On 16 October 2026, Property Council submitted to the Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport (“MCERT”) on the ‘Auckland Unitary Plan – Options for increasing development capacity, economic growth and employment in the city centre: Report of Investigations’ (the Report)
Why this matters to our members
Our members that operate in Auckland agree that the city centre is one of a number of key locations where Auckland Council should be seeking to accommodate additional housing and employment. It is a location with major public transport infrastructure (including the new City Rail Link), established services, existing employment concentrations and significant public investment. The proposed changes would open up more opportunities for city centre intensification.
Our view
Property Council supports changes to planning rules for Auckland city centre that enable greater development, flexibility and investment. Removing the general building-height limit and tower controls in the city centre zone, removing site intensity controls from the Britomart, Central Wharves, Viaduct Harbour and Wynyard precincts, and enabling development of non-contributing sites in the Karangahape Road historic heritage area will help to ensure that planning rules do not prevent development when the market is ready to deliver.
However, we are concerned about interactions between the proposed city centre zone provision changes, Plan Change 120: Housing Intensification and Resilience, and planning system reform. With several concurrent, overlapping regulatory changes, there is uncertainty about the applicable planning rules and consenting processes going forward, affecting investment decisions.
At a high level, we recommend the following:
- providing greater clarity on information relied on for the development capacity assessment and economic assessment;
- publishing a clear reconciliation between the theoretical dwelling capacity, the commercially feasible floor space and the estimated number of additional dwellings;
- clearly setting out the process for the proposed changes and their interactions with existing planning processes;
- providing a clear transition pathway and ensure that the proposed City Centre Zone changes are designed to remain durable under the future planning system; and
- providing financial support to Auckland Council to implement the proposed City Centre Zone changes.