Government to halt building code changes for three years

Sunday, 27 July 2025

The Government is today moving to freeze the building code so that changes to the nation’s building rules only happen on a three year cycle, in advance of a long-awaited loosening of rules around importing building products.

The Building Code - the set of rules and regulations that governs building in New Zealand - is being constantly updated on an ad-hoc basis as best practice and regulations change.

In order to make life easier for builders and developers, (as well as any keen and competent DIYers), and to make the policy process cleaner and more predictable, the Government is planning to limit changes to the code to one every three years.

While small changes such as energy efficiency and fire safety updates will continue, any large changes will now be put on a three year cycle, with the next review being held in 2028.

This will also align the regulatory cycle with Australia.

Minister of Building and Construction Chris Penk said this will make it easier for builders to know what current regulations are and make them easier to comply with.

“The big picture is that businesses in building and construction and individual tradies have felt like the goal posts are constantly shifting in terms of them complying with the detail within the building code,” Penk told the Sunday Star-Times in an interview.

“Up until now, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has typically conducted ongoing, rolling reviews of different parts of the Building Code.

“To have a three year cycle of review allows certainty, because people know when they can tune into any possible changes and contribute to the discussion around that. And alignment with Australia, and also, for that matter, the New Zealand parliamentary cycle will provide a bit more certainty and stability in difficult times,” he said.

Penk said, however, that the “major disclaimer” was that the Government would reserve the right to make safety changes needed, such as in the wake of the 2023 Loafers Lodge fire which killed five and injured many more.

The changes are being hailed both by Master Builders and the Property Council of New Zealand as a victory for certainty.

Master Builders in particular said that the certainty and fixed date timeline to get changes approved would help both regulators and the industry in the interpretation of the rules by the 67 building consent authorities around the country, which are mostly local councils.

Ankit Sharma, chief executive of Master Builders, said that one of the problems with the current system was that in getting regulations out of the door as and when they became available, they have been too rushed.

“Then on top of it, if we start changing the building code and start introducing changes to it, sometimes, if those changes are not implemented properly, it doesn't give industry enough lead time to plan for it, and it creates more frustrations and challenges.”

Sharma said that having a fixed three year cycle will mean that consultation around and application of new rules will be less rushed and more successfully done.

He used two examples. The introduction of new R1 insulation standards in recent years, as well as the introduction of new E1 water standards which made putting a dishwasher or washing machine on either carpet or timber fall foul of regulations.

Sharma said that some of those changes (affecting work around water tightness and wooden floors, affecting people with timber kitchen and laundry floors, as well as carpeted garages that might contain washing machines) had been rushed and that the consequences not fully thought through.

Property Council of New Zealand chief executive Leonie Freeman said that for larger developments and building projects in particular, the risk of changes coming in during design and construction added cost and uncertainty.

“We think that at the moment, there's a lot of uncertainty and if they're doing changes, and you've got a developer who's mid project, it can cause a lot of problems and delays and obviously extra cost.

“The whole issue around housing and building and construction is really complex, and there's lots of challenges and lots of issues, but I think this is just …one small thing that will help provide certainty and predictability for builders and developers.”

She also said that aligning the new date cycle with Australia would allow the new system to work with changes going on across the Tasman.

Penk said that he hoped the changes would also lead to more consistent application around the country, because the whole industry from builders to consenters could gear up for the changes.

“I think what goes with that is that when MBIE is announcing that there are changes, it could possibly be a bit more proactive than it has been historically about saying, here's what it means, here's some guidance as to interpretation, so you don't get 67 different councils all coming up with your own way of looking at it.”

This is the latest of a raft of reforms Penk has made in the building and construction sector since becoming minister.

And he said that part of the priority - along with just trying to ungum the system a bit, is to make everything a bit easier and more transparent by the time building turns up again - which the Government hopes will be the back half of this year and into next year.

“Frankly, everyone will be much busier second half of this year, and certainly into next year and beyond.

“If we can nail some of the key elements of the system and then gear it up for maximum efficiency, so that when we get to the high levels of building consent issuing, for example, the system will be able to handle that, and the timeframes won't blow out in the way that we've seen in the past when we get to the boom part of the boom bust cycle,” Penk said.

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