Affordable or sustainable – can’t we have both?

Climate change deniers aside, most people agree that taking steps towards sustainability in an effort to curb global heating is a desirable aim.

Meanwhile, opportunist property investors excluded, there is a general agreement that we need to build more homes for more people and thereby, presumably, make renting and owning a place to live more affordable.

Both of these aims – sustainability and housing the population – are highly laudable but, with the current focus on our housing crisis, a new report reveals that sustainability is taking a back seat in apartment construction – except for at the top end of the market.

According to a study commissioned by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) they may be mutually exclusive for most apartment buyers.

The study, Delivering sustainable apartment housing: new build and retrofit,  undertaken by researchers from University of New South Wales (UNSW) and RMIT, investigated how Australia might build new apartments, and retrofit older ones so that they were more sustainable.

Simply put, it examined how developers could maximise comfort and energy efficiency while minimising consumption and waste.

However, the study discovered that the relatively few apartment blocks that exceed or even just meet sustainability standards tend to be at the more expensive end of the market.

In other words, if we want to create more affordable homes, we are probably going to inadvertently sacrifice sustainability – at least under current building practices.

“Developers are in the business of selling apartments, not managing energy supplies,” one consultant told researchers.

The problems start with too few climate-friendly considerations in either the building processes or the design of the completed homes.

Cost-cutting measures during the actual building processes relegate sustainability to a luxury, rather than a necessity that should benefit all of us.

The AHURI report makes sobering reading, suggesting that sustainability is not even on the radar as we rush to find a solution for our critical housing shortage.

“The fact that sustainable building performance is not adequately reflected in property valuation compounds the problem,” says research author Professor Hazel Easthope from UNSW.

So can it be fixed?  And if so how? The research suggests changes in the design, construction and adaptation of apartments.

Developers, it says, must be encouraged to embed sustainability priorities in project feasibility, supported by better regulations and easier access to green finance.

Meanwhile, the construction of apartment buildings needs to adhere to what was designed with anti-sustainable cost-cutting removed.

The report also suggests that property valuation needs to better reflect building performance and consumers need easier access to that kind of information.

If your fridge can have a star rating on its energy usage, why can’t your new or renovated apartment block?

Chandler’s stars

Speaking of star ratings, NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler’s iCIRT program has helped to push a lot of dodgy developers out of the building industry. But hasn’t that in turn put a brake on the number of apartments being built?

Not according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics  which show that between March and April, approvals for units in NSW went up 12 per cent while they fell 18.6 per cent and 22.8 per cent in Victoria and Queensland, respectively.

You can only read so much into monthly changes from state to state but the differences are obvious. It seems apartment buyers in NSW feel a lot more confident that they won’t be sold a pup.

Building better blocks is a solid business decision, especially now that developers are less likely to be able walk away from their faulty towers.

Could the same apply to more environmentally friendly buildings? Sustainability, just like reliability, is already a selling point for many purchasers and renters, as the increasing demand for electric vehicle charging suggests.

And surely environmental awareness should be built into all new apartment blocks as a necessity, not a luxury.

A version of this column first appeared in the Australian Financial Review.