Our research

We work closely with local councils, planning bodies, industry and community stakeholders to address critical urban development challenges and support change. Our research supports evidence-based planning and policy development, particularly in the areas of housing affordability, inclusive infrastructure and urban mobility.

Our mission is to ensure that urban environments are equitable, accessible and resilient – enabling all residents to benefit from well-planned, affordable and liveable communities.

Our transdisciplinary team employs advanced tools such as data science, AI, spatial analysis, and geostatistics, integrated with insights from architecture, planning, economics, environmental science, and public health.

We generate evidence-based solutions to some of the most pressing urban challenges of our time – including housing affordability, urban inequality, green accessibility and climate resilience – working across university, government and industry, to inform better decision-making and policy outcomes.

Housing Markets and Affordability

Analysing housing market dynamics to inform policies that promote affordable and equitable housing solutions.

Featured projects:

Ethnic Enclaves in Housing Markets of New Zealand

• This study asks whether properties in neighbourhoods with higher co-ethnic presence command a price premium for buyers from that ethnicity, and whether this premium varies by origin country, arrival cohort, or local amenity density.

Multiple Property Ownership and Housing Affordability in New Zealand: An Empirical Assessment

• This study aims to empirically examine the impact of multiple home ownership on housing prices in New Zealand.

Sample outputs: 

Build Costs, Prices, and Affordable House Retention: A Case Study of the Starter Home

• Empirical evidence on build-cost dynamics and retention risks for affordable starter homes, with policy options for councils.

Housing Affordability Price Points in New Zealand: ‘Rice and Beans’ vs ‘Smashed Avocado’

• A practical toolkit that sets locally relevant price points to guide planning and inclusionary settings.

Work in progress with local authorities:

Short-Term Letting Study (Queenstown Lakes District Council)

• Commissioned research on regulating short-term rentals to protect long-term housing supply while managing tourism demand.

Spatial Mismatch and Housing Affordability of Key Workers: Evidence from Auckland

• Analysis of key-worker commuting and affordability pressures to inform zoning and transport-housing coordination.

Does Work From Home Reshape the Urban Rental Structure? Early Evidence from a Rental Gradient Analysis in Auckland

• Using rental micro-data to quantify post-pandemic spatial shifts with implications for rezoning and transit-oriented supply.
  
  

Environmental Sustainability and Green Infrastructure

Assessing the impact of green spaces and sustainable infrastructure on urban resilience and quality of life.

Featured projects:

Measuring spatial inequality of urban park accessibility and utilisation: A case study of public housing developments in Auckland, New Zealand

• This project creates four new metrics to better understand how people utilise green spaces and found that people who live in Auckland’s Public housing areas have access to fewer and generally smaller parks.

Domestic Tourist Identification Using Big Data

• This study presents a novel approach that enhances the identification of domestic tourists by utilising data mining and machine learning to analyse geolocation and temporal trends.

 

Urban Mobility and Walkability

Investigating how urban design and transportation systems influence pedestrian movement and accessibility, aiming to create more walkable and connected cities.

Featured projects: 

Comparative Study of Walkability in High-Density Hong Kong and Low-Density Auckland

• This project examines the accessibility and walkability of two contrasting urban environments, providing insights into urban planning and design strategies.

Why, and Why Not Walk More? A Quasi-Experiment Using Human Mobility Data

• This study investigates whether changes in neighbourhood built environments are associated with objectively measured walking among residential movers.
   

Retail Geography and Consumer Behaviour 

Studying the spatial distribution of retail spaces and consumer interactions to optimise urban commercial environments.

Featured projects: 

Retail Rings of Influence: Rethinking Retail Catchment Analysis

• A study that re-evaluates traditional retail catchment models by incorporating purchasing power and consumer behaviour analytics.

Retail Positioning Theory: Accessibility as the Structural Moderator of Tenant Mix Effect on Footfall

• This study develops a strategic retail positioning theory for shopping malls that integrates tenant mix and spatial accessibility. The core argument is that the effect of tenant diversity on footfall is conditional: only malls with good accessibility can sustain a diverse-tenant positioning, while poorly accessible malls perform better with specialised mixes.
  

Our research findings are disseminated through peer-reviewed journals, industry reports, and conferences. We actively engage with stakeholders to translate our research into practical applications that address real-world urban challenges.

University of Auckland Asia-Pacific Housing Forum 2025 

A forum dedicated to housing policy was hosted by the University of Auckland Business School on 31 October 2025, in recognition of the United Nations World Cities Day. With upzoning a live public and policy issue in Auckland and beyond, the forum generated strong evidence and commentary that contributed to the national conversation, particularly on the behavioural, political and unintended consequences of zoning reform.