The highest level of job turnover is in the city's richest school zones, with 109 jobs advertised at decile 10 schools. It also found half of teachers who resigned in the survey period had left Auckland.
A leading secondary principal says the talent drain is also affecting secondary schools as teachers struggle to survive in our largest and most expensive city on an average wage. House prices in Auckland had reached a staggering $918,000 average, according to QV.
APPA president Frances Nelson said urgent action was needed.
That could include an Auckland teaching allowance or extending the voluntary bonding scheme that features a $3500 before-tax payment for teachers who graduated after 2005 and who commit to identified schools and core subjects.
Louise Green, president of teachers union the NZEI, said there was an urgent need for a workforce strategy to address teacher recruitment and retention in Auckland.
"There has been a lack of overall workforce planning and information and we need an investigation to build up a comprehensive picture of what is happening across the country," Green said.
Head of the Secondary Principals' Association Sandy Pasley said a recent survey of Auckland schools showed 25 out of 26 principals had an issue with staff moving away.
Schools had resorted to persuading senior staff to delay retirement plans to temporarily avert teaching gaps in hard-to-fill subjects.
Mt Albert Grammar School principal Dale Burden said Auckland secondary schools were facing a crisis.
"Every year we have to make a number of new appointments, but in the past couple of years it has become more of a struggle to gather a pool of applicants with depth and quality, including those prepared to move here from outside Auckland," he said.
"A starting salary of $48,000 that peaks at the top of the scale at $78,000 just isn't enough."
Macleans College principal Byron Bentley said he had lost teachers to Dunedin, Tauranga and Nelson. Some had moved overseas, including to England.
"Housing is the main reason for them - either wanting to buy a house or selling up here and being able to buy freehold somewhere else," he said.
The Education Ministry said it had been closely monitoring teaching jobs in the city and initial analysis showed most primary teachers were moving between schools in the city.
The ministry was not looking at introducing an Auckland allowance because according to its data there isn't a problem.
But associate deputy secretary for student achievement Lesley Hoskin said they were already paying relocation and recruitment costs where schools were struggling to plug gaps.
But Hoskin added: "Our initial analysis looking at state and state-integrated schools in Auckland (excluding composite and special schools) shows no clear evidence that teachers are leaving Auckland."
Southern shift life-changing
Teacher Jan-Marie Williams, right, struggles to find fault with her decision to quit Auckland this year. "When your biggest complaint is being woken up by the waves, people stop asking how your move's gone," joked the teacher at Tauranga's Bethlehem Primary School
Williams, who brought 14 years of experience to the Bay of Plenty staffroom, said the shift was driven by a desire to be closer to family and to own her own home.
"Buying a house in Auckland was becoming unachievable so I moved here and bought a house within the first three months."
There were moments when Williams missed the big-city attractions and her Auckland friends, but the move has been life-changing.
"It's infinitely better. There's no traffic and I'm living 50m from the ocean."
