Economic Effects of Maunga Viewshafts: A spatial equilibrium approach to estimating the economic costs of protected views

Last updated: 31 July 2026 We commissioned an independent report to examine the economic effects of Auckland’s Maunga viewshafts and height sensitive areas (HSAs) – the planning controls that protect some views of the volcanic cones.

Past reports have looked at the economic effect of a single viewshaft or looked at their planning effects but not their economic effects. This report builds on and extends these to cover the economic effects of all of the viewshafts and height sensitive areas.

Importantly, this report focuses on the economic costs of the viewshafts. It does not attempt to quantify the benefits, including the cultural value of views of the Maunga to Māori and the wider appreciation of these views for Aucklanders in general.

Building heights within viewshafts or in height sensitive areas may also be limited for other reasons such as special character. These limitations are not considered in the report.

About the report

The independent report estimates the economic effects of the Maunga viewshaft overlays using an Alonso-Muth-Mills (AMM) spatial equilibrium model calibrated to Auckland’s housing market.

The model is calibrated to Auckland’s land values, house prices, and population distribution – that is, how much people are willing to pay to live in certain places, how much they’re willing to commute, and some other factors that change the shape of the city. Zoning controls are then removed from the land affected by viewshafts so that the viewshaft or HSA is the only binding constraint on development. This lets the report isolate the effect of the viewshafts and HSAs. The model is then run again with each, all, and groups of, different viewshafts and HSAs removed, to see how the city might have developed if that viewshaft of HSA was never there. This changes how many houses could be built (and as a result, house prices and rents), and where they might have been built, which affects commuting costs and productivity. It gives us a picture of how the city might change if viewshafts and HSAs were removed.

About Auckland’s Maunga viewshafts

Auckland’s volcanic cones are prominent landforms that define the city’s skyline. The Auckland Unitary Plan (AUP), made operative in part in November 2016, includes a set of viewshaft overlays designed to protect views of and between selected Maunga from designated public vantage points. These are defined in Chapter D14 of the AUP as “volcanic viewshafts and height sensitive areas” and place restrictions on maximum building height for properties within each designated sight line.

There are over 80 individual viewshaft cones defined in the AUP, grouped by the Maunga they protect.

Download the report.

Economic Effects of Maunga Viewshafts Part 1 (PDF, 27 MB)

Economic Effects of Maunga Viewshafts Part 2 (PDF, 6.5 MB)

Economic Effects of Maunga Viewshafts -- references and technical appendix (PDF, 204 KB)