The National Construction Code 2025 (NCC 2025) energy efficiency provisions came into effect in stages through 2025, and they’re now fully in force across most Australian states and territories. If you’re involved in commercial building management, property ownership, or lighting specification, the new standards are going to affect your decisions — particularly when it comes to lighting retrofits.

Let me break down what’s changed, what it means in practical terms, and where the opportunities sit.

What Actually Changed in NCC 2025

The NCC 2025 update tightened energy efficiency requirements across the board, but the lighting-specific changes are significant. The key provisions that matter for commercial lighting:

Maximum illumination power density (IPD) has been reduced. The previous standard allowed around 7-10 W/m2 for general office lighting. The NCC 2025 brings this down to approximately 5-7 W/m2 depending on the space type. That’s a meaningful reduction that eliminates most fluorescent installations from compliance.

Mandatory lighting controls in more building types. Previously, sophisticated lighting controls were required mainly in new Class 5 (office) buildings over a certain size. NCC 2025 extends control requirements to Class 6 (retail), Class 7 (car parks and warehouses), and Class 9 (healthcare and education) buildings undergoing major refurbishment.

Daylight harvesting provisions expanded. Buildings with adequate glazing must now incorporate daylight-responsive dimming in perimeter zones. The Australian Building Codes Board has published detailed guidance on what constitutes “adequate glazing” and how deep the perimeter zone extends (generally 4.5 metres from the facade).

Verification methods updated. The code now accepts more flexible compliance pathways, including energy modelling approaches that let you trade off lighting efficiency against other building systems. This is good news for buildings where lighting changes alone won’t achieve compliance.

Why This Matters for Existing Buildings

Here’s the catch that a lot of building owners don’t realise: NCC 2025 doesn’t only apply to new construction. It applies to existing buildings undergoing “major refurbishment” — and the definition of what counts as major refurbishment has been broadened.

If you’re doing a tenancy fitout that affects more than 500 square metres of floor space, or replacing more than 50% of lighting in a floor plate, you’ll likely trigger NCC 2025 compliance requirements. This means your retrofit project that was originally scoped as a simple lamp-for-lamp swap might now need to include lighting controls, daylight dimming, and redesigned circuiting.

The flip side is that if you’re planning a retrofit anyway, you might as well design for NCC 2025 from the start. Retrofitting controls later is always more expensive than including them in the initial scope.

The Technical Requirements in Detail

For anyone specifying lighting upgrades, here are the numbers that matter:

Office spaces (Class 5): Maximum IPD of 5 W/m2 for general areas, 7 W/m2 for task-intensive areas. Occupancy/vacancy sensing mandatory. Daylight dimming required within 4.5m of facade glazing.

Retail (Class 6): Maximum IPD varies by retail type — 10 W/m2 for general retail, up to 15 W/m2 for display lighting with controls. Time-based switching mandatory for after-hours periods.

Warehouses (Class 7b): Maximum IPD of 4 W/m2 for general storage areas, 6 W/m2 for task areas. High-bay occupancy sensing strongly recommended and effectively required to meet IPD targets in most cases.

Car parks (Class 7a): Maximum IPD of 2.5 W/m2. Emergency lighting must now be LED (phasing out fluorescent emergency fittings). Occupancy-adaptive control — where lighting dims to a lower level when zones are unoccupied — is now the expected approach.

These figures are achievable with current LED technology. A quality 150 lm/W LED panel running at 30W covers roughly 10 square metres at 450 lux, putting you well within the 5 W/m2 office limit. But you need to design for it — you can’t just swap old fittings one-for-one and hope the numbers work out.

State-by-State Adoption

Not every state adopted NCC 2025 on the same timeline. As of February 2026:

• NSW and Victoria: Fully adopted, effective for all building applications lodged from 1 May 2025.
• Queensland: Adopted with a six-month transition period. Full enforcement from 1 October 2025.
• Western Australia: Adopted with state-specific amendments to car park provisions.
• South Australia and Tasmania: Adopted without major amendments.
• ACT and NT: Adopted, with the ACT adding additional requirements for government-owned buildings.

Check with your local building certifier, because state variations can affect how specific provisions apply to your project.

The Financial Case for Acting Now

Here’s the straightforward argument: if you’re going to have to comply with NCC 2025 anyway — and you will, as soon as you do any significant refurbishment — you might as well plan your lighting upgrade proactively rather than reactively.

Proactive upgrades let you access state-based energy efficiency incentive schemes like the NSW Energy Savings Scheme and Victoria’s VEECs while they’re still available. These programs typically cover 30-50% of the lighting hardware cost through certificate creation.

They also let you design the complete system — luminaires, controls, circuiting — as an integrated package, which is always cheaper and more effective than piecemeal upgrades.

A typical 2,000 square metre office floor lighting retrofit that includes LED panels, DALI-2 controls, occupancy sensing, and daylight dimming currently costs between $80,000 and $120,000 installed, before incentives. After ESS or VEEC certificates, you’re looking at $50,000-80,000 net. With energy savings of $15,000-25,000 annually, payback periods are running at three to five years.

Don’t Forget the Controls

The biggest change in NCC 2025 isn’t the lamp efficiency requirements — LED technology already meets those comfortably. It’s the controls mandate. Occupancy sensing, daylight dimming, time scheduling, and zone-based control are now baseline expectations, not premium features.

If you’re getting quotes for a lighting retrofit and the proposal doesn’t include a controls strategy, send it back. A LED-only retrofit without controls might save you energy compared to fluorescent, but it won’t meet NCC 2025 requirements and it’ll leave significant energy savings on the table.

The standard is here. Plan for it now, and you’ll save money and avoid scrambling later when compliance becomes unavoidable.