NCC 2025: what changes for commercial projects?

Quite a lot, and most of it is energy. For Class 3 and Class 5 to 9 buildings, NCC 2025 makes on-site solar panels mandatory (J9D5), where NCC 2022 only asked for room to add them. Where gas is used, the building needs the space and electrical capacity to swap it for electric later. The Deemed-to-Satisfy settings for the fabric and services are tighter, and so are the NABERS targets for J1V1.

J1V3, the reference-building method, gains a margin. Under NCC 2022, a building’s annual greenhouse gas emissions had to be no more than the reference building’s. Under NCC 2025, they must be no more than 97% of them.

Apartments are the exception. For Class 2 buildings the proposed changes were dropped, and NCC 2022’s energy requirements carry over.

In WA, a building permit application can still use NCC 2022 until 30 April 2027. If your project is in design now, it pays to know what each edition asks of it before you lodge. We model both, so you can see the difference.