The Government will change the Resource Management Act to reduce the minimum development capacity Auckland Council must enable under Plan Change 120, dropping it from just over two million homes to 1.6 million.

Housing and RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop says the move is aimed at steering most new capacity to the city centre, stations benefiting from the City Rail Link, rapid transit stops, and town, local and metropolitan centres. In practical terms, that means more targeted intensification around transport and commercial nodes and less blanket upzoning in other suburbs.

Auckland Council’s operative Unitary Plan allows for an estimated 1.2 million homes. Plan Change 120, developed after the Council was allowed to step back from the Medium Density Residential Standards in 2025, set capacity at around two million. Bishop said that figure was a technical maximum that wouldn’t be built out in practice, and the new 1.6 million requirement is a midpoint between the two.

The National Policy Statement on Urban Development still applies, so the Council will need to enable greater development around rapid transit and CRL stations. Beyond that, the change gives the Council more discretion over where density goes. More than 10,000 submissions already lodged on Plan Change 120 will remain valid.

Once the new capacity floor is in place, the Council will decide which parts of Plan Change 120 to withdraw or amend. Where parts are withdrawn, existing Unitary Plan zoning stays. For provisions that continue, updated rules and maps will go to the hearings panel, with further public input to follow.

Separately, Bishop has initiated an investigation into planning rules for the city centre and signalled he is prepared to intervene if controls are unnecessarily constraining housing or business development. Any extra capacity unlocked in the CBD would count toward the 1.6 million requirement. He cited recent use of ministerial powers to change Eden Park concert restrictions as precedent for stepping in where needed.

The legislation will also address a transitional issue affecting about 400 developers and property owners who were relying on the MDRS when an earlier plan change was withdrawn in 2025.

The Government says it will introduce the RMA amendments soon and progress them quickly to minimise disruption to Auckland’s current hearings process.