A major housing development in Auckland that will deliver at least 4000 new homes has local schools sounding the alarm, with one of the country’s largest colleges warning it is already struggling to cope with existing roll growth and cannot afford to wait for solutions.
The large-scale project, known as Te Kukūnga Waka or the Carrington residential development, is set to transform 39.7 hectares of land next to the Unitec campus in Mt Albert. But for schools in the surrounding area, the prospect of thousands of new families moving in is a source of significant concern.
Avondale College principal Lyndy Watkinson, who leads a school of approximately 2800 students, says managing enrolments is already “increasingly challenging” due to widespread intensification in the area. She warns that without immediate action, the school’s infrastructure will be pushed to its limits. “I don’t think we’ve got time to wait,” Watkinson says.
A wave of new development
The Carrington development is a significant undertaking aimed at addressing Auckland’s housing shortfall. The project is being led by a Tāmaki Makaurau rōpū partnership of Marutūāhu, Ngāti Whātua and Waiohua-Tāmaki, and facilitated by the Crown through the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (MHUD). The plan includes a mix of medium- to high-density buildings, incorporating market-rate homes, affordable housing, build-to-rent units, and social housing.
Major infrastructure work such as roading and wastewater systems has been completed, with construction on the first homes anticipated to begin at the end of this year. The development is situated on the historic grounds of the former Carrington Hospital, a site with a long history that began as the Auckland Lunatic Asylum in 1865 and holds pre-colonial significance for Māori as a landscape rich in natural resources. However, the project is just one piece of a much larger picture of growth. Intensification is occurring across the Avondale and Mt Albert areas, with many single-family homes on large sections being replaced by multi-unit townhouse developments. This ongoing densification, combined with uncertainty over other large potential projects like the Avondale Racecourse, is compounding the pressure on local services, as seen in Sweetwater’s approval of a major development.
‘We just don’t have certainty’
Avondale College is already feeling the strain. Watkinson says the school has been forced to stop accepting most out-of-zone enrolments, making exceptions only for students with a direct family link to the college. She is concerned that the Ministry of Education’s projections for future roll numbers do not align with the reality the school is seeing on the ground.
We are aware of these big developments around Carrington, of all of the apartments that have been built around Avondale town centre and whatever the plans might be for the racecourse. But we’re also seeing significant impact on in-migration where homes on a section are being removed and replaced with six or eight or 10 or 20 townhouses.
Watkinson also criticises the Ministry’s funding model, arguing that it does not adequately serve very large schools. “If we’re a school of 2800, if we have a 1% change, that’s a whole extra class of kids that arrive,” she explains. This nuance, she feels, is lost in percentage-based calculations, leaving the school without the resources needed to manage growth. "We want to continue serving the community … we just don’t have certainty of what that is going to look like."
Planning needs to start immediately
Local political leaders are echoing these concerns. Kelston MP Carmel Sepuloni expressed her support for the new housing while acknowledging the growing pressure on local schools. “They are concerned moving forward that at some point they won’t have the capacity for the population growth and these subsequent influxes of students,” she says.
Sepuloni stresses that the Carrington project is not happening in isolation. “Of course [Carrington] is a big one, if not the biggest, but there are other housing developments that are occurring simultaneously. We see houses in different areas going up all of the time.” She says planning for the cumulative impact needs to begin immediately.
The sentiment is shared by some residents in the wider area, who are experiencing development fatigue. In nearby Mt Albert, residents recently blocked a street to protest construction disruption, with one local, Lara Bowen, stating that after three years of trying to engage with stakeholders, "enough is enough".
Ministry says plans are in place
The Ministry of Education maintains that it is actively planning for the growth in the area. Jason Swann, MoE Director for Auckland Central and East, says that planning for the development’s impact has been underway for “a number of years.”
Swann confirmed the ministry has signalled a new primary school may be needed and is currently exploring options. Additionally, master-planning is underway at Avondale Intermediate and Waterview Primary School, although he noted that the Waterview site is small and unlikely to support expansion.
For Avondale College, the ministry’s current strategy is to manage demand through its enrolment scheme, which restricts out-of-zone students. The Ministry of Education says it will use enrolment scheme amendments to zone the new development for other schools if necessary.
A city under pressure
The pressure on schools in Mt Albert is a direct consequence of a nationwide push for greater housing density. Last year, the Government passed legislation requiring councils to permit more housing, building on plans like the Auckland Unitary Plan which had already paved the way for significant growth. This rapid urban transformation, visible as the Auckland skyline transforms amid major CBD developments, is placing immense strain on public infrastructure, a challenge also seen in other major cities like Melbourne, where commuters fear chaos from changes to public services.
Just last year, nearby Mount Albert Grammar School proposed a radical restructure in response to its own booming roll. Headmaster Patrick Drumm said his school, which hit 3750 students and is heading towards 4000, was investigating splitting into separate junior and senior schools to cope. At the time, Drumm expressed a growing feeling among principals that they would ultimately have to solve the growth problem themselves.
The situation highlights a fundamental tension between the urgent need for new housing in Auckland and the capacity of existing infrastructure to support a growing population. While new homes are desperately needed, the Carrington development underscores the critical importance of concurrent investment in schools, healthcare, and transport.
“We will continue to monitor the scale and timing of housing delivery to ensure education infrastructure is provided at the right time,” Swann says. For schools already at capacity, the question is whether that time will be soon enough.
