Auckland Council is spending more than $100,000 with the New Zealand Herald to put the case for increased housing density.
Unitary Plan is due to be in place by September with a critical component being housing density. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
Higher housing density is expected to be part of the city's Unitary Plan which has been before an independent hearings panel.
The plan goes to the council over the next few weeks and a decision is expected next month.
Auckland Council is spending $112,000 on four half-pages of paid content in the Herald.
A further $250,000 is being spent on print and radio advertising before next month's council decision.
Councillors were told of the strategy in a memo last week, but not of the cost.
The Unitary Plan is due to be in place by September with a critical component being the intensity and location of higher density housing in the rapidly-growing city.
Government-backed submissions to the panel from Housing New Zealand and the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment called for higher density than the council's own submission.
In May, the government put Auckland Council "on notice" that it would step in if the council did not ease restrictions and open up more urban land for development.