7-Star NatHERS: What Queensland Energy Rules Mean for Your New Home

Since 1 May 2024, a new house or townhouse anywhere in Queensland has to pass two separate energy tests before a certifier will approve it. The building shell — roof, external walls, windows and floor — must reach a 7-star thermal performance rating for most homes, and the home’s major fixtures and appliances must meet a Whole of Home energy budget score of at least 60 out of 100. The Queensland Government’s Department of Housing and Public Works confirms both the date and the thresholds on its Residential energy efficiency standards page, and states the standards were implemented through an amendment to Queensland Development Code 4.1 – Sustainable Buildings, not through the National Construction Code alone. From the first sketch, that pair of numbers shapes your window schedule, roof colour, insulation and hot water system.

What commenced when in Queensland

Queensland did not switch NCC 2022 on all at once. The Australian Building Codes Board records that NCC 2022 was adopted by states and territories from 1 May 2023, but Queensland staged the residential provisions across the following year. The Department sets that staging out on its National Construction Code 2022 page.

That last row matters if you are planning ahead. The ABCB’s adoption table gives Queensland’s NCC 2025 adoption date as 1 May 2027 with no transition period, a year behind Victoria, Tasmania, the ACT and Western Australia, which all adopt on 1 May 2026. So NCC 2022 Amendment 2 is the rulebook for Sunshine Coast and Noosa builds for some time yet.

The two tests you actually have to pass

People shorthand this as “7 stars”, but that is only half of it. The star rating measures the building shell. The Whole of Home budget measures what you plug into it.

The Department describes a Whole of Home score under 40 as a poor energy performing home, and 100 as a net zero energy value home. Because a better shell means less heating and cooling to pay for, the Department notes that increasing the building shell rating can increase the Whole of Home score — the two are linked, not independent. The ABCB is explicit in its NatHERS heating and cooling load limits Standard that the limits are not a stand-alone requirement but an additional requirement to the existing star ratings, so a design can reach 7 stars and still fail on loads.

Queensland’s star rating history

If you own an older Coast home, this table tells you what it was likely built to. It matters, because a certifier assessing your renovation may hold you to the standard your house was originally approved under. The dates come from Appendix C of the Department’s Modern Homes Standards home renovation guideline.

How compliance is demonstrated

NatHERS software. An accredited assessor models the design in one of four tools available under the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme — AccuRate Home, BERS Pro, FirstRate5 or HERO — and the tool issues a NatHERS Certificate showing the star rating out of 10 and the Whole of Home score. The Department describes this as the more flexible option: it lets you trade a lighter roof colour against insulation, or better glazing against wall construction.

Elemental, or deemed-to-satisfy, provisions. The prescriptive path. For houses the Department points to the DtS provisions of NCC 2022 Volume Two, Part H6 Energy efficiency — H6D2(1)(b) and H6D2(2)(b) — and its renovation guideline adds the associated ABCB Housing Provisions Standard, Parts 13.2, 13.3, 13.4 and 13.5, with a separate Whole of Home calculator used to show a pass or fail. Simpler to document, much less forgiving on design.

Queensland also keeps a local concession. Under QDC 4.1 a compliant outdoor living area — a covered verandah, deck or patio — earns a half-star credit towards the minimum star rating, and an outdoor living area plus ceiling fan earns a full star, provided it complies with A1(8) to (10) of QDC 4.1. On the Coast, where a covered deck is standard anyway, that credit is usually free money.

What 7 stars means on the Sunshine Coast specifically

Business Queensland defines climate zone 2 as the coastal zones south of Mackay including south-east Queensland, with warm humid summers and mild winters — Coolum Beach, Noosa Heads, Pelican Waters and Marcus Beach all sit in it. The Department’s renovation guideline calls the same zone subtropical. That tells you where the effort goes on a Coast block: your problem is summer heat gain and getting rid of it, not winter heating.

The levers that move a rating here are the ones the Department lists itself — orientation of living areas for solar access and natural ventilation, minimising the area of east and west facing walls and windows, well-located windows to capture breezes, shading walls and windows with eaves, awnings and external blinds, treated glazing such as low-e or tinted glass on western elevations, insulation in the roof space and to external walls, ventilating the roof space, lighter coloured roof and external walls, ceiling fans in living areas and bedrooms, and a well-designed outdoor living area. The Department notes many of these passive design features can be included at little or no extra cost. None of it is exotic, and almost all of it is cheap at design stage and expensive at frame stage — which is why the Department advises talking to your designer, assessor and certifier early in the design stage. Our page on new home builds on the Sunshine Coast explains how we sequence design, assessment and approval.

