Changes to the Building Act

The construction sector is being freed up to allow more homes to be built more quickly as the Government cuts through some of the red tape of the Building Act.

“Every New Zealander deserves a warm, dry, safe home and old inefficiencies in the Building Act make building slow and expensive – as builders well know,” Building and Construction Minister Jenny Salesa said.

“We are making progress in tackling the long-term challenge of housing including making high-quality, large-scale manufacturing of prefab houses a reality."

For manufacturers who prove their systems and processes are compliant, there will be a new streamlined nationwide consenting process for prefab buildings that will:

• enable the mass factory production of high quality buildings
• slash the likely number of building inspections for factory produced buildings in half
• ensure only the location where a prefab house is installed requires a building consent, removing the possible need for two separate consents

Further details about the first phase of changes to the Building Act are here