Sweeping housing legislation could reshape New Zealand cities for decades to come

Housing campaigners welcome changes, saying they will boost businesses, lower emissions and enable better transport links

New Zealand's cities could be reshaped for decades to come, after the government joined forces with the opposition to announce sweeping bipartisan housing legislation that aims to counter urban sprawl and boost supply by up to 105,000 new homes in the next eight years.

In a rare display of cross-party collaboration, the housing minister Megan Woods and environment minister David Parker took the podium with the National Party's leader Judith Collins and its housing spokesperson Nicola Willis on Tuesday, to introduce a bill that will cut urban-planning red-tape and enable up to three houses, three storeys tall, to be built on most sites without requiring consent in the country's major cities.