter has proved contentious in recent weeks, with public meetings in suburbs like Mt Eden, Parnell and Remuera well-attended by residents concerned about towers springing up next to their house.

But PC78 is also unpopular.

The options are designed to meet the Government requirement for increased housing capacity in New Zealand’s biggest city. It’s being spearheaded by Housing Minister Chris Bishop.

Bishop confirmed to Stuff that the law states the council has to inform him which option they want by October 10.

Photo: Ricky Wilson, Stuff, 13 September 2025

David Seymour has pushed back at claims that opposition to 15-storey apartments in Parnell and other parts of Auckland is scaremongering, saying he is responding directly to the concerns of his Epsom constituents.

The council votes on September 24 on whether to press ahead with replacing Plan Change 78, which could rezone large swaths of Auckland for apartments up to 50 metres high.

Critics, including the left-leaning City Vision council group, say politicians are whipping up fear about intensification by saying that millions more people will flock to the city, overwhelming the current infrastructure.

“Unfortunately, there has been a lot of inaccurate information being shared, which is undermining this important public conversation,” Albert-Eden Puketāpapa councillor Julie Fairey said.

“At a residents’ meeting in Mt Albert, a constituent asked me when council would be taking her house.

Over the past week, Seymour has held meetings in his Epsom constituency to talk to concerned residents. In Parnell, one of Auckland’s oldest suburbs, the plan would allow blocks of up to 15 storeys. Seymour says the proposal would fundamentally alter the character of the area and stretch infrastructure already under strain.

“My job as a local MP is to make sure people understand what is happening, what the process for making decisions is, and who makes the decisions, so that people can be heard and advocate for their interests.”

Michael Neill has watched Mt Eden change since the early 1970s, from a “rundown area” to a suburb where families plant trees, fight for parks and feel fiercely protective of their streets.

Now, as Auckland Council weighs up proposed planning rules which would allow 15-storey tower blocks across the suburb and far beyond, he and his neighbours are speaking up about what they fear could be lost — and how change should be done.

“I moved here in 1973. This was a rundown area. I'd been renting in Parnell, and that was an area that was slowly moving up,” Neill says.

“It's hard to believe how undesirable inner-city Auckland was considered to be in those days. This was the only area in inner-city Auckland, reasonably close to where I was teaching, that was feasible. “It was only after I lived here for a while that I began to appreciate the kind of neighbourhood it was and might become.”

The proposed rules are a revision to Plan Change 78, the guidelines for housing intensification in Auckland.

They’ve prompted heated debate across the city, with David Seymour organising public meetings in Parnell and Remuera.

The revised plan change would significantly level up what can be built - and where. The government is insisting on the council creating rules that would allow the building of 2 million new homes.

• Kingsland, known for its vibrant atmosphere and character housing, faces potential risk from proposed high-rise developments.

• Minister Chris Bishop argues Special Character Areas (SCA) impede development, but locals say there’s ample land already zoned for growth.

• Residents urge protection of Kingsland’s special character areas, highlighting existing development opportunities and market conditions.