Does 7 stars apply to a renovation or extension?

Sometimes, and the answer turns on the Building Act 1975 rather than the NCC. The Department’s renovation guideline explains that under section 61, where the renovation involves less than 50 per cent of the existing home’s total volume, a building certifier may approve alterations on the basis of the earlier building assessment provisions used to assess the existing work — provided the certifier is satisfied that doing so would not put at risk the building’s general safety and structural standards. The guideline’s own example is a house built to a 5-star rating in February 2010: the certifier needs to be satisfied the home, as altered, continues to meet that earlier standard.

Cross the threshold and it changes. Where the renovation, together with any previous structural alterations approved or completed within the previous 3 years, involves more than 50 per cent of the existing home’s total volume, the Modern Homes standards apply to the new building work. In those circumstances section 81 may also apply, letting the approval include a condition requiring all, or a stated part, of the existing building to comply as if it were new. The guideline is clear this is a merits decision — the certifier weighs the extent of the renovation and which parts of the home are affected, and documents the reasons. Its example: if the roof is being replaced it may be appropriate to require insulation through the roof or ceiling space, but generally not to require insulation in external walls if the cladding is not being removed.

Where software is used on a renovation, Queensland applies a proportional formula rather than demanding 7 stars outright. The guideline’s worked example for an addition: an existing home of 528m³ rated at 3.0 stars, with a 120m³ addition required to meet 7 stars, gives a required rating for the whole dwelling of (528 × 3.0 + 120 × 7) ÷ 648 = 3.74, rounded to 3.7 stars. Two software assessments are needed, and the workings must be submitted with them. If you are weighing a large renovation against starting again, read that alongside our guide on renovating versus a knock-down rebuild, because the 50 per cent volume test can quietly change the economics.

What it costs and what it returns

On its Busting myths page the Department states that analysis commissioned by the ABCB determined the total cost to incorporate the Modern Homes standards — residential energy efficiency and livable housing design together — is approximately 1 to 2 per cent of the total build cost of an average new house in Queensland, and that these costs are expected to reduce over time as industry adapts. On the return side it reports a household-level net benefit of $2,696.20 for new houses, a small net cost of $64.80 for new units, a net benefit of at least $506 million to the Queensland community and a saving of 4.63 million tonnes of carbon emissions. Separately, the Department puts the average electricity saving for a new Queensland home at $185 per year across the state’s four climate zones.

Those are statewide averages, not a quote for your house. What drives cost on a given job is the glazing schedule, the roof and ceiling insulation build-up, and the hot water and air-conditioning selections. The renovation guideline cites Australian Government Your Home guidance that air-conditioners are typically responsible for 40 per cent of total annual household energy use, and concludes it is worth focusing on an energy efficient building shell to reduce reliance on them — so the shell and the shading do more for your bills than the appliance list does. For how this sits in a whole project budget, see our guide to the cost to build a house on the Sunshine Coast.

Keeping the rating from derailing your build

Get the energy assessment done at design stage, not after you have priced the job — a certificate produced late tends to come back asking for better glass or more shading, and both are variations by then. Ask your assessor which two or three changes buy the most stars before you fix the window schedule. On a renovation, get your certifier’s view on sections 61 and 81 early, because it determines the scope of everything downstream. Then check the paperwork: the QBCC requires a written contract for domestic building work priced over $3,300 including labour, materials and GST, and where the work is priced at $20,000 or more the building contractor must give you a copy of the QBCC-approved consumer building guide before you sign. Settling the energy scope before that signature is the difference between a firm price and a running argument — see fixed price building contracts in Queensland, and confirm your builder’s ticket using how to check a QBCC licence.

Roebuck Concepts builds and renovates across the Sunshine Coast and Noosa Shire from Unit 1/18 Lomandra Place, Coolum Beach, under QBCC licence 15280811. We are a member of Master Builders Queensland, and our Grandview Drive project at Coolum Beach won three 2025 Master Builders Queensland Sunshine Coast Housing & Construction Awards. To have the energy requirements sorted at design stage rather than discovered at certification, call 0477 333 386.