Was there any doubt a home sustainability assessment is worthwhile?

The purpose of our association is to support independent home sustainability assessors.  Normally an assessment will precede an application for a "Green Loan" from a lending institution to help make the home more comfortable and less expensive to operate.  As I have indicated elsewhere there could well be another reason to seek an assessment.  If  a cost free assessment is too hard to comprehend how many home owners would object to advice that  could add value to their property?  If you are unsure how this could happen read the following article from "the Age" 1st May 2009.

New homes forced to go six stars

• Jason Dowling
• May 1, 2009

EVERY Australian home will soon be required to have an energy-efficiency report card when sold or rented, while new homes will have to be built to a six-star sustainability standard.

National political leaders yesterday agreed to changes that will require all new housing to be more energy-efficient by May 2011. At the same time, vendors and landlords will also need to have an energy-efficiency report when selling or renting a home.

The report card is expected to include insulation and building design and to be completed by an accredited assessor.

Based on a similar scheme already in place in the ACT, the cost of getting a pre-sale or lease report card could be between $150 and $250.

But experts disagree on how much the improved minimum energy-saving standards for new homes would add to the cost of building, with some warning it may add up to $10,000.

The meeting of federal, state and local government leaders in Hobart also announced:

?Increased energy efficiency requirements for commercial buildings in the Building Code of Australia from 2010.

?Phasing in of mandatory disclosure of the energy efficiency of commercial buildings and tenancies from 2010.

Even after the new six-star rules come into force, Australian homes will still be less efficient than many other countries, as a number of studies have shown. For instance, a 2005 study for the federal government found that comparable homes in the US, Canada and Britain had much better "thermal efficiency" — meaning they were better at keeping heating and cooling bills low — and rated an average of seven stars, with some as high as nine stars. The current standard for Australia homes is still five stars.

Victoria's Building Commissioner, Tony Arnel, said the jump from five to six stars could lead to a 10-to-15 per cent improvement in the energy efficiency of housing. He said the cost of moving to six-star homes would be "minimal".

"It will simply mean that more attention needs to be paid to the use of insulation and orientation and materials: getting housing focused to the north, use of windows, some double-glazing at times, improved insulation in both walls and ceilings, and typically moving towards heavier forms of construction," he said.

But Master Builders Association's deputy executive director Radley de Silva attacked the move.

"The Government's decision to introduce a six-star building standard for new homes will increase housing costs by an average of $10,000 per home," Mr de Silva said.

Caryn Kakas, executive director of the Residential Development Council, said builders were ready to move to six-star building standards for new homes, but the industry and home buyers would need help to reduce added costs.

She said measures such as keeping the first home buyers boost going would "help offset changing costs in construction" because of the extra sustainability measures.

The director of RMIT University's Centre for Design, Ralph Horne, said the housing announcements were "absolutely essential to move us forward and to let us catch up with Europe".

"But they are the bare minimum and we should be thinking a little bit more about this," he said.

Dr Horne said Australia should be moving to 7½ star rating for new homes.

A recent government report examined the impact of introducing mandatory disclosure of energy ratings for homes in the ACT a decade ago, and found homes with higher ratings attracted higher prices.

For example, for a median-priced Canberra home in 2005, worth $365,000, every star of extra energy efficiency added about $9000 to the sale price.