Examining housing affordability in New Zealand can be an engrossing activity involving quantitative research, modelling and fact-based analysis. As such, it is easy to forget how emotionally appealing the cult of the compact city can be.

The idea, grown out of planning departments, is that if we lived closer together (ideally in high-rise apartments) we could solve all the ills of the modern city. In this urban utopia we would live lives that generate better environmental, congestion and health outcomes, free of suburban stresses.

The narrative is so seductive that even the media, who are obliged to maintain a balanced position, appear to be falling for it. It is just a pity that the proponents of compact cities have failed to look at research into the urban form from fields as diverse as psychology, medicine, ecology, engineering and economics, to name but a few.

Biological studies, for example, have shown that suburban habitats host a greater variety of native flora and fauna than the monoculture of farm land which typically surrounds urban developments. Indeed, in compact cities, the heavy focus on brown-field development often sees garden space and playgrounds disappear, creating greyer and drabber living environments.

The annual INRIX Traffic Scorecard has consistently shown that the most congested cities in the US are those that have pursued a compact city development, such as Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Honolulu.

Congestion is a major contributor to pollution, and quantitative studies have shown that inner city residents are exposed to more nitric oxide and small particle matter than their suburban counterparts. And in a particularly bitter twist, people who cycle and walk in dense urban environments face even greater exposure.

Studies have also shown that cities inflict a stress toll on their inhabitants, such that there is a greater incidence of mental illness. And those with mental illnesses living in cities are more likely to be hospitalised, and for longer, than their rural counterparts.

Finally, urban containment measures are a direct cause of house price inflation, a fact that can be plainly seen in Auckland with the Metropolitan Urban Limit, as well as in other urban centres around the world. Hong Kong, for example, is simultaneously one of the densest and most expensive (when it comes to property) cities in the world.

Seductive as the cult of the compact city may be, it blatantly ignores the actual economic, social, and environmental trade-offs that come with urban densification. If planners and proponents of compact cities continue to promote their myopic view of the world, our duty is to expose them for what they are: charlatans.