‘rating labels' for nz houses

A new scoring system that could tell homeowners, renters and house-hunters at a glance how comfortable and cheap running a home will be, is being developed in New Zealand, which could potentially add more than five per cent onto the value of well-insulated and well-designed homes...

The ‘Health and Comfort' scoreboards - which are a joint initiative between the Green Building Council, housing research group Beacon Pathway and building consultancy company Branz - could be handed out to potential buyers at viewings.

Homes will be rated out of 10 for overall performance on factors such as insulation and dampness, how much natural light they receive and how much water their inhabitants are likely to use because of the design of the house.

If the scoreboards become popular, they could penalise the roughly one million, mostly older New Zealand homes that do not meet modern building standards.

According to the World Health Organisation, the recommended temperature for a room is around 18 degrees centigrade or 21 degrees centigrade if there are babies, young children or elderly people living in the home.

But, a study has found that a fifth of the living rooms in New Zealand have a temperature of just 16 degrees centigrade on a winter evening, which could be damaging to occupant's health. 

Homeowners who do not want to fork out for the Health and Comfort test would be able to get a rough idea by filling out an online questionnaire, but to get the official rating, they would have to pay a fee of between £193 to £387 for a professional evaluation.

Whilst most homes would currently score around two or three on the chart, the goal is to upgrade all of them to a four or a five rating.

A recent ShapeNZ study of more than 2000 New Zealanders found that the majority - 71 per cent of homeowners - thought their homes could be warmer and more comfortable, but many were unable to afford to do anything about it.

Picture of Auckland by Chris Gin