Zoning reform and state-developed housing in Auckland
Open accessAbstract
Zoning reform is often characterized as a market-enabling response to housing shortages and unaffordable housing. Regrettably this framing belies the potential for zoning reform to encourage state-developed housing, as upzoning enables both private and government developers to produce more housing with less land. A recent zoning reform in Auckland exemplifies this point. The proportion of housing starts issued to government-controlled institutions has increased from 3.1% over the ten years prior to the reform, to 9.9% over the six years after. Proportions this high were last seen in New Zealand prior to the 1980s economic reforms that substantially reduced state intervention in the economy. A synthetic control for Auckland suggests that the reform generated a threefold increase in state-built dwellings. These findings suggest that zoning reform can enable both the market and the state to construct more housing.
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Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 2
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Cited by
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Greenaway-McGrevy, R.
- Affiliations
- The University of Auckland
- Venue
- New Zealand Economic Papers
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2025-04-04
- Volume
- 59
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 178-204
- ISSN
- 0077-9954 (ISSN-L)
- 1943-4863
- OpenAlex
- W4409174896
- Semantic Scholar
- 23f491481434a6cee3beff93d165ce446afe7340
- Cited by
- 3
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1
- FWCI
- 2.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- New Zealand Economic Papers (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- Royal Society of New Zealand under Marsden Fund Grant (UOA2013)
- Royal Society
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Housing Market and Economics
- Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Urban Planning and Governance
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Finance › Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism
- Keywords
- zoning reform, upzoning, housing supply, housing affordability, Auckland, land use regulation, housing policy
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