Expansion of lifestyle blocks and urban areas onto high-class land: an update for planning and policy

New Zealand's economy remains highly dependent on agricultural production. There are 175,000 lifestyle blocks in New Zealand covering 873,000 ha, and these, along with urbanisation, potentially constrain future land productivity. Using GIS analysis to bring together data on land cover, land use, and lifestyle blocks, we find lifestyle blocks occupy 10% of New Zealand's high-class land, while urbanisation since 1990 occupies 0.5%. An average of 5800 new lifestyle blocks have been added every year since 1998. With one-sixth of all lifestyle blocks occupying high-class land, and an additional area affected by proximity factors such as 'reverse sensitivity' and the 'impermanence syndrome', both national monitoring of land fragmentation and policy interventions are urgently required.