Changes which are proposed for the 2025 update of Australia’s building code have been unveiled.

The Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) has released the public comment draft for the 2025 update of the National Construction Code (NCC 2025).

All up, changes to the code are proposed across 17 areas.

As previously foreshadowed on Sourceable, significant areas of proposed change include:

  • Upgrades to energy efficiency provisions for commercial and public buildings to make these ready for an all-electric, net-zero operational environment. These include updates to deemed-to-satisfy (DTS) provisions, new infrastructure requirements to further support EV charging, requirements for installation of photovoltaics (PV) and measures to ensure that buildings are equipped to enable electric replacement in the future in cases where gas-powered equipment or appliances need to be used.
  • Changes to waterproofing requirements that will reduce the incidences of leakage that occurs as a result of water flowing from the outside into buildings. This includes a fall in substrate for surfaces such as flat roofs, balconies and podiums which consist of concrete or cement sheeting to ensure that water drains away from inside areas.
  • A range of modest amendments to condensation prevention provisions to help ensure that improved airtightness and thermal bridging performance in new homes does not lead to creation of condensation.
  • Changes to provide better toilet facilities for women, including an increase in the number of female toilets in single auditorium theatres and new requirements to include facilities for the dispensing sanitary products in female toilet facilities across all commercial buildings.
  • Improvements to fire safety in structured carparks. This includes requirements for sprinkler protection in all structured carparks with a capacity of 40 vehicles or greater including open deck carparks, requirements for sprinkler protection for car stackers which are loaded within carparks, and removal of a range of concessions relating to fire resistance levels.
  • Changes to improve the robustness of performance solutions which relate to either structural or fire safety performance (see here and here). This includes the removal of the ability to use expert judgment as an assessment method though which conformance with performance requirements can be demonstrated.

The changes are part of the regular three-year updating cycle of the National Construction Code.

The NCC is a three-volume set of documents which sets out Australia’s primary design and construction provisions and requirements for buildings.

The Code sets out minimum requirements for levels of safety, health, amenity, accessibility and sustainability that new buildings are expected to deliver.

Along with the proposed changes, the ABCB has released modelling which was undertaken by the Centre for International Economics.

This provides an estimate of the costs and benefits associated with the most significant areas of change.

The modelling indicates that benefits associated with some of the changes will be significant.

In relation to commercial energy efficiency, for example, the changes are expected to deliver gross benefits of more than $17 billion and net benefits of almost $11 billion ($10.960 billion).

Meanwhile, changes relating to waterproofing and condensation are expected to deliver net benefits of $3.7 billion and $400 million respectively.

The public comment draft will be open for feedback until 1 July 2024. Explanations of the changes can be found here.

Feedback can be provided through the ABCB’s Consultation Hub.

 

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