Free building standards now available

Over 120 building standards used for Building Code compliance have been funded for free download(external link) thanks to a successful collaboration between MBIE (Ministry of Business Employment and Innovation) and Standards New Zealand. This is great news for LBPs, as it will reduce the cost of accessing standards and help significantly with building code compliance. 

Popular standards that are now fully funded include:

• NZS 3604:2011 Timber-framed buildings(external link)
• NZS 4229:2013 Concrete masonry buildings not requiring specific engineering design(external link)
• NZS 3902:2004 Housing, alterations and small buildings contract(external link)

As a regulator of the building system, MBIE wants to reduce barriers that prevent people from ‘doing the right thing’ within the New Zealand building system. As part of this work, MBIE is pre-funding over 120 standards used for Building Code compliance, which are now free to download from the Standards New Zealand website(external link). New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world to sponsor free access to building standards, which has been made possible through the use of the building levy.

This latest funding initiative is a follow-up to a highly successful pilot between MBIE and Standards New Zealand in December 2017, when MBIE sponsored a handful of important building standards for free download. These standards have since been downloaded over 15,000 times.