A major new housing development in the Auckland suburb of Mt Albert could put pressure on the local primary school.

The Government has purchased 29 hectares of Unitec land and plans to build up to 4,000 homes.

Waterview Primary School board chairwoman Margi Watson says the Ministry of Education initially anticipated only 2,500d dwellings would be built on the site.

"Now that the sight is going to potentially accommodate up to 4,000 dwellings, I guess there will be a bit of work that the school would like to do with the Ministry of Education."

Watson says the Ministry may need to build even more school buildings than initially planned.