New laws will force sellers to disclose the energy efficiency of their home

Property owners will be legally required to disclose the energy performance of their home before sale or rent under a new scheme being developed by the federal government.

The federal government, with the backing of state and territory energy ministers, announced last month it had chosen an efficiency rating system for its National Home Energy Disclosure Scheme.

Selling your home will soon require a mandatory energy efficiency rating.Credit: Getty Images

The scheme, which is top of the government’s agenda as a way to both mitigate climate change and create healthier and cheaper homes to live in, was a commitment made by the ministers in 2019.

New data from the Climateworks Centre shows how existing homes in each state and territory can be renovated in line with the government’s chosen ratings to bring them up to the same standards as a new efficient home.

Buildings program lead Gill Armstrong said by undertaking quick fix and full electrification, WA homeowners could save $1353 annually on their energy bills and reduce their carbon footprint.

“A renovation wave across Australia is urgently needed to make sure people are really comfortable and that their bills are not sky-high,” she said.

“Until relatively recently, most of our homes, even the fairly new ones, were underperforming.

“So we’ve got high bills, we’ve got people buying properties without understanding how they’re going to manage their household budget, with a high mortgage in a cost of living crisis.

“We’re seeing that impact on people’s health, comfort and ability to sleep through the night because they’re too hot or too cold.”

CSIRO senior experimental scientist Michael Ambrose is part of a team getting the tools ready for mandatory reporting including developing a cost-effective model to assess a home’s energy efficiency.

He said the sweet price point was around half the current cost for an energy audit which sits at around $600.

“That’s not really at the price point that would make our governments want to mandate the requirement to have an energy audit done,” he said.

“We’re in the throes now of trialling other methodologies and other ways, and tying it in with other activities that go on at the same time your house is getting ready to be sold, such as property valuers valuing for the banks.”

Ambrose said quick fix solutions that delivered the biggest bang for your buck include ceiling insulation, solar panels, roller shutters and heavy curtains.

Those quick fixes save around two tonnes annually which is around 11 plane trips between Sydney and Melbourne.

Getting a house ‘climate ready’ was more costly and complicated and included measures such as insulating the wall and floor cavities in double brick homes and installing double-glazed windows.

But he said the future of residential energy efficiency was a fixed battery at each home with scope to use electric vehicles to power properties.

“It’s very early days, but there’s been lots of talk about how can we get this integration with our EVs to our homes so we can have this whole smart grid into interconnectivity,” Ambrose said.

“So having our solar panels charge our cars and our cars feed into the grid, and then our cars also doing our home.”

Strategic Property Group managing director Trent Fleskens said more information meant more visibility, better decisioning, and more transparency.

“It provides buyers with clarity over what they are buying in the same way they would buy an appliance or car with their safety and efficiency ratings,” he said.

“Further, this should entice developers and home builders to lift their game when it comes to meeting market expectations on how efficient a home should be. This can only be a good thing in the long run”.

A State Government spokesman said there were no plans to mandate the framework in WA yet.

“When it is finalised, the state government will consider how the National Home Energy Ratings Disclosure Framework can be used to benefit WA households,” he said.

Research conducted for Energy Consumers Australia and Renew in 2022 showed 66 per cent of people support mandatory energy efficiency disclosure.

Since 1999 in the ACT, there has been a requirement for mandatory disclosure of the energy performance of all existing residential properties that have been occupied and are offered for sale.

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