The Building (Overseas Building Products, Standards and Certification Schemes) Amendment Act 2025 (the New Act) introduces major changes aimed at improving competition and reducing barriers to using high-quality overseas building products in New Zealand. Following issuance of the Building Product Specification (BPS) (released on 28 July 2025), MBIE has now turned its focus towards two additional compliance pathways introduced under the New Act.
The first is “Recognised Products Certified Overseas”, which requires the recognition of products by the Chief Executive of MBIE through the application of the criteria set out in the Building (Product Certification) Amendment Regulations 2025 (published on 4 August 2025). Once products have been recognised, they will be “deemed to comply” with the Building Code. MBIE has started with plumbing and drainage supplies based on Australian Watermark – so far recognising 92,000 water-certified products across 614 product certificates. Further recognitions are expected on an ongoing basis. MBIE has also signalled that from 2026 product suppliers/manufacturers will be able to apply to have their products recognised.
The second new path is the “Overseas Standards and Certification Schemes”, which are to be endorsed by the Minister of Building and Construction, upon application of the Regulations. It is not strictly a new compliance pathway, but rather groups of endorsed standards, issued by trusted overseas standards organisations, intended to make it easier for any overseas building product that has met a recognised standard to receive building consent. This should increase the confidence that designers, builders, building owners, and ultimately building consent authorities have that overseas building products will meet the requirements of the Building Code. So far, the Minister has endorsed 11 standards that can be used in building consent applications from 1 October 2025. Further endorsements are expected.
The role of the BPS, Recognised Products and Endorsed Standards in the compliance pathway are shown in Figures 1 and 2 linked below:
Figure 1: Approved Producted Certitfied Overseas | Building Performance
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