Heritage EQUIP announcement

Heritage EQUIP is a nationwide programme that provides funding and advice to the private owners of heritage buildings that require earthquake strengthening, and, as you may already know, the Government recently announced new strengthening incentives specifically for heritage building owners in regional centres.

You can find a copy of Grant Robertson’s media release here and Local Government New Zealand’s response to the announcement here. We also have a story on our website.

In essence, Heritage EQUIP has created a number of new incentives to provide better support for regional heritage building owners who are located in medium or high seismic risk areas.

This includes new Professional Advice Grants for owners at the beginning of the process (which provide up to 50% of the costs for obtaining a range of professional advice, like engineering assessments, architectural advice etc).

To encourage more building owners to get involved, regional applicants may also receive up to 67% of professional advice costs if they work with neighbouring heritage building owners and form a multiple building project.

Heritage EQUIP has also increased the proportion of funding available to regional heritage building owners to undertake the upgrade work: they are now eligible for up to 67% of seismic upgrade works costs.

Heritage EQUIP assess applications 3 times per year, with upcoming rounds closing on 22 March and 29 July.

Please contact Elizabeth with any questions you may have.