There are a lot of things that cause this issue, the crazy high cost of building, zoning and NIMBYism, the cultural insistence on single level homes with a yard....

I say this, when I live in Taupo and have a house with a yard.

A few years back, I lived in a small place that had a very small patch of grass somewhat less than 20m^2 (less than 5 x 4), I had an electric mower to keep it down...it was stupid, I had to store a mower for this tiny patch of grass.

[–] Dave 5 points 9 months ago

I know someone who recently bought a new build with a triangle piece of grass about 1m wide and 2m long to the point of the triangle. Apparently the council required the developers to have some grass.

There are a lot of things that cause this issue, the crazy high cost of building, zoning and NIMBYism, the cultural insistence on single level homes with a yard…

I think the Kaianga Ora developments help with a lot of this. They are government so can fight councils and get laws changed if needed, and they are building medium density housing. From what I've seen, they are largely in areas with public transport access. And they don't have to care about whether the housing type is in demand, houses are houses.

Just a shame that the new govt has pledged to gut them.