The future of home building in Victoria
Understanding the National Construction Code & 7-Star updates
Recent federal government construction code changes mean all new homes in Australia must achieve a 7-star efficiency rating, along with a range of design upgrades to improve accessibility.
It means every new Boutique Home uses less power and gas than at any time in history. This means lower bills and a cleaner future with homes cutting up to 15m tonnes of emissions nationally.
Plus, the range of design upgrades gives young families, those with disabilities, injuries and the elderly, greater mobility and easier access to their home without sacrificing any of the beauty or functionality.
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What are the changes?
The Australian Building Codes Board, in collaboration with the Victorian Government, is introducing key updates to ensure future homes are more energy-efficient and accessible. These changes include:
- Elevating the minimum energy rating from six to seven stars, making homes more energy-efficient.
- Mandating liveable housing design principles, ensuring homes are accessible to everyone.
- Improving overall energy usage within homes, from heating and cooling to appliances.
Benefits of the NCC Updates
These enhancements are designed with the future in mind, aiming to:
- Reduce Living Costs: Homes with higher energy ratings are cheaper to heat, cool, and power.
- Increase Comfort: Enhanced insulation and energy-efficient designs contribute to a more consistent indoor temperature all year-round.
- Improve Accessibility: Liveable design features make homes safer and more accessible for all ages and abilities.
- Support the Environment: Reduced energy consumption means a lower carbon footprint and overall greener housing.
Explore our Home Design range.
Frequently Asked Questions - NCC and 7-star updates
Starting May 1, 2024, the National Construction Code (NCC) will undergo significant updates, as announced by the Australian Building Codes Board and the Victorian Government. These changes are designed to enhance liveable housing, Whole of Home, condensation management, and energy efficiency across the construction industry.
The NCC updates focus on:
- Liveable Housing Design: Ensuring homes can adapt to the changing needs of occupants.
- 7-Star Energy Efficiency Ratings: Boosting a home’s thermal performance to maintain temperature more effectively.
- Whole of the Home: Reducing overall energy usage and improving energy efficiency within homes.
To comply with the new Liveable Housing Design Guidelines, Boutique Homes will update floorplans and design options. This includes creating stepless entries, wider doors and corridors, and easier bathroom access. Additionally, to achieve a 7-star energy efficiency rating, homes will incorporate advanced features like double-glazed windows and solar power systems, enhancing energy consumption efficiency.
Yes, the adoption of new, more efficient products will require a price increase for our homes to meet the updated standards. However, this investment leads to long-term benefits, such as lower energy bills and improved temperature regulation in homes, contributing to a smaller carbon footprint for the community.
The NCC updates do not directly affect gas supply choices for your home. However, the Victorian Government’s Gas Substitution Roadmap, which includes a phase-out of new gas connections, may influence future building practices. New homes in new communities are unlikely to be immediately affected due to pre-obtained planning permits by developers. Customers considering knock-down-rebuilds or dual occupancy constructions that require planning permits will need to follow new all-electric guidelines.
- Livable Housing Design: Livable Housing Design Guidelines
- 7-Star Energy Efficiency: 7-Star Energy Efficiency Common Questions
- Whole of Home: NatHERS Whole of Home
If you have further questions, reach our to one of our New Homes Consultants who are ready to assist.
Testimonials
Casey & Josh
Awesome experience
We are building our first home and so far we have had the best experience our building consultant Stuart Doak has been amazing very informative. We are building the Oslo 29 and we absolutely love it, boutique homes have a high quality building standard. Other builders their upgrades are Boutique homes standard house inclusions and they make such beautiful homes.
I couldn't recommend Boutiques Homes more to anyone if I could give 6 stars I would. Anyone looking for a builder I highly suggest you build with boutique homes easy process and ask for Stuart Doak.
Josh A
Excellent customer service from Boutique Homes in Ballarat
My wife and I have just signed up to build with Boutique Homes in Ballarat. So far we have been very impressed with the responsiveness, professionalism and flexibility. To be honest, I was a bit sceptical about such things with volume builders, but to date, Boutique have proved me wrong. A huge shout out to James Belsar, the Ballarat New Homes Consultant—an all round lovely bloke that has made the process stress free.
Donjim
Amazing service, great inclusions
Brett in Fyansford was helpful from the very beginning and has made the process of our first home so easy. The inclusions that Boutique has as standard far surpass any other ‘volume’ builder. The process of choosing any upgrades was explained to us carefully and the whole process felt stress free. Couldn’t be happier with Boutique Homes.
Aurelie
Exceptional Service!
We are very happy we chose Boutique Homes. Our New Home consultants Brett Morrissy and Cass did an exceptional job at helping us finding the right house for us. Brett immediately understood what we were looking for and he was very helpful. He was very professional, approachable and available, he definitely made the entire pre-start process much easier for us. We highly recommend working with him!
Jot
Glad We have chosen Boutique Homes
Building home as a first home owner is like a dream. We visited all display homes, looked at inclusions, quality of products that are being used. But we could not find a match for Boutique. It excelled on our graph of customer satisfaction, tailoring according to our needs. Special thanks to Morgan (new home consultant), who is the first among all the reasons behind us choosing Boutique. We started with some other plan and ended with something completely different. But Morgan listened to us, to our dreams. No doubt there are many other competing builders, we visited the majority of them. But Boutique was the one for us. Luckily we found the one.
I must say after meeting other sales consultants from 2 other renowned builders at the moment in the market that Boutique is lucky to have a consultant like Morgan. She went far and beyond to assist us. I got health professional discount on our base price which gave us room for more upgrades while sticking to our budget. Our meeting was extended for long due to changes to our plan. But Morgan helped us to get everything fixed and upfront with 100% transparency, no hidden costs.
We are super excited for next steps. Initial paperwork done. Looking forward to our color appointments. I would highly recommend first home builders and owners to visit and browse their display homes and you will see the great difference in quality of things they use in their standard inclusion compared to others.