New Zealand Approves Sweeping Land Use Reforms

The Resource Management (Enabling Housing Supply and Other Matters) bill was approved this week in New Zealand, with support from both the country's political parties.

An article by Henry Cooke for Stuff provides crucial details about the bipartisan support for the deal and exactly what the bill entails. So, for instance: " From August of 2022, councils will be forced to allow townhouses of up to three storeys with up to three dwellings on almost all residential sites in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Tauranga, and Hamilton, as these will not require resource consent."

"The bill also moves forward the timeline on the NPS-UD, another zoning change that removes the ability for councils to set height limits of less than six storeys in a more restricted set of urban areas," reports Cooke.

An analysis by PwC has estimated that the zoning changes could produce up to 150,000 new housing units over the next eight years.

The bill was announced in October (in news picked up Planetizen), so the approval process for the new law was swift. There is clearly a momentum for zoning reforms in New Zealand—the country also approved, in summer 2020, a package of zoning reforms that eliminated parking requirements and increased building heights near transit stations.