Renovating or Retrofitting Your Home? Start with a Homestar Assessment
Before you spend thousands on your renovation, make sure you're solving the right problems. Plan the whole home first — with a clear pathway to Homestar certification, helping you avoid costly mistakes and create a more future-ready home.
Most renovation mistakes aren’t visible — until you’ve already paid for them.
Initial consultation, provided at no cost, to understand your home and renovation plans
Is your renovation actually improving warmth, comfort, and efficiency?
Many renovations in New Zealand focus on layout, finishes, and visual upgrades — but homes often remain cold, damp, and expensive to heat.
Without addressing insulation, airtightness, and ventilation, you may spend significant money without improving how your home actually feels to live in.
A Homestar-led retrofit takes a whole-of-home approach — ensuring your investment delivers real, measurable improvements in comfort, health, and energy use.
What is the difference between a standard renovation and a Homestar retrofit?
A standard renovation upgrades parts of a home.
A Homestar retrofit improves how the entire home works — prioritising insulation, ventilation, and energy efficiency in the right order.
If you’d like to see how this works in practice, explore the Homestar upgrade process.
Instead of disconnected decisions, you get a structured, evidence-based pathway that leads to better long-term outcomes.
This approach follows the Homestar framework, with certification issued by the New Zealand Green Building Council (NZGBC).
Why do many renovations fail to improve the home?
Upgrades are often done in isolation rather than as part of a complete retrofit strategy.
New windows without insulation upgrades.
New cladding without moisture control.
Heating added without reducing heat loss.
These decisions lead to underperforming homes — and unnecessary long-term costs.
A Homestar-informed approach aligns every part of the renovation, reducing dampness, improving comfort, and avoiding wasted spend.
Do you want your renovation to deliver real value?
Not all upgrades deliver measurable results.
Some improvements look good — but have little impact on heating costs, comfort, or indoor health.
A Homestar assessment provides an independent, evidence-based framework to prioritise what actually matters — so your budget is spent where it makes the biggest difference.
What are the financial benefits of Homestar?
Beyond providing a healthier and more comfortable home, Homestar can also deliver long-term financial benefits. Lower energy use can help reduce running costs, while reducing the risk of moisture and mould can help avoid costly repairs over time.
You can review the Financial Benefits of Homestar to learn more about the financial value of higher-performing homes.
ANZ also offers preferential home loan rates for eligible Homestar-certified homes. If you're planning to upgrade your home, you can see your potential Homestar mortgage benefits using our interactive calculator. You can also see the potential increased buying power when purchasing a certified Homestar home using this calculator.
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