This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
NEW houses built in Queensland and apartment projects in the near future, will be required to achieve a minimum 5 stars energy rating under new sustainable housing regulations.
Premier Anna Bligh said the 5-star rating out of 10, will also apply to major renovations.
“If we want to build a greener future for Queensland, the change has to start at home.
“One of our targets under the Towards Q2: Tomorrow’s Queensland program is to cut the State’s carbon footprint by a third and these measures will reduce the amount of electricity we use.
“From 1 March 2009, the current minimum rating will be increased to 5 stars instead of the current 3.5 to 4,” she added.
Bligh said the higher rating would also apply to all new units from March 01 2010.
Bligh said the changes means architects and designers will need to give more thought to the orientation of the house, location of rooms, amount of insulation, ventilation, shading such as eves and awnings, and window location and size.
The Government expects the initiative will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by around 85,000 tonnes by 2020-equivalent to taking 17,000 cars off the road.
The announcement of the new regulations follows three months of public consultation on a discussion paper-Improving sustainable housing in Queensland-which proposed 11 new measures.
Nearly all the proposed measures were strongly supported by the community and building industry stakeholders and will be implemented over the next two years.
“There will be further investigations and consultation on other measures such as a star rating for building materials, minimum energy ratings for pool pumps, and higher performance standards for large new homes,” Bligh concluded.
Australian Property Journal
