Commercial property owners must prepare for new regulations

Commercial property owners, including businesses, must prepare for new regulations requiring all owners to reveal a building’s energy rating when selling or leasing, an industry expert warns.

The statement comes after the Government passed the Building Energy Efficiency Disclosure Bill last month, with the Commercial Building Disclosure scheme to begin in October. A transition period will occur for the first 12 months, with the full scheme to begin in October 2011.

The new laws dictate owners and lessors of commercial office space with a net lettable area of 2,000 m2 or more must disclose the energy efficiency rating to prospective buyers and tenants when that space is sold, leased or subleased.

“The aim of the scheme is to ensure that credible and meaningful energy efficiency information is given to prospective purchasers and lessees of large commercial office space,” the Government said in a recent update.

The legislation will come into effect through two stages. The first stage, to cover the first 12 months to October 2011, will only require owners to obtain a National Australian Built Environment Rating System Energy base, instead of the full Building Energy Efficiency Certificate.

This preliminary rating will need to be disclosed for any advertisement regarding the sale, lease or sublease of the office in question.

After those first 12 months are over, owners will need to obtain a full Building Energy Efficiency Certificate. This includes three components – a NABERS Energy base building rating, a tenancy lighting assessment and an energy efficiency guidance.

The tenancy lighting register will require accredited assessors to benchmark existing tenancy lighting, while the energy efficiency guidance will include general advice to building owners on general energy efficiency opportunities.

While the scheme has been announced and will begin in October, the department of Climate Change has said it will announce a specific date in the next few weeks.

But until then, DTZ Research commercial property research director David Green-Morgan says building owners need to start preparing for the new regulations.

“Business owners will need to start getting documentation together for these assessments and so on. Just as you quote the price of whatever you’re selling, you’re also going to have to give that energy efficiency rating.”

“Absolutely property owners should start preparing, because it’s going to take a certain amount of time for these ratings to be completed. Probably some of the bigger buildings already have a rating and know what they’re doing in terms of that, but there are others that won’t.”

But despite the extra work for business owners, Green-Morgan says there will be an opportunity for consultancy groups and advisors who may want to start offering “green” advice to building owners.

“From what I understand this isn’t something landlords can just do themselves, so I’m sure building consultancy teams are rubbing their hands at this point. Every applicable building will need a rating on it, so there’ll be a lot of work to do.”