The banks and the magic wand

Put on your best dance-around-the-lounge-room (or office) song - we are celebrating today!

Why?

The banks - those power and $$$ wielding influencers - have called for mandatory Energy Efficiency Ratings to be introduced at the point of sale for housing across the country.

Australian banks have called for mandatory Energy Efficiency Ratings for houses at the point of sale.
Photography by R Architecture via Unsplash.

The news was contained in an article by James Eyers in The Australian Financial Review, which you can access here.

This social media post from Rob Murray-Leech at the Energy Efficiency Council explains the new initiative from Australia’s banks to introduce mandatory EER ratings for homes when they are sold.

Why is this significant?

Well, they've had mandatory EER in the ACT for 20+ years and as a result, consumers / the housing market / industry players can compare apples with apples, and actually demand and pay a premium for higher performance housing.

To me, it's no co-incidence that Light House Architecture + Science has flourished in this operating environment, where an educated and informed consumer base makes different housing choices than their counterparts across the rest of the country.

What's the benefit for architects?

With mandatory EER, the playing field - including project homes, housing designed by non-architects and residential architecture - suddenly gets a whole lot more level.

It's like waving a magic wand and sprinkling fairy dust across the entire residential market.

Architects will no longer need to shout into the wind about the many benefits of passive solar and orientation and thermal mass and renewable energy and all the other attributes of good design. Consumers will be given a scorecard at the point of sale that tells them a house is a terrible performer, or a good performer, or somewhere in-between, and - over time - they'll become more knowledgeable and informed, and make different and better purchasing decisions.

The research findings from the ACT bear this out.

THIS IS HUGE.

And it's an issue I've been banging on about in The Drill since it started, four years ago, and for 20+ years as a journalist writing about sustainable and affordable housing. I'm old enough to remember when the first energy efficiency measures were introduced into the BCA (as it was then) back in 2003, and the vehement campaign mounted by nearly all and sundry to oppose those modest measures.

Well guess what, HIA and MBA and project home builders? House prices didn't go up stratospherically as a result of energy efficiency measures (yes, they did go up; but for other reasons). In fact, as the ACT example proves, consumers will willingly pay more for a high-performance home.

If the banks can spearhead this major reform (it's been on the COAG agenda since the states and territories signed up to progress the Trajectory for Low Energy Buildings as part of the NCC in 2019) this will be a game-changer for the architecture profession.

From 21 Feb 2019:

Sounds Like Design: Paying the Right Price for Energy Efficiency

(The Melb Uni research about price premiums in the ACT, for higher star rated homes... $$$ talks!)

From 26 June 2020:

The Architecture Drilldown - Knowledge is Power - Issue #75

(Australia's Chief Scientist Alan Finkel calls for mandatory EER to be rolled out nationally... yet progress is still slow)

From 11 May 2021:

Sounds Like Design: How can architects talk about climate change?

(In which I lamented the fact that the Morrison Government failed to mandate Energy Efficiency standards in the Homebuilder stimulus package... what a wasted opportunity that was...) 

From 1 May 2022:

Hearing Architecture: Rachael Bernstone - Public Engagement

(In which I talk about the ACT's mandatory EER reporting and how it's lifted the burden on architects to educate and inform the market about the many benefits of good design; the ratings do the heavy lifting)

In my opinion, this single issue has the power to completely transform the profession. Hence the analogy to the magic wand. Architects can stop spending ridiculous amounts of energy pushing a Sisyphean rock uphill to educate and inform consumers about housing energy performance and comfort. That task will be taken up by the mandatory EER system.

That in turn frees up architects to showcase their ability to lead the retrofit movement - because only architects can adequately respond to issues arising from existing built fabric. No other profession has your skills, experience and knowledge to lead this charge. It's a total gamechanger.

So what you can do to help get this reform over the line?

Support the banks' advocacy campaign. Write to them and let them know you're behind them. Ask your peak bodies to add their voices to the calls for mandatory EER at the point of housing sale (there is a new CEO at the Institute - could this be his first big win? Perhaps some of you will send him this issue and ask the Institute to advocate on your behalf?). Write letters to your local MP, other politicians and relevant ministers. Start a petition. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity and we don't want to let it slip away (as it has several times already, over the past few years).

Another key action you can take in your own practice/business is to start prioritising retrofit and reuse projects - see the first article in International, below, for a reminder about how and why.

Lastly, if you value The Drill and our advocacy around this topic, and you'd like to support our mission - because we are all about elevating architects and architecture - you can do that here.