There is a place just a few hours from Australia's east coast where a change in policy has seen the number of approvals for new homes "skyrocket" while increases in rents and house prices have been kept to moderate levels.

The test case went so well, New Zealand's national government adopted a version of it for the whole country, but recently the opposition withdrew its support, meaning the upcoming election could change things.

Ryan Greenaway-McGrevy, an associate professor in economics at the University of Auckland, said prior to the 2016 change, most of the city was zoned for buildings of no more than two storeys high and covering a maximum of 35 per cent of the block.

The New Zealand Human Rights Commission recently finished an inquiry into the issue, reporting that "while advances have been made, we still face an urgent housing crisis that has been caused by decades of institutional neglect".

Jacinda Ardern perhaps over-promised in 2017 when the future prime minister campaigned on a pledge to build 100,000 homes across NZ, but the Human Rights Commission inquiry did find that Labor had made "very significant efforts … to deliver a more equitable housing system in Aotearoa".

The zoning changes were made as part of the Auckland Unity Plan (AUP), and on the back of its success, the central government of New Zealand brought in legislation called the medium density residential standards (MDRS).

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