Earthquake Prone Buildings Shake-up – What now?

Parliament has passed the Building (Earthquake-prone Buildings) Amendment Act into law, delivering the most significant overhaul of New Zealand's seismic building rules in almost a decade. The reform changes the way in which buildings are assessed and categorised as being “earthquake-prone”. The update now requires territorial authorities to assess buildings based on a simpler, risk-based system that targets the buildings most likely to pose a genuine life-safety risk to members of the public, rather than applying blanket strengthening requirements across the board with the familiar NBS rating system.

Under the new approach, only higher-risk building types, such as unreinforced masonry buildings and vulnerable multi-storey concrete buildings, in medium and high seismic zones will continue to be classified as earthquake-prone. These buildings that remain classified as earthquake-prone will no longer be subject to a one-size fits all obligation to obtain a certain NBS rating, but will instead be subject to more proportionate, tiered mitigation requirements focusing on the identified risks. It is expected that around 2,900 buildings nationwide will come off the earthquake-prone buildings register, with Auckland, Northland and the Chatham Islands removed from the system entirely due to their deemed low seismic risk. This removes seismic strengthening obligations from around half the building owners that were subject to the previous requirements. There is also no scope for any building to be added to the earthquake prone register.

While the Act has now passed into law, most of its substantive provisions won't take effect until 1 July 2027, giving councils, engineers and building owners time to prepare. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has a six-month window from 1 July 2027 to finalise and publish the detailed methodology that territorial authorities and engineers will use to identify and assess earthquake-prone buildings under the new system. Guidance materials are expected to go out for public consultation before the methodology is locked in, so affected building owners should watch for updates from MBIE over the coming months.

While the changes only directly affect buildings officially classified as earthquake prone, these changes are already reigniting conversations in the market around what tenants and occupiers require in their premises from a seismic perspective. We expect that these conversations will continue to evolve as the legislation is put into practice, and the MBIE methodology is developed. It may be that a stronger focus is placed on ensuring buildings do not pose a danger to the health and safety of its occupants from both a legal and corporate responsibility perspective, rather than the technical requirements themselves.

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