Climate ratings could spare buyers from risky homes
Poppy Johnston and Kat Wong |
Australian homes could be rated on their vulnerability to bushfires, floods and other climate risks in a move that would keep buyers from uninsurable properties.
A resilience rating is among suggestions released by the Productivity Commission on Monday to manage the costs of climate change and cutting emissions to “free up resources for more productive activity”.
Ditching the fringe benefits tax exemption for electric cars has also been flagged with view to reducing incentive overlap, a move clean transport advocates warn could “slam the brakes” on EV adoption.
Recognising homes make up a big share of household wealth, the nation’s productivity think tank considers housing stock a priority for bolstering protections against floods, fires and storms.
It wants a national database of climate hazards and a star rating system as a starting point and the development of guidance on affordable ways to make homes more resilient, such as replacing a roof with a fire-resistant design.
At the moment, homebuyers know less about a dwelling’s climate exposure than owners, which might lead them to overpay or be stuck in an insurable property.
The situation also leaves sellers with little incentive to invest in upgrades.
A star-rating tool could also help inform insurance pricing, the interim report said, with discounted premiums available for owners who invest in adaptation.
Resilient Building Council chief executive Kate Cotter said insurers and banks already factored climate risk in pricing their premiums, but doing the same for upgrades was not so easy.
“They’re sort of pricing-in the negative and now we can help them price-in the positive,” she told AAP.
The national not-for-profit has been working on voluntary disaster rating systems and Ms Cotter believes there is appetite to make it compulsory to disclose home vulnerabilities to climate change.
She said any kind of mandatary disclosure evoked concerns around property prices and insurability.
“The most important thing will be that people have a pathway out of a bad rating.”
Resilience star ratings are among many interim recommendations to minimise the costs of cutting emissions and adapting to climate change, paving the way for efficiency gains.
Both “overlaps and gaps” were identified in the transport sector, with the Productivity Commission calling for incentives to cut emissions from heavy vehicles.
It also believes the electric car exemption from the Fringe Benefits Tax and state tax carve-outs should be wound back, arguing new vehicle efficiency standards are already doing enough heavy lifting to make EVs cheaper than gas guzzlers.
Electric Vehicle Council chief executive officer Julie Delvecchio warned against dumping the tax exemptions.
“Scrapping the discount on EVs now would pull the handbrake on electric vehicle adoption across Australia meaning more toxic pollution, poorer health outcomes and a deeper addiction to foreign-owned fossil fuels,” she said.
Expanding the safeguard mechanism and speeding up clean energy approvals were also recommended by the nation’s top productivity experts in their second of five planned reports.
“Australia’s net-zero transformation is well under way,” commissioner Barry Sterland said.
“Getting the rest of the way at the lowest possible cost is central to our productivity challenge.”
Treasurer Jim Chalmers is preparing to convene a roundtable in search of solutions to the nation’s lacklustre productivity.
AAP
