NSW BASIX Rules: When You Need a BASIX Certificate

The requirement

A new home in NSW needs a BASIX certificate before the job is approved. Work on a home needs one when it costs $50,000 or more. A pool or spa for one home needs one at 40,000 litres or more. You lodge the certificate with your plans.

BASIX is the NSW rule for water use and energy use in homes. It sits in a state planning policy made in 2022. That policy started on 1 October 2023. It took over from the old BASIX policy of 2004.

You get the certificate from the BASIX tool on the NSW planning portal. You feed in the plans, the taps, the glass and the hot water unit. The tool checks the design and prints the certificate. The Planning Secretary is the one who issues it. Fees change, so check the portal for today’s price.

What sets it off. Four kinds of work need a certificate.

Those numbers are not in the planning policy. They sit in the NSW planning regulation of 2021, in the dictionary at the back. That is the book to check.

Below those numbers the choice is yours. BASIX calls this optional work. You may still run the tool and lodge a certificate. But once you lodge one, you are held to it.

Watch the small pool. A pool under 40,000 litres is still caught when it is part of a job costing $50,000 or more. The cost test looks at the whole job, not one part of it. The sum is the cost you write on the application. It counts the parts BASIX leaves out. It leaves out the land, the GST, contributions and upkeep. Your council or certifier can knock back a figure that is not real.

A home means a home. A BASIX building holds at least one home. Hotels and motels are out. A boarding house, hostel or co-living place drops out once it sleeps more than 12 people. It also drops out once the floor runs past 300 m2.

Some work never needs one. These jobs sit outside BASIX for good.

Three months old. The certificate must be no more than 3 months old on the day you lodge. Older than that, run the tool again. The complying work path runs the same way. A new block of units runs on one multi dwelling certificate. Work on a building that already holds more than one home is the odd one out. There, each home needs its own certificate.

You must build what it says. Each certificate lists jobs the build has to do. BASIX calls them commitments. Once the job is approved, every one of them is a term of that approval. So the list is not a wish list.

Your certifier keeps you honest. They check the plans carry the BASIX items before the construction certificate. They check the work is really there before anyone moves in. They also need a BASIX completion receipt from the Planning Secretary. No receipt, no occupation certificate.

How it sets the heat target. The policy sets no star rating. It sets a top amount of energy for heating and cooling. That amount is per square metre of floor, per year. It shifts with your climate zone and your type of home. Work from the number the BASIX tool gives you.

BASIX beats the council rules. A council plan cannot set its own water target or energy target for your home. Nor its own heat target. BASIX does that job in NSW.

How it fits the NCC. For houses, NSW pulls out the national energy part and drops its own in. Which NCC parts you work to turns on your certificate. Version 4.0 or later puts you on the NCC 2022 NSW part. Version 3.0 or older sends you to the NCC 2019 NSW part. So does a certificate for work on an existing home.

NSW still runs NCC 2022 today. NCC 2025 starts here on 1 May 2027.

Related

• Part of the NSW building code hub. It covers which NCC edition applies here and what the state changes.
• The national picture: the NCC rule book for Australian chippies.

Sources

• State Environmental Planning Policy (Sustainable Buildings) 2022 (NSW), ss 1.2, 1.5, 2.1, 2.2 and 4.1, Chapter 2 “Standards for residential development—BASIX”, Schedules 1 and 2 — the instrument that now carries the BASIX standards. It commenced 1 October 2023 and repealed the former SEPP (Building Sustainability Index: BASIX) 2004. It prevails over inconsistent planning instruments, and a competing council control aimed at water use, greenhouse emissions or thermal performance is of no effect. Schedule 1 Part 2 expresses thermal performance as a maximum heating and cooling load in megajoules per square metre of conditioned floor area per year, tabulated by BASIX climate zone and dwelling type — the instrument states no NatHERS star figure. Section 2.1(3) extends the pool/spa standard to a pool or spa under 40,000 L that forms part of an alteration costing $50,000 or more. See legislation.nsw.gov.au.
• Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021 (NSW), Schedule 7 Dictionary — the source of the thresholds, which the SEPP adopts rather than sets. Defines “BASIX development” (erection of a BASIX building; change of use to a BASIX building; alteration of a BASIX building at an estimated development cost of $50,000 or more; a swimming pool and/or spa servicing 1 dwelling only with a capacity, or combined capacity, of 40,000 litres or more), “BASIX optional development”, “BASIX building” (at least 1 dwelling, with the hotel/motel and 12-resident / 300 m² boarding house, hostel and co-living carve-outs) and “BASIX excluded development” (garage, storeroom, carport, gazebo, verandah, awning; alterations to State Heritage Register buildings; spaces that cannot be fully enclosed; and alterations declared excluded by the Planning Secretary). See legislation.nsw.gov.au.
• Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021 (NSW), ss 27 and 131 — a development application, and a complying development certificate application, must be accompanied by a relevant BASIX certificate issued no earlier than 3 months before lodgment on the NSW planning portal, with a separate certificate for each dwelling where the development involves the alteration of a BASIX building containing more than one dwelling (ss 27(2), 131(2)). A new multi-dwelling build is covered by a single BASIX multi dwelling certificate.
• Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021 (NSW), ss 6 and 6A — s 6 defines “estimated development cost” (design and erection, works, demolition, fixed and mobile plant; excluding contributions, separately consented parts, land costs, ongoing maintenance and GST). Section 6A “Determination of BASIX development cost” requires the consent authority or certifier to use the estimated development cost specified in the development application or complying development certificate application — including the cost of any part that is BASIX excluded development — unless that figure is not genuine or accurate.
• Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021 (NSW), ss 151 and 75 “Fulfilment of BASIX commitments” — a complying development certificate must be issued subject to a condition that each commitment in the relevant BASIX certificate is fulfilled; s 75 is the equivalent prescribed condition of development consent. The NSW notes to NCC 2022 restate the same point.
• Environmental Planning and Assessment (Development Certification and Fire Safety) Regulation 2021 (NSW), ss 10, 44, 45 and 71 (and s 72 for fees) — the BASIX certificate is issued by the Planning Secretary under s 71, in practice through the online BASIX tool. Section 10 requires a construction-certificate application to be accompanied by the BASIX certificate lodged with the consent, or one issued no earlier than 3 months before the application, and requires a separate certificate for each dwelling where the development involves the alteration of a BASIX building containing more than one dwelling. Section 44 bars a certifier from issuing an occupation certificate unless the monitored BASIX commitments have been fulfilled, and s 45 requires the certifier to hold a BASIX completion receipt from the Planning Secretary first. See legislation.nsw.gov.au.
• NCC 2022, Volume Two, Section 5 New South Wales — NSW Part H6 “Energy efficiency” — NSW replaces the national Part H6, so Class 1 energy efficiency runs through BASIX and the development consent. NSW Part H6 of NCC 2022 applies where the BASIX single dwelling or multi dwelling certificate is Version 4.0 or later. A certificate under Version 3.0 or earlier, and a BASIX alterations and additions certificate, fall back to NSW 2 Energy efficiency of NCC 2019 Volume Two Amendment 1. See ncc.abcb.gov.au.
• ABCB — NCC 2025 state and territory adoption information — NSW adopts NCC 2025 on 1 May 2027, so NCC 2022 with the NSW variations remains the edition in force in NSW today. See ncc.abcb.gov.au.
• NSW Planning Portal — BASIX — the tool that generates the certificate, and the place to check current BASIX fees, which are not reproduced here. See planningportal.nsw.gov.au.