Govt considers requiring car parks in new developments again

Friday, 20 February 2026

The Government is considering a return to car parking mandates that would force developers to include a certain number of car parks when building.

Such mandates - generally imposed by local plans - were outlawed in most major cities by the last Government in 2020 with Phil Twyford’s National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD).

The change did not stop councils from requiring mobility parking spaces.

This move was welcomed at the time by then National housing spokesman Chris Bishop, and he has repeatedly backed the overall NPS-UD programme, even as he backed away from his later commitment to another pro-development law that zoned more land for townhouses.

In June of last year Bishop said the NPS-UD was a “good tool” and he was committed to strengthening it.

“I supported its introduction at the time and I continue to support it. And we’ve committed to strengthen it.“

But as part of the Government’s wider backdown on housing intensification and pro-development policy it has signalled that this policy is now under review.

Auckland Minister Simeon Brown said on Thursday that he had heard from Auckland residents worried about a lack of car parking.

“Aucklanders have also raised concerns about new developments going up with nowhere to park, which was driven by the previous government removing mandatory minimum car parking requirements. Our Government has agreed to review those rules to ensure there is adequate provision of parking for Aucklanders who need to park their cars,” Brown said.

Bishop confirmed the review in a statement to The Post which suggested it might cover more than just Auckland.

“We are doing some work on car parking provision and management given concerns raised around cars filling suburban streets. This will be in the context of revised national instruments under the new Planning Act,” Bishop said.

He did not respond to a question on what impact this change might have on the number of overall dwellings built.

Green Transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter said it was a backwards step that would stop housing being built.

“Minimum parking requirements force everyone to subsidise car parks, even if they don't need one,” Genter said.

'Every mandated car park adds tens of thousands to the cost of a home, and can tip a project from viable to unviable. That means fewer homes, not more parking. The cost doesn't fall on drivers, it falls on everyone, including renters and first home buyers who may not even own a car but are paying for a park they never asked for.“

“We should be making it easier and cheaper to build homes, not forcing every new development to include subsidised car storage.'

Eric Crampton from the right-leaning think tank the New Zealand Initiative said allowing councils to set parking mandates again would be “a mistake”.

“Developers should be free to provide parking as part of a development whenever they believe that tenants are willing to pay for that feature. They should not be compelled to provide it when tenants would prefer that the space be available for another bedroom, or for an outdoor barbecue, or for anything else.“

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