Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk has outlined the changes the Government made to New Zealand’s building regulatory system during 2025, and signalled further reform ahead. The package of changes reflects an ongoing effort to reduce compliance costs, improve consistency across the country’s 66 Building Consent Authorities, and clear some of the bottlenecks that have made building in New Zealand more expensive and time-consuming than it needs to be.
Granny Flats: Faster and Cheaper
One of the most visible changes was the reform of the consent process for granny flats and minor dwellings up to 70 square metres. The changes are projected to save applicants up to $5,650 per project, reduce the timeline by 14 weeks, and result in around 13,000 additional units being built over the next decade as the process becomes more accessible. For the many New Zealand homeowners who have sections large enough for an additional dwelling but have been deterred by the cost and complexity of the consent process, this is a practical improvement.
Inspection Performance
Performance metrics for the Building Consent Authority system show meaningful improvement. In the third quarter of 2025, 97.3% of inspections were completed within three working days, and 95.7% of building consent applications were processed within 20 working days. These figures represent a significant improvement on historical performance and reflect both process improvement within councils and the effect of national performance targets that MBIE has been tracking more actively.
Over 67,000 inspections were completed in the quarter, giving some sense of the operational scale of the system. The consistency of inspection availability directly affects construction programme management, particularly for residential builders running multiple sites simultaneously.
Overseas Product Recognition
The Government has also made progress on recognising overseas-certified building products, reducing the need for individual compliance assessments on products that already carry credible overseas certification. The first tranche covered more than 90,000 products. Further recognitions are expected covering plasterboard, cladding, windows, and doors. For builders who have experience with international products, this change reduces both cost and delay in sourcing alternatives to locally specified materials.
What Comes Next
Building Act changes are expected to be introduced to Parliament in 2026, including a movement toward proportionate liability frameworks. Eight new Industry Skills Boards have also been established, reflecting a structural change in how the sector’s training and workforce development needs will be identified and addressed going forward.
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