For starters, there is strong political pressure for urban intensification in the city. New Zealand has among the least affordable housing in the OECD, and housing demand is concentrated in Auckland. The New Zealand government has recently signalled sweeping changes to planning rules that are likely to prompt "a change in density and height across a great deal of the isthmus", says Waghorn. "The spongy suburbs that we've got will disappear, because there'll be a lot more impermeable surface – more housing, more driveways and parking areas."
