Earthquake-prone building standards shake-up to net $8.2b savings

Auckland, Northland and Chatham Islands deemed low seismic risk (Image: Getty)

Mon, 29 Sep 2025

The coalition Government is refocusing earthquake-prone building standards with a series of tweaks it says will produce more than $8.2 billion in remediation and demolition savings.Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk said the changes – via the Building (Earthquake-prone Building System Reform) Amendment Bill – would introduce a fairer, risk-based system.At heart of the changes was removal of the New Building Standards (NBS) ratings that have been used by engineers to decide whether a property was earthquake prone.“Th...

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