Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk is investigating options for a major reform of the building consent system to improve efficiency and consistency.

He says the status quo is not serving Kiwis well and that’s why the coalition government is discussing options to replace the existing Building Consent Authority (BCA) system.

Under the proposed reforms the aim is to establish a more consistent and streamlined model, with options including:

1. Voluntary consolidation – allowing councils to group together to deliver building control functions. There are already several councils pooling resources, but barriers exist to full integration. This approach focuses on removing these barriers.
2. Regional BCAs – establishing a smaller number of relatively large regional BCAs to replace district and city council BCAs. This approach focuses on improving consistency and forming entities with the critical mass to drive economies of scale.
3. Single point of contact – setting up a single point of contact for builders to submit plans to. Building inspection may be contracted out to existing BCAs or private consenting providers, creating competition and encouraging specialisation.

Penk said although NZ has a single building code that is supposed to apply consistently to all work, there are many examples of builders submitting the same plans to different BCAs and finding extra costs and delays from differing interpretations of the code.

“This was especially challenging for large-scale home builders and off-site manufacturers, along with modular and prefab builders, who work across regional boundaries. For example, in a recent survey of Master Builders’ Association members 80 per cent reported having to deal with multiple BCAs, and 66 per cent experienced delays.”

Property Council NZ chief executive Leonie Freeman says the reforms can’t come fast enough.

Council members are experiencing building consent wait times stretching beyond two months, while resource consents are facing delays of six to 18 months, depending on the scale of the project.

“This creates a level of uncertainty that drives up costs, slows progress, and ultimately puts home affordability further out of reach,” said Freeman.

Productivity push

A recent Property Council survey revealed building system reform, particularly consenting, was the number one advocacy priority for its members.

Penk believes the coalition government needs to incentivise solutions that improve productivity and enable building at scale.

“New Zealand has some of the least affordable housing in the world, which has dire social and economic implications. At the heart of the issue is unreasonably high building costs and a cumbersome consenting system which saps productivity and disincentivises growth and development.”

He wants feedback and suggestions. The government will also be looking at liability settings across the whole building system.

The building consent system is intended to protect homeowners from defective work by requiring inspections and consents by a BCA. There are 67 BCAs across the country, each with different practices and approaches.

Under existing settings, councils and their ratepayers are liable for defective work. Joint and several liability means councils can be “the last person standing” to foot the bill when things go wrong. “This creates a highly conservative and risk averse approach, which contributes cost and draws out deadlines.”

Reforms are already underway to improve the existing building consent process, such as making it easier to build granny flats, increasing the uptake of remote inspections and removing barriers for overseas building products.

Freeman believes the reforms could mark the beginning of a new era for the construction industry, with long-overdue reform aimed at cutting through red tape and delivering faster, more efficient development.

“At the heart of this is the goal we all share: building more homes, more quickly, and at a lower cost.”

The ripple effects of a more efficient system would be felt across every community in the country, she said.