Seismic shift: Government to rewrite quake rules after years of empty buildings

Monday, 29 September 2025

Many millions have been spent upgrading Wellington buildings so far, including those around Te Ngākau Civic Square - the Town Hall, central library and City Gallery.

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EXCLUSIVE | After a year-long review and years more of buildings lying empty, the Government will today announce an overhaul of the nation’s earthquake prone building system, in a bid to slash billions from remediation costs by changing earthquake standards.

Sources spoken to by The Post said that the overhaul was expected to slash more than $8 billion off remediation costs nationally. It will primarily be delivered through changes to the rules against the New Building Standard which governs how close to the current code a building has to be to be considered earthquake prone.

It is understood this will be part of a raft of “holistic” changes to the regime.

The Post understands that for Wellington the savings for building owners are expected to come to about $1 billion.

The New Building Standard is the regime against which buildings are assessed for earthquake risk. The percentage rating revolves around the risk to life compared to a newly built building, in the event of an average earthquake.

Currently any building with a rating of 34% or below can be considered 'earthquake prone’, while any building rated less than 67% is considered an earthquake risk.

When contacted by The Post, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk said that “while well intentioned, the current system for assessing and managing seismic risk in buildings places an overwhelming financial burden on building owners”.

Penk declined to comment further on the changes with a spokesperson saying he had “nothing to add at this time”.

It is unknown exactly how the NBS will be changed to achieve the end, but the Government has been of the view that current regulations make it too expensive, or in many case uneconomical, to rebuild or replace earthquake-prone buildings.

There are buildings up and down the country - but especially in Wellington which has a high number of earthquake-prone buildings - that have been in limbo for years as owners work out what to do to bring them up to code.

The changes, which are expected to be announced in Wellington by Penk and Prime MInister Christopher Luxon on Monday afternoon, come after a review of the way seismic risk in buildings is assessed and managed.

“Buildings sitting empty and abandoned for months, or, in many cases, years is bad for everyone. Empty, derelict buildings can be dangerous, but they are also a handbrake on growth and development and can suck the life out of a town or city,” Penk said when the review was announced.

Years of construction and millions of dollars have gone into upgrading Wellington’s Town Hall.

The current regime came into force in the wake of the Christchurch and Kaikōura earthquakes. It has always been politically fraught as the trade-offs are measured in costs versus life.

In May of last year the Government released the terms of reference for the review into the policy settings to “ensure seismic risk in existing buildings is being managed effectively and in a workable, proportionate way”.

“The earthquake-prone building system attempts to manage risk by requiring earthquake-prone buildings to be remediated before set timeframes. However, the system is not working as well as it could, and the reality is many buildings are not getting remediated,” Penk said.

“Many building owners are unable to meet deadlines due to high remediation costs and an excessive layering of regulations.

“The current system lacks clarity, and some owners are stuck in impossible situations, where they can’t move forward with the remediation but equally struggle to sell and move on with their lives.”

The report came back to the minister earlier this year with the outcome to be revealed on Monday.