Live: Housing change 'done its job' if it 'calms down worried elderly residents', Auckland mayor says

Thursday, 19 February 2026

Wayne Brown tells media the specific housing numbers “don’t matter” and that the council’s announcement is intended to calm elderly residents concerned about intensification. He says areas like Epsom are already changing through aged-care development

Resource Management Minister Chris Bishop has announced a backdown on Auckland housing intensification legislation.
Cabinet has agreed to reduce Auckland’s housing capacity limit from at least 2 million homes to at least 1.6 million homes, Bishop said.
Bishop called the 2 million figure a “red herring that transformed into a lightning rod” and said the Government wanted to address Aucklanders’ concerns about growth and liveable suburbs.
PM Christopher Luxon said the Government had listened to Aucklanders who raised “genuine concerns” about housing intensification in suburban areas.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown said the reduction “never really mattered much” but: “If it calms down some worried elderly residents in Epsom then its done it's job”.
Bishop’s speech was interrupted by former Vision NZ candidate Karl Mokaraka, who disrupted the address to debate housing in South Auckland.

Last year an amendment to the Resource Management Act forced Auckland Council to change its zoning to allow for 2 million new homes. Stuff has confirmed that will be scrapped with the new plan to only allow 1.6 million.

Housing Minister Chris Bishop announces a backtrack on the Auckland housing density plan, on 19 February, 2026.

In a speech at midday Thursday, Bishop was expected to warn this is not the final call, and many of the details will still need to be worked through with Auckland Council.

Is Auckland housing density, dense enough?

The plan had caused considerable electoral risk for National in Auckland with Act threatening to encroach on their vote by opposing the intensification around the leafy green suburbs.

It led to National’s electorate MPs lobbying Cabinet colleagues for fear of a housing induced punishing at the upcoming election and it appears the prime minister has overruled Bishop on the matter.

This all relates back to the Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS) jointly announced by Labour and National in 2021. These standards meant that three dwellings, each three-storeys tall, would be allowed by default on most city properties in New Zealand.

In 2022, Auckland Council responded to this direction and introduced Plan Change 78 to enable three-storey housing in certain residential zones across the city.

This was widely criticised as sharply increasing potential supply, but giving the council no ability to manage natural hazard risks. That criticism became deafening after Auckland’s 2023 anniversary weekend floods exposed the city’s vulnerabilities.

So, the council negotiated a deal with the Government. They could opt out of MDRS, but they would still need another way to build two million new homes.

In August last year, the Government introduced legislation that would allow Auckland to pursue a more targeted strategy. Density would still increase, with zoning for two million more homes, but it would be concentrated around infrastructure and transport corridors.

The new plan caused an uproar in several inner-city suburbs, with the impassioned response echoing in the halls of Parliament.

While some MPs defended the plan, stressing that it would make best use of the billions sunk into the City Rail Link, others - including deputy Prime Minister David Seymour - were sceptical.