Mandatory Disclosure for Residential Real Estate
With the current discussions relating to Emiissions Trading Scheme and Carbon Pollution Reduction Schemes in the political space there is many changes that will come into the residential property sector in the next few year. The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed in July 2009 that from 2011 the energy efficiency rating for houses will increase from 5 to 6 stars. Mandatory disclosure of energy efficiency for commercial buildings will commence in 2010 and for residential buildings by 2011. These are the five key measures have been now agreed to improve the energy efficiency of both residential and commercial buildings across Australia: · increasing the level of energy efficiency requirements for all commercial buildings iby 2010 through the building code of Australia · phasing in the mandatory disclosure of the energy efficiency of commercial buildings and tenancies from 2010 · increasing energy efficiency requirements for new residential buildings to six stars, or equivalent, nationally in the 2010 update of the Building Code of Australia, as well as introducing new efficiency requirements for hot-water systems and lighting · phasing in mandatory disclosure of residential building energy, greenhouse and water performance at the time of sale or lease, commencing with energy efficiency, from May 2011 · reforming current building energy efficiency standard and assessment processes to achieve consistency across the nation. It is expected that these changes will provide unique opportunities for those that can see where this trend is heading and how it impacts on how we buy and build homes.
The ACT already has mandatory disclosure for energy in place which requires that the star rating of any home is provided to any potential buyer. You can see this for any home for sale in the ACT at www.realestate.com.au where the energy rating has been included. It has been determined that there is a 3% increase in sale price achieved for each one star rating increase. That is a 5 star home will attract, on average, a 9% higher price than an equivalent home with a 2 star rating.