Aucklanders willing to sacrifice living space for central location

Auckland Council has announced a ‘future housing plan’ that will encourage building more townhouses and apartments within walking distance from the city centre.

There has been an increase in demand for housing near the city centre according to research from the Auckland Council.

The research was published in September 2025 and uses land values as a guide to determine where demand for housing is highest.

Auckland Council's chief economist Gary Blick says, “with a city like Auckland people are willing to forego a bit of space in order to get a location that works for them.”

City resident Laks Krishna lives in a two-bedroom apartment with her partner and their child.

She says her family’s choice to live in an apartment was based on budget, lifestyle and proximity to things they enjoy, but a scarifie of living space must be made.

“There’s definitely concessions, but I think it's worth it for sure.”

City Centre Residents Group leader, Antony Phillips says, “We're very keen on higher density living, because we practise it, but our view is that the city centre should not be the dumping ground for tall buildings.”

Recent law graduate, Willow Noome who lives in an inner-city apartment says that she prefers living in an apartment over a flat.

“I think I owe a lot of my uni experience and my better uni grades to being so central.”

Blick says that while existing housing stock is still dominated by standalone homes, new homes that are being built tend to be multi-unit dwellings that use less land.

The future housing plan also enables new developments around Morningside, Kingsland, and Newmarket.

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AI was used to transcribe audio from the interview.