Healthy Homes for owners: what matters for you, what matters for your tenant

Who the standards apply to

The Healthy Homes Standards are regulations made under the Residential Tenancies Act 1986. They apply to residential rental properties. For tenancies from 28 August 2022 onwards, private landlords must ensure rental properties comply within 120 days of any new or renewed tenancy (up from the earlier 90-day window). A final deadline applied from 1 July 2025 — all rental properties must now be fully compliant. Specific deadlines vary for Kāinga Ora and community housing providers.

For owner-occupiers — people living in the home they own, not renting it to others — the standards are not a legal requirement. You can have a Healthy-Homes-non-compliant fireplace as your only heater, bare timber floors with no underfloor insulation, and draughty windows, and no one will compel you to fix them.

But: if you ever rent the property out (even for a short period), the standards apply. If you sell the property to an investor buyer, their ability to rent it out depends on compliance. Most sale advertising for potential-rental property now highlights Healthy Homes compliance, because buyers ask. So for many owner-occupiers, understanding the standards still matters — as a resale consideration and as a practical benchmark.

The five standards, and what they mean for your home

1. Heating

The rental standard requires a fixed heating device in the main living room, sized to the room's specifications (including window area, insulation level, and climate zone). A heat pump appropriate to the room size is the most common compliant solution; older compliant options include enclosed wood burners and approved gas heaters.

For an owner-occupier: any heating works. But the standard exists because unheated homes are cold, damp, and unhealthy — underheating is a widespread NZ issue. A properly sized heat pump in the main living room is usually the most cost-effective single upgrade you can make.

2. Insulation

The rental standard requires ceiling and underfloor insulation at defined R-values (broadly R2.9 ceiling, R1.3 underfloor, varying by climate zone), where reasonably practicable. Insulation installed pre-2016 can remain if it met the earlier Building Code standard.

For an owner-occupier: insulation dramatically affects heating costs and comfort. If the house was built or re-insulated post-2016, you are likely already at compliant levels. Pre-2016 insulation is often underperforming. Check what you have in the ceiling and (if accessible) the subfloor. Improving insulation is usually the second-best return on investment after heating.

3. Ventilation

The rental standard requires extract fans in kitchens and bathrooms vented externally, and openable windows, doors, or skylights in the living room, dining room, kitchen, and bedrooms. Bathrooms and toilets must have extract fans or comparable ventilation.

For an owner-occupier: ventilation is often the hidden cause of moisture problems, mould, and poor air quality. Many older NZ homes vent kitchen and bathroom moisture into the ceiling space (illegal under the current Building Code but common in older work). Properly externally-vented extract fans are inexpensive and transformative.

4. Moisture ingress and drainage

The rental standard requires efficient drainage (gutters, downpipes, stormwater management) and a ground moisture barrier for enclosed subfloor spaces where reasonably practicable.

For an owner-occupier: ground moisture barriers (polythene sheeting over the ground under a suspended floor) are a cheap, massive improvement in many older NZ houses. A typical 100 m² home can be done for $1,000–2,500 by a specialist and reduces winter floor cold and subfloor moisture dramatically. Functional spouting and downpipes are standard maintenance but often neglected.

5. Draught stopping

The rental standard requires closure of unreasonable gaps and holes in walls, ceilings, windows, skylights, floors, and doors. Unused fireplaces must be blocked where they cause draughts.

For an owner-occupier: draught stopping is the cheapest standard to meet and has the biggest comfort-per-dollar impact. A $20 foam seal kit for a single door. A $5 chimney balloon for a disused fireplace. Self-adhesive window seals for sliding-sash windows. Most of this is DIY-able in a weekend.

Practical priorities for an owner-occupier

If you are upgrading your home's comfort and running costs, the general order of return on investment is:

1. Draught stopping. Cheapest, fastest, biggest comfort-per-dollar.
2. Heating — a properly-sized heat pump in the main living area if you do not have one.
3. Ventilation — externally-vented extract fans in kitchen and bathrooms.
4. Insulation — especially underfloor and ceiling top-ups to current R-value standards.
5. Moisture management — ground moisture barrier, functional spouting.

This ordering is approximate. A specific house may have a single acute issue that jumps to the top (a bathroom without any extract is a bigger problem than marginal insulation). An energy audit by a qualified assessor can help prioritise.

If you are considering renting out the property

Converting an owner-occupied property to a rental changes the compliance picture immediately. As of 1 July 2025 all rentals must already comply; within 120 days of any new or renewed tenancy thereafter, the property must continue to meet all five standards. Compliance items have both physical requirements (fitting heaters, installing extract fans, topping up insulation) and documentation requirements (including a statement of compliance in the tenancy agreement).

If you are planning a rental conversion, a pre-conversion Healthy Homes assessment is worth commissioning. It identifies the gaps and the cost of closing them, so you can budget and sequence work before the tenancy starts. A typical assessment costs $150–$300; remediation cost depends entirely on the property's current state (a well-insulated modern home may cost nothing more; an older home needing heating, insulation top-up, and ventilation work may cost $5,000–$10,000).

If you are selling to an investor buyer

Buyers who intend to rent the property out will care about Healthy Homes compliance. Providing a current Healthy Homes assessment report with the marketing materials speeds their due diligence and may improve the price. If you do not have an assessment, an investor buyer will typically commission one themselves during the building-report condition.

For sale to an owner-occupier buyer, Healthy Homes compliance matters less directly, but a compliant property still signals a warm, efficient home — a general marketing benefit.

See Healthy Homes reports: the age question for the sellers'-side view of the same issue.

Where this guide sits in the section

Related in Sellers: Healthy Homes reports: the age question.

Rules cited: Healthy Homes Standards (under RTA 1986), Building Act 2004.