New pathways for overseas building products implemented

In April 2025, the Building (Overseas Building Products, Standards, and Certification Schemes) Amendment Act was passed. This legislation introduced 3 new pathways to help bring more choice to the market, while ensuring buildings remain safe, healthy, and durable.

On 4 August 2025, the Building (Product Certification) Amendment Regulations 2025 were made. The regulations set the conditions that the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) must be satisfied of before recognising products certified overseas.

The Amendment Act and the regulations introduced three new pathways to make it easier to use overseas building products, by providing assurance that building consent authorities (BCAs) will accept them, as complying with the Building Code.

In July 2025, the first of these pathways, the Building Product Specifications was implemented.

MBIE have now started implementing the other two pathways.

2 key pathways now operational:

Approved products certified overseas

MBIE, with the support of technical experts in the pluming field, has now completed the first building product recognitions.

These recognitions cover over 92,000 WaterMark-certified products, including tapware and plumbing items tested to joint Australian/New Zealand standards, across 614 product certificates.

These recognitions can be used in building consent applications from 1 October 2025.

Building consent authorities (BCAs) must accept these overseas-certified products as complying with the New Zealand Building Code, providing all conditions of MBIEs recognition are met.

MBIEs recognitions are now available in 22 notices:

Recognition notices for Approved Products Certified Overseas(external link) — Building Performance

MBIE will continue evaluating WaterMark products throughout 2025, with the next round of recognitions expected by the end of the year. Updates will be published on the Building Performance website and shared with stakeholders.

Where WaterMark products have not yet been formally recognised, BCAs are expected to continue assessing them as alternative solutions. MBIE maintains strong confidence in the WaterMark certification scheme and supports its ongoing use.

Endorsed standards

Endorsed Standards are groups of standards issued by trusted overseas standards organisations, and standard certification schemes, recognised by the Minister for Building and Construction (following recommendations from MBIE).

The Minister of Building and Construction, Chris Penk has now recognised a group of standards from 11 trusted organisations, including ISO and IEC. These standards can also be referenced in building consent applications from 1 October 2025.

They give BCAs confidence in products tested against internationally accepted benchmarks. Designers, builders, and suppliers can use these standards to support their applications and product claims.

Further information

Read more about resources and public information:

Overseas products and standards(external link) — Building Performance

Read the Government’s announcement:

Over 90,000 plumbing products flow into New Zealand(external link) — Beehive.govt.nz