Going for Housing Growth: Providing for urban development in the new resource management system

Closes 17 Aug 2025

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Introduction

Overarching context

New Zealand is experiencing a long-running housing crisis with a range of barriers to housing supply inflating house and land prices, and our housing does not meet the needs of people and communities. Our cities are not functioning as well as they could. They are struggling to keep up with growth, in many cases subject to inflexible land use settings, and not maximising their potential as dynamic places of opportunity for both people and businesses. These issues are having far-reaching consequences including dampening economic growth and stymying productivity, locking young people out of the housing market and resulting in high government expenditure on housing support.

The Government has committed to several programmes of work to address New Zealand’s housing crisis. This includes:

  • Going for Housing Growth
  • reforms to the resource management system
  • improvements to the rental market
  • building and construction changes
  • delivering better social housing.

This discussion document seeks feedback on how to give effect to Going for Housing Growth in the new resource management system.

About the new resource management system

The Government has been engaging in a three-phase reform of the resource management system.

Phase One involved the repeal of the Natural and Built Environment Act and the Spatial Planning Act. This was completed in December 2023.

Phase Two includes targeted changes within the current resource management system to improve its performance. This includes:

  • Fast-track Approvals Act 2024
  • Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2024
  • Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill
  • a programme of changes to national direction instruments.

Phase Three involves the replacement of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) with two new acts: a Natural Environment Act and a Planning Act. The Government intends to introduce these to Parliament by the end of 2025.

Phase Three is discussed further in Part B of this document.

Current requirements for councils

Currently, many councils are subject to requirements set out in the National Policy Statement on Urban Development 2020 (NPS-UD), and the Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS).

The NPS-UD applies to all urban environments, categorised into the three tiers outlined below. Different requirements apply to councils in different tiers, as discussed further in Part C.

Tier 1

  • Auckland
  • Hamilton
  • Tauranga
  • Wellington
  • Christchurch

Tier 2

  • Whangārei
  • Rotorua
  • New Plymouth
  • Napier and Hastings
  • Palmerston North
  • Nelson Tasman
  • Queenstown 
  • Dunedin

Tier 3

All other urban environments (Defined as any area of land (regardless of size, and irrespective of local authority or statistical boundaries) that: (a) is, or is intended to be, predominantly urban in character; and (b) is, or is intended to be, part of a housing and labour market of at least 10,000 people) that are not in tier 1 or 2.

Amongst other things, the NPS-UD requires specified councils to:

  • plan for well-functioning urban environments
  • provide sufficient development capacity to meet demand for housing and business land
  • identify how development capacity will be provided in the medium-to-long-term, through Future Development Strategies
  • provide for appropriate levels of intensification
  • be responsive to unanticipated or out-of-sequence development proposals
  • not include minimum car parking requirements in their district plans.

The MDRS requires tier 1 councils to permit up to three houses of up to three storeys per site as of right in urban areas. Rotorua Lakes District Council ’opted in’ to the MDRS and is therefore also subject to these requirements.

About Going for Housing Growth

The Going for Housing Growth programme seeks to progress the key policy and regulatory changes needed to address the problem of excessively high land prices, which are driven by market expectations of an ongoing shortage of developable urban land to meet demand.

Going for Housing Growth is an initiative structured around three pillars which span a range of legislation and work programmes across government. These are:

  • Pillar 1 – Freeing up land for urban development, including removing unnecessary planning barriers
  • Pillar 2 – Improving infrastructure funding and financing to support urban growth
  • Pillar 3 – Providing incentives for communities and councils to support growth.

Pillar 1: Freeing up land for urban development and removing unnecessary planning barriers

In July 2024, the Government announced high-level policy decisions on Pillar 1 of Going for Housing Growth. This announcement included proposals to:

  • introduce new housing growth targets for Tier 1 and 2 councils, requiring them to enable 30 years of feasible housing capacity in their district plans using ‘high’ household growth projections
  • strengthen the intensification requirements on Tier 1 councils, including a requirement to enable intensification along key transport corridors, offset development capacity lost due to reasons such as ‘special character’ and enable intensification across urban areas in line with demand and accessibility
  • provide for a greater mix of uses (such as allowing dairies and cafes close to where people live) across urban environments
  • prohibit councils from imposing rural-urban boundary lines in planning documents
  • investigate options to require councils to spatially plan for 50 years of growth (up from 30) and be more responsive to private plan changes
  • prohibit councils from setting minimum floor area or balcony requirements
  • make the MDRS optional for councils.

