NCC 2025: what changes for your homes?

Every new edition of the Code raises the same question on site: what will this one cost? For the energy efficiency of homes, NCC 2025 changes very little. It was published on 1 May 2026, and the bigger energy changes proposed for homes, including measures to prepare them for going all-electric and for charging electric vehicles, didn’t go ahead. The 7-star NatHERS minimum, the Whole of Home rating and the H6V2 Verification Method carry over from NCC 2022 as they were.

The elemental provisions have two minor amendments. The external wall provisions (13.2.5) now allow for eave overhangs wider than NCC 2022 specified, and the floor provisions (13.2.6) clarify how they apply to waffle pod slabs. Both are refinements, not a higher bar.

In WA, NCC 2025 took effect on 1 May 2026, and NCC 2022 can still be used for building permit applications until 30 April 2027. Either way, the energy bar for a home is the same. Other states and territories set their own dates.

Nor is a new bar on the way. The Commonwealth has said there will be no further residential changes to the Code, other than essential quality and safety measures, until mid-2029. On 16 October 2026, housing and building ministers committed to modernising the Code, so that it is simpler to use and compliance is cheaper to show. They set no timetable.

So the cost in your next home isn’t a new Code. It’s the 7-star bar WA has applied since 1 May 2025, and the route you take to clear it. NatHERS, the elemental provisions and a Performance Solution under H6V2 can call for different upgrades on the same design. We’ve already worked through NCC 2025’s energy provisions, so the route we recommend holds under either edition.

The bar for homes hasn’t moved. How you clear it still matters.