Another three sections, somewhat larger, also provide the space we associated with the Kiwi dream. But that is it - 10 properties in all of Parnell, Grafton, Eden Terrace, Newton, Ponsonby and Herne Bay.
Everyone else lives in houses large or small, original or "infill", that occupy so much of their section there is little room for the lawns and gardens of old.
Not many occupants miss them. Today's home entertainments keep people indoors and if they go outside it is on to a deck. Two cars or more require garages and concrete parking space.
So where do children play? That is the question for the council once intensification is accepted. In its efforts to write its Unitary Plan, the rule book for more dense development, it might not have given enough thought to the open space that high-density living requires.
Instead, it has been eyeing some of that space, notably suburban golf courses, for other uses, even housing.
It needs to be encouraging multi-unit developments to provide some shared lawn, garden and play areas as part of their design.
And mindful that children find today's indoor entertainments more appealing than to play outside, apartments and units need to provide more rooms inside than is common in Auckland today.
The city can stop sprawling if people find well-designed, higher-density housing than can give them the sense of space, privacy and pride that those few remaining owners of quarter-acre sections in Parnell told us they value.
Higher-density living has its benefits in proximity to shops, cafes, cinemas and public transport, though outer Aucklanders have been slow to realise it.
They like their space, but Auckland's old inner city, its original settlement, points to the future.
