Colleen Hawkes is a senior reporter for Stuff/Homed

OPINION: For the second time in as many months, we have seen a new passive house development come to our attention. We’re not talking about one-off houses, but a whole row of certified passive houses you can buy off the plan.

The timing of the latest release is probably not an accident – it coincides with the government’s announcement of New Zealand’s first Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP), which reveals how the Government plans to shave 11.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent off our emissions from 2022-2025.

Passive houses, built to a strict set of standards, offer the “ultimate” in energy efficiency, with their airtight building envelopes and mechanical ventilation. It doesn’t come any better than this – depending on where you live, you might hardly ever need to turn on additional heating, and even then, maybe only for an hour or two a day.

Talk to anyone already in a passive house and they beam like they’ve found the secret to eternal life. Without exception (in my experience), they’re happy to share their story. They want this for everyone.

READ MORE: * Power bills will be no concern to the new owners of these ultra-passive houses * Heating for $1 a day: Kainga Ora's first passive-designed social housing block is a blueprint * Builders making high-performance eco-homes more affordable

Until recently, passive house builds were always bespoke one-off projects, often decried for being “too expensive”. Well, the answer to that is no, that doesn’t have to be the case. But more on that shortly.

Developers are finally seeing that there is a very real market for ready-made passive houses.

The latest release is Nest Lakeside at Pegasus Bay north of Christchurch, which offers eight “designer homes”, built to certified passive house Low Energy Build (LEB standard). The announcement follows the auctioning, earlier this month, of the first of 11 certified Passive House Plus homes in the Bushland Park subdivision in Halswell, Christchurch. One of those homes is currently under offer and the other still for sale by negotiation. And more are planned.

Then there’s the Toiora High Street Co-housing development in Dunedin, completed last year, which was the first terraced passive house development in New Zealand. Designed by Tim Ross of Architype, and built by Stevenson & Williams under the umbrella of eHaus Otago, this is a benchmark project.

And let’s not forget Kainga Ora, making a commitment to building social housing to passive house standards. The government has made a commitment to lead by example.

The proposed 161 square-metre Pegasus homes, with waterfront views, are being marketed from $1.179 million. To an Aucklander, that seems cheap. (No-one is suggesting these are being marketed as first homes.)

Which brings us to the question of cost. Although passive houses have additional costs over a standard build, this doesn’t necessarily make them unaffordable. If we are talking about a design-and-build passive house, you can save the difference by making your house slightly smaller.

With clever design you will, in all likelihood, have a far more practical house where every square inch is utilised. And then you have the energy savings, which are forever. And a passive house offers a healthier living environment, which translates into fewer medical bills.

Architect Joe Lyth of Respond Architects had a different way to fund that difference for his own family home in Tahekeroa – he has built a spartan interior, which he will improve as and when he can. As he says, “fancy kitchen fittings can come later”.

It comes down to priorities, and there has never been a better time to sort these, than right now. MBIE’s proposed H1 building code changes, to be phased in from November 2022, will increase insulation in new homes, lowering greenhouse gas emissions with anticipated energy reductions of 40%. But the changes are already meeting with some resistance.

National Party MP for Port Waikato Andrew Bayly, Master Builders and Certified Builders Association all feel a year’s notice is not enough. And there has been talk that adding thermally broken windows and greater insulation may add $25,000 to the cost of a standard house, depending on region.

Which brings in the question of government relief for first home buyers in particular. We need better, more energy-efficient builds – the changes make sense. That’s a given, but we also need more help for those people struggling to get on the property ladder.

Buying your first home should not have to be a trade-off in terms of family health and sustainability.

While passive homes will likely remain beyond the reach of most first home buyers, increasing insulation levels as per the proposed H1 code changes has to be a good step, but let’s see some help for those not in a position to afford an increase in building costs.

And let’s not dismiss the idea of passive homes as something only for the rich, because this is simply not the case.

Fifteen years ago we couldn’t have predicted the huge change to heat pump use – they are now the norm in our homes. We can expect to see more significant improvements in the next 15 years, also.