New research shows that property buyers are prepared to pay a premium for homes with energy-saving features.
Cotality’s Watt’s it Worth report shows buyers are willing to pay a premium of about 2.7% to secure a home with solar power. Based on the national median house price, this translates to an additional $23,100.
The report says each additional star in the National House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS Star) can also add 1.3% or about $10,560 to the value of a house.
In Hobart, solar could add an estimated 5.4% to the median house value, Brisbane, 3.3%, Darwin and Melbourne, 2.8%, Perth and ACT, 2.1%, Adelaide, 1.7% and Sydney, 1.6%.
Cotality Senior Director, Banking and Finance, Tom Coad says the report highlights that energy performance is becoming an increasingly important lens through which Australia’s homes should be appraised, financed, and upgraded.
“Australia’s housing market is at an inflection point where energy performance, once peripheral to value, is increasingly becoming a consideration in how homes are compared, bought, managed, financed, insured, improved and regulated,” he says.
The report says improving a property with energy efficiency features is increasingly linked to capital growth and protection from rising energy and retrofit costs.”