Since 1 May 2024, every new home built in Queensland must achieve a minimum 7-star energy rating under the National Construction Code 2022 (NCC 2022). This is a significant step up from the previous 6-star requirement and it changes how homes need to be designed — particularly on the Gold Coast, where our warm humid climate creates specific challenges and opportunities.
If you are planning a new home, major renovation, or extension on the Gold Coast, understanding the 7-star requirement early will save you money and produce a more comfortable home. Here is what you need to know from a building designer’s perspective.
The star rating measures how well your home’s building shell — its roof, walls, windows, and floors — performs at keeping heat in during winter and heat out during summer, without relying on mechanical heating or cooling. The rating is assessed using the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS), which models your home’s thermal performance based on your specific design and local climate data.
A 7-star home should be noticeably more comfortable year-round with less reliance on air conditioning and heating. In the Gold Coast’s Climate Zone 2, that means a home that stays cooler naturally in summer — which is where most of your energy costs go.
The Gold Coast falls within NatHERS Climate Zone 2 (warm humid), which has its own thermal performance benchmarks. Unlike southern climate zones where winter heating dominates, our primary challenge is keeping homes cool during long, humid summers while still maintaining comfort during mild winters. The NatHERS software uses Gold Coast-specific weather data — including our high humidity levels, solar radiation intensity, and prevailing wind patterns — to calculate your star rating.
This means strategies that work well in Melbourne or Canberra do not necessarily translate to the Gold Coast. Heavy masonry construction with high thermal mass, for example, can work against you here if not properly ventilated — storing heat during the day and radiating it back at night when you want the house to cool down. The strategies that work best in Climate Zone 2 focus on keeping heat out, maximising airflow, and reducing solar gain through the roof and western walls.
NCC 2022 introduced a two-part energy efficiency requirement:
Part 1 — Building shell (7-star NatHERS rating). This covers the thermal performance of the building envelope: insulation levels, window sizes and types, wall and roof construction, shading, and orientation. Your building designer controls all of these through the design.
Part 2 — Whole-of-home energy budget. This assesses the energy consumption of the home’s fixed appliances: hot water system, lighting, air conditioning, pool pumps, and any on-site solar PV generation. A good whole-of-home score can offset a marginal shell rating — for example, a well-sized solar system improves your overall score.
Both parts must be satisfied for your home to comply.
Achieving 7 stars on the Gold Coast is very achievable with thoughtful design — our climate actually works in our favour compared to southern states. The key design features that make the biggest difference are:
Orientation. Living areas facing north to capture winter sun while shading from high summer sun. Minimising west-facing glass, which is the biggest source of heat gain. On the Gold Coast, getting orientation right is the single most impactful design decision for energy performance.
Cross-ventilation. The Gold Coast receives reliable sea breezes from the north-east. Designing openings on opposing walls to capture and channel these breezes provides natural cooling that reduces your reliance on air conditioning. As we discussed in our thermal mass article, working with your climate rather than against it produces better results.
Insulation. Ceiling insulation (R4.0 minimum, R6.0 recommended), wall insulation (R2.5 to R2.7 for timber frames), and underfloor insulation where applicable. The roof is the biggest heat gain surface on the Gold Coast, so ceiling insulation delivers the greatest return.
Glazing. Windows are responsible for a large proportion of heat gain and loss. On the Gold Coast, performance glazing (low-E glass or tinted glass) on western and eastern windows makes a significant difference. North-facing windows can be larger if properly shaded by eaves or awnings.
Roof colour. A lighter coloured roof reflects more solar radiation and reduces the heat load on your ceiling insulation. This is especially effective on the Gold Coast where solar radiation is intense. Switching from a dark roof (solar absorptance 0.95) to a light-coloured roof (solar absorptance 0.40) can improve your rating by half a star or more.
Eaves and shading. Extended eaves (minimum 600mm, ideally 900mm) shade walls and windows from direct sun. External shading devices, pergolas, and vegetation on the western side all improve performance. On north-facing elevations, properly designed eaves block the high summer sun while allowing lower winter sun to warm the interior — a passive design strategy that costs nothing to operate.
| Strategy | How It Works | Typical Impact on Energy Rating | Cost Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Optimal orientation (north-facing living areas) | Maximises winter solar gain while minimising summer heat load through correct solar geometry | +0.5 to +1.5 stars | Nil — a design decision, not a construction cost |
| Cross-ventilation design | Openable windows on opposing walls capture Gold Coast sea breezes for natural cooling | +0.3 to +0.8 stars | Nil to low — window placement and sizing |
| Light-coloured roofing | Reflects solar radiation, reducing heat transfer through the roof — critical in Gold Coast’s high UV environment | +0.3 to +0.7 stars | Nil — colour selection at specification stage |
| Extended eaves (900mm) | Shades walls and windows from direct summer sun while allowing winter sun penetration | +0.3 to +0.5 stars | Low — $2,000 to $5,000 additional framing and cladding |
| Ceiling insulation upgrade (R4.0 to R6.0) | Reduces the dominant heat gain pathway through the roof in summer | +0.3 to +0.5 stars | Low — $1,500 to $3,000 for a typical home |
| Performance glazing (low-E glass on west/east) | Reduces solar heat gain through glass while maintaining visibility and natural light | +0.2 to +0.5 stars | Moderate — $3,000 to $8,000 depending on window area |
| Minimised west-facing glazing | Reduces afternoon heat gain from low-angle western sun, the hardest to shade | +0.2 to +0.5 stars | Nil — a design decision |
| Wall insulation (R2.5 to R2.7 batts) | Reduces heat transfer through external walls, particularly effective on western elevation | +0.2 to +0.4 stars | Low — standard in new construction |
If you are renovating or extending an existing home, the 7-star requirement applies to the new work, not the entire existing house. However, the way the new section connects to the existing building affects the overall thermal performance — particularly at junctions between old and new construction.
