Minimum 7-Stars as the future
Developers are pushing ahead with more efficient homes that buyers are paying over the odds to own, even as disputes between industry groups hinder the development of higher standards in the country’s building code.
Villawood Properties last year sold 24 lots earmarked for homes with 7-star NatHERS thermal ratings – above the current 6-star requirement – in a housing estate in Melbourne’s south-east that was so popular that among the last five lots auctioned with one that sold for $172,000 over reserve for $786,000.
That price was for the 566-square-metre lot alone and the buyer could spend another $400,000-plus on the four-bedroom, two-level, 7-star home that Arden Homes – one of five builders building at Villawood’s Aquarevo Estate – could put on the site.
Villawood chief executive Rory Costelloe said people were willing to pay for more sustainable homes that also offer cheaper energy bills, and Villawood was not waiting for higher residential energy efficiency standards in the National Construction Code – a move that puts the Property Council of Australia at odds with the Housing Industry Association.
“We’re going to force builders to start designing 7-star homes,” Mr Costelloe told The Australian Financial Review. “It’s going to be a thing of the future if they want to build on our estates. ”The pandemic has driven demand for space and larger homes, making costs even more crucial to the issue of higher energy-efficiency standards in housing.
At 6s and 7s..
Cost underpins the differences of opinion over the proposal to set a minimum 7-star standard for new homes between the Property Council, which represents the country’s largest commercial-scale apartment developers, and the HIA, whose members are volume builders of low-rise homes.
It is more affordable for apartment developers to achieve a higher standard, Mr Costelloe said.
“In a small room it’s easier to get 7 stars than a big room,” he said. “[A large developer such as] Mirvac builds townhouses which could be 5 to 15 squares [46 to 139sq m], which is quite easy to get to 7 stars, whereas HIA members are mainly houses, building from 25 to 50 squares, which is a lot more effort.
“It’s a lot more difficult. In the modern house, with a big plan and big voids, it’s really difficult to get to 7, 7.5 stars.”
At Aquarevo in Lyndhurst, a 470-lot joint venture with utility South East Water, Villawood invested an extra $35,000 into the cost of each lot for a battery, a plant to recycle waste water for use in toilets and gardens, and a connected system of water tanks that can be emptied ahead of predicted storms to absorb roof water and reduce run-off to drains and streets.
This article, by Michael Bleby, appeared in The Australian Financial Review of 10 February 2022.
