Quake-prone building standards are being loosened - to exempt some parts of the country from Government requirements

A replacement to the New Building Standard is being announced today, to only capture buildings genuinely posing a risk to life, in medium and high seismic risk zones.

Auckland, Northland, and the Chatham Islands, which have low seismic risk - will be removed from the regime.

Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says the NBS ratings are too broad and inconsistent - and judge an entire building's risk on its weakest part.

The Amendment Bill, is expected to save more than 8.2 billion dollars in remediation and demolition costs.