A well-designed extension can actually improve the comfort of the whole house by providing a better-performing section that reduces the overall heating and cooling load. At Design Science, we consider the whole building — existing and proposed — when designing an extension, not just the new section in isolation.
For Gold Coast homeowners with older homes — particularly fibro or weatherboard homes built before energy ratings existed — an extension project is an opportunity to dramatically improve comfort. Upgrading ceiling insulation in the existing sections, sealing gaps at the junction between old and new, and improving ventilation pathways through the whole building are all strategies we incorporate into our sustainable building design approach.
The additional construction cost of building to 7 stars versus the old 6-star standard is typically 1-3% of total build cost. For a $500,000 home, that is $5,000 to $15,000 — which is recovered through lower energy bills within a few years.
More importantly, a 7-star home is simply more comfortable to live in. Less temperature fluctuation, less noise from air conditioning running constantly, and lower power bills — particularly relevant as electricity prices continue to rise.
The key is getting the design right from the start. Retrofitting energy performance into a poorly oriented or poorly insulated home is far more expensive than designing it in from the beginning. This is where your building designer adds the most value — before a single wall is framed.
Queensland retains an optional one-star credit for outdoor living areas under QDC 4.1. If your design includes a covered outdoor living area that meets certain size and ventilation requirements, you can claim a credit that effectively reduces your building shell requirement to 6 stars — though you still need to achieve the whole-of-home energy budget.
On the Gold Coast, where outdoor living is a fundamental part of how we use our homes, this credit is a practical and desirable design strategy. We incorporate outdoor living into almost every design we produce — and the energy credit is a bonus on top of the lifestyle benefit.
Energy performance is not an afterthought in our design process — it is built into every decision from the initial site analysis. We consider orientation, prevailing breezes, solar access, and sustainable building design principles alongside your brief, your budget, and your site constraints.
Because we use 3D digital modelling for every project, we can test orientation and shading options before committing to a design direction. This means fewer surprises when the energy assessment is done — and a home that performs well because it was designed to, not because expensive materials were added to compensate for poor design choices.
NatHERS (Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme) uses accredited software to model how your home’s building shell performs thermally. It takes into account your floor plan, window sizes and types, insulation levels, construction materials, orientation, shading, and your specific climate zone data. The software simulates a full year of weather conditions and calculates how much energy would be needed to keep the home within a comfortable temperature range. The result is a star rating from 0 to 10 — with 7 stars now being the minimum for new homes in Queensland.
The 7-star NatHERS rating applies to new homes and the new building work in extensions and major renovations. Minor renovations — such as a kitchen or bathroom upgrade that do not change the building envelope — are generally not affected. However, if you are adding floor area, changing the roofline, or significantly altering external walls and windows, the new work will need to comply with NCC 2022 energy provisions. Your building designer and certifier will determine which elements of the code apply to your specific project.
For a new home on the Gold Coast, the additional cost to achieve 7 stars over the previous 6-star standard is typically 1-3% of total build cost — roughly $5,000 to $15,000 on a $500,000 build. Many of the most effective strategies, such as correct orientation, cross-ventilation design, and light-coloured roofing, cost nothing at all — they are design decisions, not material upgrades. Where the design gets it right from the start, the additional cost can be at the lower end of that range.
Yes. Large windows are absolutely possible in a 7-star home — they just need to be in the right locations and properly shaded. North-facing windows with adequate eave overhangs perform well because the high summer sun is easily shaded while the low winter sun provides beneficial warmth. West-facing windows are the most problematic for energy ratings because the low afternoon sun is difficult to shade. If your design requires western views, performance glazing (low-E or tinted glass) and external shading devices can offset the heat gain. Your building designer will balance window placement, size, and glazing specification to meet the rating without compromising your living experience.
The building shell rating (7-star NatHERS) measures how well your home’s physical structure — roof, walls, windows, floors — resists heat flow. It is purely about the building fabric. The whole-of-home energy budget assesses the fixed energy-consuming appliances in your home — hot water, lighting, air conditioning, pool pumps — and any on-site renewable energy generation such as solar panels. Both must comply under NCC 2022. A strong whole-of-home score (for example, from a well-sized solar PV system and efficient hot water) can help compensate for a building shell that is close to, but not comfortably above, the 7-star threshold.
Related: Sustainable building design | Why thermal mass matters | Sustainable home design | Building designer costs
Request a consultation to discuss your new home or renovation project.
David Steadman
Licensed Builder & Building Designer
David Steadman is the founder of Design Science, a Gold Coast building design practice backed by over 30 years of hands-on construction experience. One of few Australians holding both a QBCC Builder's Licence and Building Designer licence, David brings a rare combination of design thinking and practical building knowledge to every project.
