Australian Property News
Change is in the wind
Posted on Friday, December 04 2009 at 1:00 PM
There could be major changes to regulation and disclosure laws affecting property owners, managers and tenants, according to a Queensland property lawyer.
Peter Townley of Herbert Geer says property stakeholders should be aware that sustainability declarations for residential sales from January 1 are only the beginning.
According to the Council of Australian Governments energy consumption in buildings accounts for 20 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Townley says governments therefore plan to impose increasingly stringent energy efficiency measures and disclosure requirements.
"This is a 'whole of government' approach and the implications for the property industry are far reaching," he says.
"I don't think the full reality of these changes has sunk in with the property industry."
Townley says a major review of the Building Code is under way with the aim of enforcing the property industry’s contribution to meeting greenhouse gas reduction targets.
"The vast majority of commercial office space – over 90 per cent – is concentrated in relatively few buildings with a net lettable area over 2000 square metres," he says.
"Therefore the initial changes affect only a handful of property owners."
But he says that will soon change because the government intends to expand the scheme to include residential buildings by 2011 and all other feasible commercial building types by 2012.
Most commercial buildings qualify for a four and a half star rating at the moment and the aim is to make buildings six, seven and eight star.
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