A shake-up to the quake-prone building standards could be a reprieve for iconic properties facing large retrofit bills.

The Government's loosening the regime to only capture buildings genuinely posing a risk to life in medium and high seismic risk zones. 

It'll mean only 80 will need full retrofits and 15,000 will still need some remediation. 

Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says there'll be a lot of places now off the hook for having expensive work.

"A large number of buildings that will remain caught by the system to some extent, but will only need a targeted retro-fit, or maybe just a securing of a façade." 

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