The New Zealand government has announced changes in its approach to managing earthquake-prone buildings in reforms which are forecast to save building owners around $8.2 billion.
The proposed Building (Earthquake-prone Building System or EPB Reform) Amendment Bill is expected to be introduced to Parliament in the coming months, introducing legislative changes that will target only those structures and regions that present the highest seismic risk.
In the capital of Wellington, the savings for building owners are expected to be around $1 billion.
“The new system would only affect buildings that pose a genuine risk to human life in medium and high seismic zones,” said Building and Construction Minister, Chris Penk.
The reforms are intended to streamline the current system, which has been criticised for imposing high costs and administrative burdens on property owners, particularly in areas with low seismic activity.
New Zealand’s current statutory benchmark for seismic performance is the New Building Standard (NBS), and legal definitions of an earthquake prone building are based on a fixed percentage of this benchmark.
This NBS metric would be removed under the new Bill.
The legislation would introduce a system of risk-based tiering, under which buildings would be assessed using updated engineering methodologies, and would account for location, building type and critical vulnerabilities.
More than 2,900 buildings currently listed on the EPB register are expected to be removed under the revised framework. Buildings in Auckland, Northland and the Chatham Islands will be entirely excluded from the new regime.
Central Otago, including Dunedin, will shift from ‘low’ to ‘medium risk.’
The government expected the changes will remove about 2,900 buildings from the register, make remediation cheaper for a further 1,440 buildings, 880 would not need any remedial work, and only about 80 buildings would still require a full retrofit due to the risks posed.
According to a commentary from law firm DLA Piper, the proposed reforms to the Earthquake-Prone Building (EPB) system reflect a strategic shift toward a more proportionate, risk-based, and cost-effective regulatory framework.
By focusing on buildings that pose the greatest risk to life and community safety, the Government aims to reduce unnecessary compliance burdens on low-risk properties and regions.
The changes come after a year long review and several years of buildings lying empty because owners cannot afford to upgrade them to current standards.
