Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to primary navigation Skip to secondary navigation
Building Performance
Site search

Popular searches

  1. Why contracts are valuable
    Consumer protection measures
  2. Use licensed people for restricted building work
    Choosing the right people for your type of building work
  3. Work that doesn't require a building consent
    Schedule 1 guidance
  4. Post-emergency building assessment
  5. Determinations
    Rulings on building work disputes
  6. E2 External moisture
    Acceptable Solutions and Verification Methods
 
Menu Search

Wholesalers, retailers and distributors and the new overseas products pathways

Last updated: 29 August 2025

Semi truck being loaded at a wholesaler or distributor centre

Help for wholesalers, retailers and distributors who want to know about the Approved Products Certified Overseas, Building Product Specifications, and Endorsed Standards overseas products compliance pathways.

For wholesalers, retailers and distributors, the new overseas products and standards compliance pathways deliver real advantages. They have been introduced to enable:

  • a greater range of overseas building products to be more easily used in Aotearoa New Zealand
  • more quality products to eventually bring more competition to the Aotearoa New Zealand building product market, and
  • over time, new products to gain in popularity, leading to changes in preferences and innovations in building design.

Benefits of the new compliance pathways

  • These new pathways will:
    • reduce barriers to Aotearoa New Zealand’s access to new and innovative building products and systems already in use around the world, and
    • allow Kiwis to leverage the global building product market to use the products they want and pay a fair price for them.
  • Having access to more building products and streamlined processes for introducing new products to our market will:
    • reduce the requirement for repetitive specification of well-known products, and
    • ease our reliance on a small number of products.
  • Recognised overseas certified products must be accepted by building consent authorities (BCAs), providing your consumers with confidence the products can be used here in Aotearoa New Zealand.
  • Aotearoa New Zealand-based manufacturers and importers will need to:
    • make particular information about the building products they supply to the Aotearoa New Zealand market publicly available according to the building product information requirements, and
    • provide evidence for any claims made about their products.

An application process to have overseas certified products recognised is currently in development. We will be releasing more information on this process in 2026.

How these pathways will work for you

How Building Product Specifications works for you

As a supplier of building products or methods, if a product has been tested or manufactured according to a building product standard or specification cited in the Building Product Specifications, it is deemed to comply with the Building Code when used with the relevant acceptable solution or verification method.

This means your product may be more readily specified by designers, architects and builders. This provides you with opportunities to widen your overseas products range to incorporate more overseas products that will be readily accepted for use in Aotearoa New Zealand.

How Approved Products Certified Overseas work for you

Supplying products with an overseas certification recognised by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) can provide you with a market advantage. These products will be deemed to comply with the Building Code if they are:

  • specified according to their intended use, and
  • meet any conditions or limitations of MBIE’s recognition.

This means you can have more confidence offering a wider range of overseas products for use in Aotearoa New Zealand without needing additional tests such as a CodeMark certificate or an appraisal.

How Endorsed Standards work for you

Overseas groups of standards and standards certification schemes that have been recognised by MBIE will be published on our Endorsed Standards web page.

When manufactured or tested according to a standard on the Endorsed Standards web page, products can be specified more often in building designs, as designers and specifiers can have confidence that the standard has been published by a reputable standards organisation.

A BCA may consider the relevant standard when assessing a consent application to ensure:

  • the product is being used for its stated purpose, and
  • that the building work will comply with the Building Code.

More information

Building Product Specifications

Approved Products Certified Overseas

Endorsed Standards

Resources on the new overseas products and standards compliance pathways

Building product information requirements

Subscribe

Subscribe to regular Building Performance email updates.

Sign up

Top

This information is published by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Chief Executive. It is a general guide only and, if used, does not relieve any person of the obligation to consider any matter to which the information relates according to the circumstances of the particular case. Expert advice may be required in specific circumstances. Where this information relates to assisting people: