Even at the bottom end of the scale finding a house and land package for under $650k is like finding a needle in a haystack, even in the furthest outskirts in Auckland. This of course also comes with the additional cost of travel and time if your job was in the city centre.
When we draw parallels with other large cities worldwide we find for example that half of Londons residents reside in apartments. This is mirrored in most of the developed cities of the world.
Apartments allow people to get into optimized, affordable housing conveniently located to suit their lives. These days many people are including apartments in their search for a new home or investment.
Interestingly, the banks are holding them back.