The Strata NABERS "Muster"

Strata managers are taking the boy scout motto of “Be Prepared” seriously when it comes to readying the ship for NABERS ratings.

At the SCA National Conference in the Hunter Valley, the last item but not least item on the agenda was a presentation from NABERS strategic development manager, Claire Berecry. 

While the dust hasn’t settled from the new strata legislation or child window locks, the next big hurdle for the strata industry is now on the horizon. Six star environmental ratings are heading to a strata building near you.

So what’s a strata manager to do?

Becoming a climate-change denier might offend the green-oriented strata committee members you have to front up to at the next AGM. Playing the delay game is always an option….but probably won’t get you nominated for Strata Manager of the Year in 2018.

For most strata buildings, it will be a 2-3 year journey to improve their environmental rating, but the journey will be worth it.​

As a result, leading strata managers have just decided to “bite the bullet”. Among the early movers are new line items being added to the financial accounts of every strata scheme in the portfolio called “Sustainability.” A committee member who sees $0 in this field, might start asking the question. Why do we have this listed in the accounts? That will naturally open up the discussion around what a NABERS rating is.

Other strata managers are running training sessions for all their staff to understand the projects which can be run now so that their strata schemes have already scraped an extra ½ star or full-star when they get their first NABERS rating approved.

Strata managers working with property developers are commissioning sustainability reports while the building is still a ‘hole in the ground’ hoping to get up to a 9% uplift in property valuations while selling off the plan as a green building. Think “The Commons”, “Nightingale”, Central Park – Sydney, Yarra Bend or Whitegum Valley.

As an astute industry observer coined, NABERS is the opposite of building defect remediation. Instead of spending money to get the property values of a defective building back to what they should be, NABERS is about spending money to get a multiplied property valuation uplift on all apartments within the scheme. Simple.

For further reading try Fifth Estate.  You can also read Wattblock’s NABERS for Apartments submission to the NSW Department of the Environment and Energy.  Download the report (PDF, 58 Pages).

Brent Clark
CEO, Wattblock

Strata managers can now register buildings in the City of Sydney and in Queensland for a fully funded electric vehicle recharge assessment (including meter board assessment).  Read more about the program here.
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