CEFC encourages energy-efficient community housing

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has released the market report ‘Financing Energy Efficient Community Housing’. Identifying strong demand for new community housing over the next decade, the report suggests this housing should be built to ambitious energy-efficiency standards.

“Evidence indicates that low-income households tend to live in buildings with poorer energy efficiency, leading to higher energy costs,” the report said. “Poor building energy efficiency and high energy costs can have significant financial and health effects on households in community housing.”

The report says there are many energy-efficiency improvements with payback periods of five years or less that can be incorporated into the building fabric during construction. While it acknowledges that energy-efficiency improvements involve upfront costs, it notes the benefits of lower energy bills, increased thermal comfort and lower carbon emissions.

The report comes in the wake of the CEFC’s newly announced Community Housing Program — a $250 million initiative to contribute to the construction of up 1000 new energy-efficient dwellings via Australia’s growing network of community housing providers. Providers will also be able to access finance to retrofit existing buildings to improve energy efficiency for tenants.

CEFC Community Housing Sector Lead Victoria Adams said the program will fill a funding gap, providing community housing providers with access to long-term debt finance aligned to their portfolio needs. As noted in the report, community housing organisations have limited sources of revenue and tend to face challenges sourcing private finance on appropriate terms.

“Community housing providers have typically faced financing constraints, which has limited their ability to invest for the long term,” said Adams. “We see this finance program as an important way to help ensure new dwellings are built to meet this growing demand and that new buildings have stronger energy-efficient standards, so tenants can experience the benefits of lower energy costs over the longer term.

“Over the next year, our goal is to help finance the construction of 1000 new dwellings, built to an average seven-star rating under the Nationwide Housing Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS). With this standard, energy use can be reduced by an estimated 25%, delivering significant savings benefits to tenants and building owners.”