Laurence Murphy is Professor of Human Geography in the School of Environment and was formerly Professor of Property in the University of Auckland Business School

He has published widely on housing and urban topics including; homeownership, social rental housing, mortgage securitisation, office development, finance capital, entrepreneurial urban governance and gentrification.

In 2014 he was the Helen Cam Visiting Fellow at Girton College, University of Cambridge (UK) and in 2023 he held Visiting Professorships at the Geary Institute for Public Policy, University College Dublin, and the Department of Geography, Trinity College Dublin. From 2016-19, as part of National Science Challenge 11: Building Better Home Towns and Cities, he was a Principal Investigator (with Dr Saville-Smith and Prof Iain White -Waikato) on a Strategic Research Area that examined better urban decision making. He was appointed a 'country expert' in a London School of Economics study that examined 'Financialization in 13 Cities' (2021-23). He has given a number of invited international keynote presentations including at: the Housing Theory Symposium, Wollongong (2018), the Australasian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) Conference, Adelaide (2016) and the Australasian Housing Researchers Conference, Hobart (2015). In 2015 he gave the Third Annual Henry Halloran Lecture at the Festival of Urbanism at the University of Sydney. He was a PI on a Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund project entitled "(Extra)Ordinary Auckland: Exploring local meanings and understandings of globalisation" (with Kearns and Friesen) and has been a PI and AI on research projects funded by MBIE. He has undertaken research on 'urban intensification' and 'housing affordability and the feasibility of adopting inclusionary housing policies' for Auckland Council.


Dr Murphy completed his PhD in Urban Economic Geography at the University of Dublin (Trinity College) and has held lecturing posts at Trinity College Dublin, Queen's University Belfast and the London School of Economics.

Media Keywords:
Built environments, Gentrification, Housing Finance, Housing Policy, Urban change, Housing markets