Why is Pillar 1 of Going for Housing Growth needed?

The overall objective of Going for Housing Growth is to improve housing affordability by significantly increasing the supply of developable land for housing, both inside and at the edge of our urban areas.

Pillar 1 is focused on the resource management system. While the resource management system is not the only driver of the housing crisis, New Zealand’s urban land markets are not as competitive, or well-functioning, as they could be. New Zealand needs a resource management system that supports competitive urban land markets and enables growth in our cities, provides for the diverse housing needs of our people and communities, and manages our built and natural resources well.

Over recent times, national direction and RMA amendments (Including the National Policy Statement on Urban Development Capacity 2016 (NPS-UDC 2016), the NPS-UD and the MDRS) have sought to increase development opportunities in urban areas. However, lessons from the implementation of these instruments, evidence about restrictive planning rules, and the operation of the current resource management system more generally, mean that there are opportunities to further promote well-functioning and competitive urban land markets in the new resource management system.

The Pillar 1 proposals are intended to increase development capacity available for housing and business uses, improve land use flexibility and remove unnecessary planning barriers, and provide for well-functioning urban environments. The changes are aimed at ensuring that councils are providing an abundance of development capacity, including in areas of high demand and accessibility, while providing more certainty for councils and communities about what is required.

How Pillar 1 of Going for Housing Growth will be implemented

Pillar 1 of Going for Housing Growth was originally intended to be implemented through Phase Two of the resource management reforms through a combination of:

  • changes to the NPS-UD, as part of the national direction programme
  • changes to make the MDRS optional and compliance and enforcement provisions of the Resource Management Act 1991 via the Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill.

In March 2025, the Government announced its intention that Pillar 1 of Going for Housing Growth will instead be predominantly given effect to as part of Phase Three of the resource management reforms. This is to minimise the need for costly and time-consuming changes to council plans under the current system, which could delay implementation of Phase Three. It will also introduce new opportunities for how the policies are delivered and ensure the system changes are efficient and enduring.

This approach has implications for the Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill. The Environment Select Committee has considered the Bill and provided its report back on 11 June 2025. One of the key recommendations made by the Select Committee was to retain the existing requirement for Tier 1 councils (and Rotorua District Council) to implement the Medium Density Residential Standards, with the exception of Auckland Council and Christchurch City Council (which will be subject to alternative requirements to reflect their specific circumstances). For all other councils, the requirement to have the Medium Density Residential Standards will now be removed as part of Phase Three of resource management reform (replacement of the RMA).

Interaction with Pillars 2 and 3

Pillar 2 of Going for Housing Growth is about improving infrastructure funding and financing settings to help get more housing built. This includes:

  • replacing the development contributions regime with a development levy system
  • making changes to improve the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Act 2020
  • improving the flexibility of targeted rates for growth infrastructure.

As a package these changes will provide councils and developers with a flexible funding and financing toolkit to respond to growth pressures and deliver infrastructure to land zoned for housing development. This is expected to limit the financial impact of growth on councils and ratepayers.

Pillars 1 and 2 of Going for Housing Growth are intended to work together in a mutually reinforcing package, with the packages being designed in parallel. Pillar 1 involves freeing up more land for development, while Pillar 2 makes it easier to provide infrastructure to support this development. Legislation to provide for Pillar 2 is expected to be passed by the time councils begin implementing the new resource management system.

Pillar 3 is about providing the incentives for councils and communities to support growth. Decisions on Pillar 3 are expected to be taken by the end of 2025.

Purpose of the discussion document

This discussion document sets out:

  • discussion of the new resource management system and how it could provide better housing and urban development outcomes
  • proposals for the design of Going for Housing Growth requirements in the new system for feedback.

This document is an opportunity to test how Going for Housing Growth proposals could be implemented in the design of the new resource management system. It is focused on the previously announced Going for Housing Growth proposals and does not cover the breadth of housing and urban issues in the new system. There will be other opportunities to engage on the new system, such as through the select committee process on the Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill and consultation on the detailed design of national direction of the new resource management system

The feedback we receive will be used to shape the development of the new resource management system, through informing officials’ thinking on policy development for Phase 3 of resource management reform.

This document should be distinguished from the statutory consultation taking place in parallel on the Phase Two national direction programme, which contains 16 proposals for new or amended RMA national direction. Further information on the Phase Two national direction consultation programme is available on the Ministry for the Environment’s national direction website.