Homestar training FAQ's

A Homestar Designer is trained to advise and design to Homestar using the certified tool. However, you have to be a Homestar Assessor if you want to submit a Homestar projects this course teaches you the knowledge and expertise to lead projects through the Homestar certification. This is the only qualification that can carry out and submit a Homestar assessment for certification.

There are no pre-requisite qualifications required for attending the Homestar Practitioner course, however, you must complete the Homestar Practitioner course and exam before attending the Designer course and only qualified Homestar Designers may be able to attend the Homestar Assessor course.

The listed pre-requisite qualification are highly recommended, however if you have relevant experience that isn't listed on our website, please contact the team.

Yes, you have to complete a multiple-choice exam to gain your qualification and as a pre-requisite for attending the Designer course. This is compulsory.

You can find the course fees table on this page.

Once you have gained your Homestar qualification, you can download your certificate from your NZGBC dashboard. You will need to be logged into your profile where you can see your current qualifications and print your certificate. This will have the status of your qualification and the expiry date

Yes, if you are a qualified Homestar Assessor, you can carry our Homestar assessments for your own company. All Homestar assessments are audited by a third party so there are no issues with conflicts of interest.

Anybody can register a Homestar Project, and we recommend registering as soon as you know you are going ahead with the assessment so that the NZGBC is aware of your project and can offer advice, keep you up to date on. The Homestar project registration form can be found here.

No, the project owner who registered the project needs to engage a Homestar Assessor themselves. Please see the Homestar Process for more details.

These login details are the same ones you use to login to your NZGBC dashboard. You can request a password re-set via 'forgot password'.

You are required to maintain your Homestar qualification, which includes a renewal fee every two years. Further information about these fees can be found on this page. For Homestar project fees, please see here.
Sometimes, depending on contractual agreements, Homestar project registration fees are paid by the assessor to simplify matters for their client. However this is completely up to the assessor and client to agree on, and NZGBC has no preference either way.

This is a useful qualification if you work for a product supplier, local or national regulatory body, or other organisation that needs to be familiar with the requirements of Homestar and how they can be met, but is not going to be involved directly in designing, building or assessing homes.

NZGBC is very transparent about the fees charged for Homestar, and you can find a breakdown on our Certification fees page. A large portion (and in some cases, the entire fee excluding GST) goes directly into paying third party independent auditors who check submissions to ensure the assessment is without errors or points that cannot be validated before the NZGBC can confirm the rating. This is a key part of maintaining the integrity and robustness of Homestar as a rating that can be trusted.

The NZGBC does not set assessment fees, this is for the Assessor to decide. As our Assessors are third-party to us and price competitively, they do not disclose their fees to the NZGBC. Try to be realistic about the work involved when setting your fees; consider how complicated the home is, stage of the project (is it still on paper, under construction, or finished), location (travel expenses likely), any innovations, likely technical questions, services like energy modelling, and most importantly, the number of typologies. If it is a multi-dwelling project the number of assessments required will equal the number of typologies. We suggest that assessors consider providing an initial free consultation before committing to a project to help determine all these factors.