Plan Change 120: What Auckland's Amended Housing Plan Does to Your Site
Mike Hoeft
Plan Change 120: What Auckland's Amended Housing Plan Does to Your Site
Submissions on the amended Plan Change 120 close at 5pm on 24 September 2026. After that an Independent Hearings Panel takes over, and Auckland Council is not expected to make final decisions until mid-2027. If the zoning proposed for your site is worse than the zoning you have been assuming, this is the last month you get to say so.
Most Auckland landowners still do not know PC120 exists. Plenty of the advice circulating still refers to Plan Change 78, the Medium Density Residential Standards and NPS-UD uplift as though they were live settings. They are not. PC78's MDRS provisions were withdrawn. PC120 replaced them, was notified on 3 November 2025, drew roughly 10,500 submissions, and was then amended after the Government cut Auckland's minimum housing capacity requirement from around two million homes to at least 1.4 million.
That cut is the reason the map shrank.
What the amended plan actually proposes
About 15 percent of Auckland's urban area sees a zoning change under the amended PC120. The other 85 percent reverts to the 2016 Auckland Unitary Plan rules, unchanged.
Inside 10 kilometres of the city centre, well-connected locations are enabled for 10 to 15 storeys. The five Western Line stations named in the legislation, Maungawhau, Kingsland, Morningside, Mt Albert and Baldwin Ave, keep that height whatever else moves. Walkable catchments around rapid transit stops and metropolitan centres inside the ring keep it too.
Outside 10 kilometres, walkable catchments drop to the Government-required six storeys. Housing opportunities along most frequent bus routes beyond the ring are removed altogether.
Read that as a map, not a rulebook. Intensification is being pulled inward and concentrated on rail. Everything else is being handed back to 2016.
What this does to land values
Two things, in opposite directions, and which one applies to you is entirely a question of where your site sits.
If your site is inside the 10 kilometre ring and within a walkable catchment of a rapid transit stop, the pool of sites that can do what yours can do just got smaller. Scarcity is the thing developers actually pay for. A feasibility that assumed your site was one of thousands with that capacity now has fewer comparables competing against it.
If your site is a suburban block on a frequent bus route in Massey, Papakura, Manurewa or Henderson, and you have been holding it because intensification was coming, the amended plan says it is not. The uplift you were waiting for has been withdrawn from your street. Holding for a rezoning that is no longer proposed is not a strategy, it is a cost.
The third case is the awkward one. Sites whose zoning is contested through a 2027 hearing carry a discount right now, because a developer underwriting today cannot bank a decision that lands in eighteen months. Planning certainty is worth money, and uncertainty is priced against you by every buyer running numbers.
If your feasibility mentions MDRS, it is out of date
This is the practical test. Pull out whatever appraisal, feasibility or agent's letter you are working from. If it justifies yield by reference to the MDRS, to NPS-UD intensification uplift, or to PC78, it was written against a framework that no longer applies. That does not automatically mean the number is wrong. It means nobody has checked it against what is actually proposed for your site.
The Council publishes a PC120 map viewer. Find your address on it before you talk to anybody about price.
What to do before submissions close
Check the proposed zoning for your site on the Council's map viewer.
If it is worse than you assumed, lodge a submission before 5pm on 24 September. Anyone can submit, including people who submitted on the notified version last December. It costs nothing.
If it is better than you assumed, say nothing publicly and get your feasibility rerun.
Either way, do not price a sale off zoning you have not verified this month.
[[NEED: named Auckland example - one named Auckland site you have assessed under PC120 where the proposed zoning changed the number materially, with the suburb, the site area and the direction of the change.]]
FAQ
Does Plan Change 120 apply to my site right now?
The proposed provisions are not operative. Final decisions are expected mid-2027 after the Independent Hearings Panel reports. Until then the operative Auckland Unitary Plan rules apply, which for about 85 percent of Auckland's urban area is what PC120 proposes to leave in place anyway.
What happened to Plan Change 78?
The city centre provisions became operative on 6 June 2025. The rest, including the MDRS provisions, was withdrawn and replaced by PC120.
Why did the plan get smaller?
The Government amended the Resource Management Act in 2026 and reduced Auckland's minimum housing capacity requirement from around two million homes to at least 1.4 million. Auckland Council then revised PC120 to match.
Can I still submit if I submitted last year?
Yes. The current round is open to anyone, including previous submitters. It closes 5pm, 24 September 2026.
Does a six-storey catchment still make my site a development site?
Often yes. Six storeys outside the 10 kilometre ring is a serious enablement, and the constraint on most suburban sites is servicing and site geometry rather than permitted height. Height is the ceiling. Yield is the question.
CTA
If you own a site in Auckland and want it checked against the amended PC120 before submissions close on 24 September, talk to the Land and Projects team at RWC Auckland. Visit rwcommercialauckland.co.nz.
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