Source: New Zealand Government
New Zealanders have an opportunity to help shape the new planning system replacing the Resource Management Act (RMA) through public consultation on removing unnecessary barriers to housing growth, says Housing and RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop.
“New Zealand’s house prices are among the most expensive in the developed world – a direct result of our current planning system making it too hard for our cities to grow up and out.
“Fixing our housing crisis involves fixing the fundamentals of our housing market – freeing up land for development and removing unnecessary planning barriers, improving infrastructure funding and financing to support urban growth, and providing incentives for communities and councils to support growth.
“Next year we’ll replace the RMA with a new planning system that makes it easier to plan and deliver the housing and infrastructure New Zealand needs.
“The new planning system is an enormous opportunity to create a planning system that enables and encourages housing growth.
“Last year I announced the Government had committed to six major legislative changes to help free up land for housing and let our cities grow:
The establishment of Housing Growth Targets for Tier 1 and 2 councils
New rules making it easier for cities to expand outwards at the urban fringe
A strengthening of the intensification provisions in the National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD)
New rules requiring councils to enable a greater mixed-use zoning across our cities.
The abolition of minimum floor area and balcony requirements
New provisions making the Medium Density Residential Standards optional for councils.
“The discussion document I’m releasing today provides further detail on how these changes will operate in practice, and how they’ll integrate into the government’s resource management reforms. Feedback through the consultation process will be used to shape the development of the new planning system.
“The NPS-UD was a good starting point for strengthening housing growth in cities, but the government is committed to going further to help create competitive urban land markets and abundant development opportunities. The discussion document proposes a range of changes to strengthen the existing rules.
“As I indicated last week, the government is no longer proposing to make the MDRS optional for councils. This is because most councils (with three exceptions) have already changed their plans to include the MDRS, and so it would be inefficient and a waste of time and money to make them potentially change their plans in 2025 and 2026 when the new resource management system will go live in 2027.
“Bespoke legislative solutions have been designed for Auckland and Christchurch, reflected in the Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill recently reported back to Parliament. In Auckland’s case, it allows the Council to withdraw their existing plan change (PC78) and replace it with a new one, which provides the same level of capacity (or greater) in PC78, as well as strengthened density provisions around City Rail Link stations.
“The discussion document canvasses a range of important issues, including future development strategies and spatial planning, housing growth targets, responsive planning and rural-urban boundaries, intensification, enabling a mix of uses across urban environments and minimum floor area and balcony requirements.
“I encourage New Zealanders to share their views on these important issues by making a submission.”
Public consultation on the Going for Housing Growth discussion document opens today at www.hud.govt.nz/haveyoursay and will run until 17 August 2025. This is early non-statutory consultation and public feedback on will be used to shape the development of the new resource management system.
Editor’s note:
A fact sheet on the Going for Housing Growth discussion document is attached.
The Going for Housing Growth consultation is separate from the concurrent consultation on three packages of proposed changes to national direction. The national direction changes would come into effect under the existing RMA before transitioning into the new planning system while the Going for Housing Growth consultation is focused on shaping the new planning system.
