A team of University of Auckland researchers is testing a bold idea: that fixing school inequity might start with zoning maps, not classrooms.
The study is backed by a Spencer Foundation Racial Equity Research Grant. It will examine what happened after Auckland’s 2016 upzoning reform, which freed up three-quarters of the city’s residential land for medium- and high-density housing.
Before that reform, large parts of Auckland were locked into low-density, high-cost housing. That kept many suburbs out of reach for families who couldn’t afford a full standalone section.
The question now is simple. Did loosening those rules let lower-income families move into wealthier neighbourhoods? And if they did, did their kids gain access to better schools?
Early signs suggest yes. Preliminary research from the team shows the 2016 reforms did help some low-income households move into higher socio-economic areas. That early result is what justified a deeper follow up study.
“Auckland’s 2016 zoning reform created a rare large-scale experiment that allows us to study how housing markets shape access to neighbourhoods and schools,” says lead researcher Dr Sam Stemper.
No other city has upzoned enough land at this scale to make this kind of study possible, Stemper says. That makes Auckland a one-off test case for researchers.
Upzoning is usually discussed as a housing affordability fix. Its effect on education has barely been studied, Stemper notes, which is exactly the gap this project aims to fill.
Co-investigator Associate Professor Ryan Greenaway-McGrevy explains the thinking behind it. Wealthy suburbs have often stayed out of reach for lower-income families simply because zoning rules only allowed expensive, detached homes.
“Removing such barriers through upzoning to allow more affordable housing types like townhouses or apartments offers a potential tool to improve educational access,” he says.
This matters directly for how school access works in New Zealand. School zoning gives priority to families living in a school’s catchment. That means getting into a good school often comes down to what a family can afford in the local property market.
If housing zoning has been quietly shaping who can get into which schools, that’s a big deal. It would mean urban planning decisions carry real weight for education equity, well outside the usual toolbox of curriculum and school funding.
The research team will use geospatial analysis to track family migration patterns since 2016. They’ll compare that movement against school access data. Business School doctoral candidate Jia Liu is part of the team leading this analysis.
The goal isn’t just to see whether families moved. It’s to find out whether their kids actually ended up at better-performing schools as a result.
