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The legislation will eliminate roughly half the buildings now listed as earthquake-prone while introducing more targeted remediation for those that remain, Building and Construction Minister Simon Watts said in a statement released the day after parliament’s unanimous vote on Friday. High-risk unreinforced masonry buildings along with vulnerable multi-story concrete structures in medium and high seismic zones will stay subject to the requirements under the updated framework. Councils will keep authority to flag any serious seismic risks that the new system might overlook, according to the minister’s announcement. The changes stem from an independent review by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment that identified inconsistencies in the prior approach based on New Building Standard ratings.
Updated seismic zones grounded in the latest scientific data will take effect immediately after the legislation receives formal royal assent, Watts reported. This adjustment will remove buildings in Auckland, the Chatham Islands and the upper North Island low seismic zone from the earthquake-prone regime entirely. The remainder of the reforms, including revised remediation standards, are scheduled to commence on July 1, 2027, providing time for councils, owners and the construction sector to adapt. A government assessment tied to the review projected that the refocused system will capture only those buildings presenting genuine threats to human life.
The new rules shift away from broad percentage-based assessments that often classified entire structures as earthquake-prone due to minor weaknesses, according to details outlined in the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment policy announcement. Concrete buildings three storeys or higher with specific vulnerabilities and unreinforced masonry constructions will face tiered mitigation steps ranging from facade securing to targeted retrofits in limited cases. In smaller rural towns with populations under 10,000, unreinforced masonry buildings under three storeys will avoid full remediation but must secure facades before removal from the register, reflecting lower pedestrian exposure in those areas.
Official projections indicate the reforms will reduce the number of designated earthquake-prone properties from approximately 5,800 to about 2,900, with just 80 requiring comprehensive strengthening while 1,440 need cost-effective work and 840 mainly facade adjustments. The savings of 8.2 billion New Zealand dollars, equivalent to 4.7 billion U.S. dollars, will ease financial burdens on building owners and the wider economy, Watts stated. These figures align with an earlier independent review that recommended narrowing the system’s scope to prioritize life-safety outcomes over blanket compliance.
The legislation builds on lessons from past seismic events in New Zealand, where unreinforced masonry and certain concrete buildings have shown heightened collapse risks in medium to high seismic areas. Updated hazard mapping has also upgraded coastal Otago to a medium seismic zone, ensuring it remains within the regime. Implementation will allow for continued monitoring and potential adjustments as councils apply the revised criteria across affected regions.
