Kingsland is also home to some of Auckland’s finest character housing clusters:
- The Avenues: four streets parallel to New North Rd.
- Eden Terrace: streets west of New North Rd down to the motorway
- Around Eden Park, east of Kingsland Station
A recent study found that:
“Auckland’s special character areas encompass a rare gem in global urbanism, a taonga – a collection of documented and protected timber architecture from the 19th and 20th centuries unrivalled worldwide in scale and quality”.
In 2021, Auckland Council conducted a house-by-house survey of SCAs, scoring each property from 0 to 6. Kingsland’s SCAs each had over 80% of homes scoring 5 or 6 – well above the council’s 75% threshold for determining high-quality areas which should be kept.
Residents, visitors, and event-goers at Eden Park all enjoy Kingsland’s ambience. With a railway station soon to be part of the City Rail Link (CRL), it’s understandable that the Government and Mayor want intensification near CRL stations.
But the current proposal – to allow buildings of at least 15 storeys around Maungawhau, Kingsland, and Morningside Stations – puts Kingsland’s SCAs at risk of being destroyed by random tower blocks.
Minister Chris Bishop has suggested SCAs are impeding development.
At an event in March, he said:
“Kingsland’s population declined by 4.7% between 2019 and 2023… Kingsland built just 22 homes over five years… It’s still predominantly single-storey dwellings… It doesn’t make sense that we have single storey houses on quarter acre sections a stone’s throw away from stations that, in a year or so, will see trains every few minutes”.
While Kingsland’s population dipped between 2019 and 2023, Statistics NZ estimated it at 3290 in June 2024 – up from 3162 in 2023. Auckland’s average growth over five years was 1.4%. Minor population fluctuations in a suburb this size, in a city of 1.6 million people, are hardly justification for destroying its SCAs.
Yes, SCAs are zoned for single houses – but there’s already ample land in Kingsland zoned for intensive development. Within walking distance of Kingsland and Morningside Stations, almost 40ha are zoned residential or mixed-use. Fifty-eight % of residential–zoned land within a walking distance of Kingsland Station is outside the SCA overlay.
The last apartment project in Kingsland, which was planned in 2021, still remains unbuilt because it failed to meet sales targets, and that was at the peak of the market. The issue isn’t zoning or land supply – it’s demand.
- Houses on quarter-acre sections?
The minister would be right, it wouldn’t make sense – if there were any.
A 2015 Herald article found only seven intact quarter-acre sections in central Auckland and its bordering suburbs with houses on them. If there are any left, they are not in Kingsland.
If he’s looking for lots of under-utilised land, the area around Morningside Station – just a 10-minute walk or 2-minute train ride away from Kingsland Station – offers plenty of it, none of this land is in a SCA.
A walk from Kingsland to Morningside reveals several vacant, zoned sites ready for development:
- 583–589 New North Rd: 2400sq m, consented for 67 apartments
- 574 New North Rd: overgrown with gorse
- 578–580 New North Rd: cleared and ready
In total there are 60 residential sites along New North Rd, between Kingsland and Morningside Stations, already zoned for Terrace Housing and Apartments – allowing five - seven storeys. These sites have not been more intensively developed not because of zoning, but because of market conditions. If there was demand, they would have been intensified by now.
1A School Rd Kingsland is a 2000sq m site owned by Kāinga Ora and consented for 41 units. Kāinga Ora’s proposed development on it has now been shelved. If the Minister is serious about intensification, he could start by directing Kāinga Ora to build there instead of letting it grow weeds.
Has the minister even visited Kingsland? Perhaps he’s confusing it with Lower Hutt. We’d be happy to show him around.
The destruction of Kingsland’s SCAs in the name of intensification is unnecessary and misguided. There’s already plenty of land there zoned for growth. Let’s protect what makes Kingsland special – before it’s lost forever.
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor’s Picks, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week’s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here.
