Homestar
Build your whānau a better home. Build to Homestar.
Building a Homestar rated home helps to ensure a healthier, warmer, drier and more comfortable home that uses less power and water than a similar home built to the minimum standard of the New Zealand Building Code.
Homestar is an independent rating tool for assessing the health, efficiency, and sustainability of homes across Aotearoa.
Homestar v5
The latest version of Homestar, Homestar v5, offers a new operational energy and carbon modelling tool with targets aligned to MBIE’s Building for Climate Change framework. Combined with updated requirements to ensure a healthy, comfortable indoor environment and, for the first time also accounting for embodied carbon, achieving a minimum 6 Homestar rating under version 5 will be a significant statement of industry leadership for those choosing to be ahead of the building code.
Thinking of building a Homestar rated home?
Whether you're working with an architect or Group Home Builder, be sure to let them know your intention to build a Homestar rated home from the outset. This will ensure that your house design incorporates the key criteria required for the build, eliminating the need to make changes along the way.
To achieve a Homestar rating, a home is independently assessed against strict health, efficiency and sustainability criteria. That assessment is then audited by the New Zealand Green Building Council, so you can trust the rating.
| Step 1: Registration | Your Homestar Assessor will help you register your project. |
| Step 2: Design | Use the Homestar tools and calculators to find what will work best for your home. |
| Step 3: Assessment | Your Homestar Assessor gathers the relevant documentation and submits it on your behalf. |
| Step 4: Auditing | The paperwork is sent to an independent third party to be audited. |
| Step 5: Certification | Once the final assessment is completed, and your home is deemed as meeting the criteria, you will receive a Homestar certificate. |
Finance options
Among the health, comfort and efficiency benefits you're likely to enjoy, a Homestar certification could make you eligible for a favourable home loan with your bank.
Join hundreds of others taking up Homestar and register your project today.
"It is important to Oceania that we design and build sustainable and healthy homes that enhance the wellbeing of our residents. We are committed to reducing our greenhouse emissions and environmental footprint and to creating homes that reimagine the retirement living and aged care living experience in New Zealand. The New Zealand Green Building Council’s Homestar standard helps us demonstrate our commitment to sustainable homes to our stakeholders. We support NZGBC’s leadership in advocating for green, sustainable and healthier homes for all New Zealanders."
Brent Pattison, CEO, Oceania Healthcare
"Building to a Homestar standard aligns with Metlifecare’s sustainability strategy and vision; to provide quality, innovative and sustainable solutions for the health, safety and wellbeing needs of New Zealand’s ageing population.
Our residents appreciate knowing that, when they reside in a Homestar 7 rated home, they’re minimising their impact on the environment in terms of waste, water, energy and materials.
A Homestar 7 rated unit is built well-above the basic requirements of the New Zealand building code, so it provides a warmer, dryer home for residents to enjoy and typically saves on heating and cooling costs, resulting in lower power bills.
Like the New Zealand Green Building Council, we are passionate advocates for sustainable buildings."
Earl Gasparich, Chief Executive Officer, Metlifecare
Find out more about the benefits of Homestar and the rating you can achieve for your home.
Certification process and fees