The gift of building upgrade finance comes early this Christmas

It might not be a barbeque stopper or a water cooler conversation, but building upgrade finance is a potential game changer in South Australia – and just in time for Christmas. 

Despite a lot of misinformation stemming from the scheme’s detractors, legislation has passed through State Parliament – legislation that will allow for a new financing mechanism to upgrade commercial buildings. 

The Property Council has long fought for sensible changes to the Local Government Act (1999) for a new financing mechanism for upgrading commercial buildings in South Australia. 

That means commercial building owners will soon be able to access loans to retrofit their buildings – buildings that house businesses for employers and jobs for employees. After all, any measures that stimulate upgrades to buildings stimulate jobs growth. 

It’s an important mechanism for our landlords because building upgrades can reduce operating costs, increase yields, help attract and retain tenants and improve asset values. And whilst it’s a no-brainer for building owners, it’s also common sense for tenants. 

Improved indoor amenity, staff productivity, contributions towards corporate social responsibility goals, and in many cases a net reduction in operating costs. 

It makes a lot of sense on an economic front, not only for building owners and occupiers as a means of managing their utility costs, but for the businesses that can provide the clean technologies and solutions that lift building performance. 

And it comes at an important juncture for the property sector – when our city’s lower grade building vacancy rates are climbing quicker than our state’s jobless rate. 

With the support of the State Government and a number of crossbench MLCs, we’ll now be able to assist building owners to retrofit their buildings to enhance environmental efficiencies – an approach that will deliver more green buildings for South Australia. 

Importantly, this great advocacy outcome means the proposed scheme will remove barriers to upgrading commercial buildings and lead to a more sustainable built environment. 

After all, assisting building owners to retrofit their buildings to enhance environmental efficiencies is an approach that will deliver more green buildings for South Australia. We’re talking about reducing energy and water consumption, preventing or reducing pollution and ensuring discharge or waste isn’t harmful to the environment. 

This sector underpins South Australia’s economy, providing direct and indirect employment to more than 168,000 people and accounting for 26 per cent of wages and salaries – and that’s why the Property Council sought and secured game-changing reforms like building upgrade finance.