New research will explore who's affected by New Zealand's upzoning boom, and the potential impact housing reforms are having on inequality.
University of Auckland researchers have received an $853,000 Marsden Fund grant to answer one of New Zealand's biggest housing questions: who actually benefits from upzoning?
Project lead Associate Professor Greenaway-McGrevy and principal investigator Distinguished Professor Peter Phillips are leading a team of researchers to investigate the social and economic effects of large-scale zoning reforms, including Auckland's Unitary Plan. They are working to understand how upzoning has affected communities and neighbourhoods, and whether it has widened or reduced inequality.
"Where we live and grow up matters for a variety of life outcomes," says Greenaway-McGrevy, "so it's important to think about how zoning reform can change the geography of opportunity."
Auckland's 2016 reform upzoned about three-quarters of its residential land, allowing medium- and high-density housing in areas previously limited to single-house zones. Earlier Marsden-funded research by Greenaway-McGrevy and co-authors found the move sparked a surge in housing construction and helped ease rental pressures.
But while the reform succeeded in boosting supply, he's now interested in uncovering the socio-economic effects of the reforms.
"On the one hand, the potential for upzoning to exacerbate inequalities within cities raises real concerns. On the other, widespread reforms may also enable housing options in neighbourhoods that were previously inaccessible to many households," says Greenaway-McGrevy.
"There remains an acute lack of evidence on the effects of widespread zoning reforms on spatial inequality because, until recently, such reforms have been rare. Yet investigating and understanding the outcomes is critical to evaluate the potential impacts of current policy proposals and to inform the ongoing design of zoning changes."
Using evidence from New Zealand's groundbreaking zoning reforms, the study will provide the first robust case studies on how large-scale upzoning affects neighbourhood composition, opportunity, and social mobility, offering insights for policymakers here and abroad.
The 2025 Marsden Fund has awarded 107 grants, including 31 totalling $24.3 million to University of Auckland researchers across diverse fields.
