May 2026
This Paper by Dr Douglas Fairgray examines the economic assessment relevant to the Fast Track Approvals Act 2024 (FTAA 2024). He considers the sequence from the purpose and scope of the Act, the key matters to be addressed, and how the structure of the decision process influences the options available to Panels.
In this Memo, we highlight the latest capability to assess New Zealand’s housing markets via the ME Housing Affordability Tracker. This enables cities and districts to measure and monitor changes in housing supply and affordability in their urban environments. It is part of M.E’s evolving and expanding toolkit to monitor market performance and support actions to improve housing affordability.
The evidence of experts in economic geography has been challenged in recent court hearings on the grounds that geography is not proper economics, and that someone with qualifications in economic geography cannot be considered an “economist”. This claim betrays a basic misunderstanding of the nature of the RMA, while attempting to gatekeep economic assessments by the name on a degree qualification ahead of the core skills of the expert.
The rise in New Zealand’s housing prices has been widely attributed to inefficient land markets. Much of the blame has been laid at the feet of planning, particularly land use planning.
Every year M.E offers financial assistance to a Masters student at Auckland University’s School of Environment who is focusing their thesis on quantitative research or Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This years’ scholarship has been awarded to Rachel Lawson – a worthy recipient we are proud to be supporting.
With the Exposure Draft of the new Natural and Built Environments Act due out soon, and the Strategic Planning Act to follow soon after, Dr Douglas Fairgray considers the ramifications of rolling the economic philosophy of the National Policy Statement on Urban Development (2020) (NPSUD) into the new legislation.
M.E Research team member, Emily Harvey, pictured here 9th from the left, is part of the successful Te Pūnaha Matatini research team that recently won the Prime Minister’s Science Prize.
Researchers from Resilient Organisations and the MERIT team, which includes members from M.E Research, have been acknowledged in an international competition.
M.E have been focusing on smarter methods plus economies of scale and scope to help Councils meet the requirements of the new NPS-UD.
What effect has Covid-19 had on the retail sector so far, and how might it start to recover under lockdown level 3 and 2?
