It's a re-imagined Kiwi dream. Instead of building out - the Greens want to build up.
"We want to bring a more three-dimensional approach to that - why don't we do high density well in the places where people live already," Green Party co-leader James Shaw told Newshub Nation today.
The Greens are pitching it as 'development bonuses'.
Announced on Newshub Nation on Saturday - it would allow developers to build one-third higher than the present medium-density rules allow.
But there's a hitch - they have to meet certain greener criteria.
"You can get an additional storey on your building - for example - if you build that to a Homestar 7 rating quality - which is really good," Shaw said.
The Homestar standard is an independent rating system issued by the NZ Green Building Council.
You can be given one of five scores; the lowest being 6 and the highest being 10. The higher up you move on that scale - the warmer, the more efficient, and the greener your home is.
"It's not necessarily a bad idea," Universal Homes CEO Andrew Crosby told Newshub.
"As a developer - yeah sure - we'll do some universal design and some Homestar 7 and build a bit higher. But of course - the neighbours might not be happy about that."
National recently signalled a backdown on the three-storey cross-party agreement. Now developers say political uncertainty has made it extremely difficult to plan anything.
"Frankly, it's the biggest mess New Zealand's development planning situation has been in since I've been in the business for the last 30 years," said Crosby.
Auckland University's Tim Welch said whatever happens after the election - higher density has to be a Government priority.
"By building constantly outwards - what you're doing is adding a lot of cost to the infrastructure - and we already have a massive infrastructure bill as it is just to maintain what we already have - adding more pipes, more roads," he said.
Before the Greens build up - they'll have to build political consensus.
