High rise apartments could come to Auckland's traditional suburbs High rise apartments could come to Auckland's traditional suburbs Mon, 28 Jun 2021, 2:47PM Developers will be able to demolish homes and build apartment blocks of at least six storeys deep inside many of Auckland's traditional suburbs under a new Labour Government law aimed at addressing runaway house prices. Auckland Council has today released a proposed approach for implementing the changes requiring more intensification across the city. In the biggest change to planning rules since the Unitary Plan, developers will be able to build tall apartment buildings within a 15 minute walk of the central city and 10-minute walk of metropolitan areas like Takapuna, Newmarket, Henderson and Albany.