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Auckland Council is moving to make developers and residents pay more towards the infrastructure required for developments outside planned growth areas, with up to 60,000 proposed homes expected to cost the council about $3 billion.
Unanticipated developments are those built outside Auckland’s planned growth areas, or before infrastructure is ready to support them. Auckland Council has identified areas for future growth with planned infrastructure – yet developments are still being proposed outside these areas.
Councillor for the North Shore and chair of Auckland Council’s Policy, Planning and Development Committee Richard Hills said Auckland Council supported well-planned growth, but unanticipated developments significantly impact budgets and infrastructure.
“Large developments are increasingly proposed where growth isn’t planned and infrastructure isn’t in place. The council is then forced to fund the long-term infrastructure and service costs with budgets that are already tightly pinched.”
Hills said the fast-track approvals scheme has magnified the issue, while rates capping will further limit councils’ funding.
“It’s increasingly important that unanticipated developments help fund the infrastructure and services that support them. We are proposing to recover more from developers and future residents of these areas, or potentially reduce or deprioritise council services in these areas.”
He said the council supported housing growth in well-serviced areas but ratepayers should not have to fund developments it had not budgeted for.
“Auckland Council strongly supports development that creates more housing choices where there is good access to infrastructure, transport and services. The Auckland Unitary Plan has boosted this significantly. Plan Change 120 will build on this further by enabling more homes in urban areas.
“However, ratepayers cannot be expected to carry the costs of developments that we have had no opportunity to budget for. Aucklanders expect us to act on this. This approach will give greater clarity on where council investment will and won’t be prioritised.”
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown said fast-tracked rural developments were poor planning and developers should bear their full infrastructure costs.
“Driving greenfield housing into rural areas through fast track is not a smart way to plan a city.
“We need developers to pay for the full costs of the growth these projects create rather than loading the costs on to ratepayers,” he said.
“I’d be happier with fast-track if it was fast. There needs to be a maximum window of six months to start building and it shouldn’t be transferrable.”
According to the council, about 50,000 to 60,000 homes are currently proposed outside its planned growth programme, requiring an estimated $3 billion in infrastructure and services. That figure excludes water, wastewater, operating and non-growth costs.
Development contributions are the council’s main tool for recovering growth-related costs, but it said unanticipated developments, including fast-track projects, made full cost recovery difficult because the necessary infrastructure and services could not be budgeted for in advance.
Auckland Council has recently appealed two separate decisions approving developments through the fast-track scheme. Council staff will propose a response to unanticipated development at the Policy, Planning and Development Committee meeting in October 2026.
