Auckland spreading faster than expected

New Zealand's biggest city is spilling on to bare land faster than predicted.

Councils are struggling to direct development on to sites earmarked for it, but landowners and developers want to build or subdivide land not zoned for it.

People who have escaped beyond the city limits are also having to fight to keep urban Auckland at bay.

The much-trumpeted Regional Growth Strategy, seen as a solution to Auckland's rapid growth and signed by all Auckland councils five years ago, has not achieved the high-density housing levels it was intended to produce.

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