Proptech Spotlight: Home Energy Ratings - Exclusive Member Update

There are significant shifts happening across the residential energy efficiency landscape that will impact the proptech ecosystem at every level. From Home Energy Rating Regulation and REEDI to new Energy Efficiency Rental Standards, this is no longer just a niche environmental conversation — it is a fundamental market shift that changes how we value, finance and invest in property.

To help our community navigate these fast-moving changes, Proptech Australia hosted an exclusive, members-only Proptech Spotlight session last 26 June 2026.

It was hosted by Proptech Australia President Kylie Davis and presented by industry leader Cecille Weldon. This session pinpointed the critical strategic "sweet spot" for proptechs as new regulations roll out. Cecille is an innovative thinker, entrepreneur and a recognised subject matter expert in the convergence of sustainability, energy efficiency and property value. As the director of Weldonco Advisory, she pioneered the Banksia award-winning Liveability Features Framework and Liveability Appraisal proptech, which was later acquired by CSIRO.

The interactive session focused on four key areas where upcoming regulations create immediate commercial opportunities to deliver better outcomes for people and property.

Transcript:

Kylie Davis: Hello everyone, it's Kylie Davis here from Proptech Australia, with a really important update for members on energy efficiency, and I'm delighted to be joined by Cecille Weldon, Proptech Australia's most qualified person in energy efficiency in the country, who is heading up this initiative with us.

Kylie Davis: Just a quick acknowledgement of country. I am here today on Wangor land, on the Parramatta River, part of the Eora Nation, and Proptech Australia recognises traditional owners, past, present, and emerging, and welcomes them to this event. Cecille, I'm going to hand over to you, because I think your experience...

Cecille Weldon: Fantastic.

Kylie Davis: What about you? So, off you go.

Cecille Weldon: I'm on Garigal land on Sydney's northern beaches, also part of the Eora Nation. So, welcome everybody. I'm going to try and run through things in a fairly streamlined fashion, and you're always welcome to reach out and ask any questions of clarification if you need them.

Cecille Weldon: I think just by way of introduction, we've had a seat at the table in the development of home energy rating regulatory settings, which are being done nationally and have been done over some time. That's called READI. The READI Forum — that group now considers us as a key stakeholder in this whole sort of market transition around energy, energy efficiency, home energy ratings. But I'm going to give you a larger view of the opportunity today, so I'm just going to share my slides.

Cecille Weldon: So, this is our member update. That's me, Cecille Weldon, and my email address is there if you need to contact me about any clarification in the slide deck.

Cecille Weldon: So, let's look at the big picture, because there are a number of different areas that coalesce around three main opportunities for all members in the residential property space. One is this idea of key energy efficiency features. It's not a generic term — this is a specific set of features. The other is home energy ratings, and this is a whole new experience that's going to flow into our property experiences, services, and insights. And then there's the actual energy efficiency property upgrade, the new capitalisation conversation. So it doesn't much matter which your touchpoint is in residential property — this will impact you.

Cecille Weldon: So, it's very important to understand what's driving it, and to get a large lens on this very quickly. There's consumer demand for transparency, because they can understand afford to buy, afford to rent, but they can't see afford to live in. This means that they're not able to make — really, in those property decision-making moments, they're really impeded from being able to make that property selection that they need, that will empower them to have the right property for them, that matches their ability to pay for the running costs of that property, whether they're a renter or an owner.

Cecille Weldon: Energy productivity requirements, because as a nation, energy productivity is a key part of our nation's productivity. So there's a whole bunch of energy being wasted on our homes that could be used for industry and other parts of our economy, and certainly in an aspect of energy security right now, you can understand why that is important.

Cecille Weldon: There's also the rise of cost of living, and one of the key drivers in rise of cost of living for everyone is the cost of energy, and that's the cost of making our homes more comfortable. So you need to think, we're spending too much money trying to make our homes comfortable. So, they are linked. It's not just running cost and comfort — it's the running cost driving comfort needs.

Cecille Weldon: Then there's the risk profile for the banks and lenders. Currently, homes without these sorts of energy efficiency features or a really good home energy rating are increasingly becoming a risk in terms of the loan book for banks and lenders. This is reflected in what they're wanting from the valuation sector as well, and the valuation sector has been very early adopters and participants in piloting the very first phases of home energy ratings, because they understand how to serve their customers.

Cecille Weldon: And there's also missing property data that is really needed to service a whole market, and nobody's got any insight into this aspect of property around 11 million of our homes. So, you can understand — people that say, oh, it's just about regulation really have no idea of the bigger drivers. We need to understand that regulation is actually a very tiny part of this whole story, and that the market has already shifted. We are lagging, and our real estate customers are really, really lagging.

Cecille Weldon: Energy efficiency really delivers multiple benefits, and more and more research is coming to the surface that's saying the same thing. For real estate professionals, the homes are more attractive, they get more value at the point of transaction, and currently, they're leaving this value on the table because they're not making these features visible. Sometimes they're not able to because they are not in our CRMs, or our property maintenance, or our property compliance, or our listing portals. So, we are a barrier to our customers coming along the journey and getting more value and a shorter time on market for their property. Rather than enablers, we're actually a barrier. But we're also a barrier to ourselves and our own opportunities.

Cecille Weldon: For finance, lending, and investment, these properties are less risk. So it's gone from an opportunity to a risk of not doing, right? And so that's where you're going to see a lot of new loans coming down the line.

Cecille Weldon: For buyers, renters, and investors, these are more comfortable homes all year round, less running cost, and they really do represent a better capitalisation option. This is the new dream home — in actual fact, one that doesn't cost the earth to run.

Cecille Weldon: For government, it's the links to cost of living relief. This is a key driver for health, because uncomfortable homes have a real impact on health and health services, financial relief, and managing climate extremes. Very hot days, very cold days, all of those sorts of things are important to government.

Cecille Weldon: For the nation, as I said, energy productivity — a key driver for productivity. And for the environment, less impact. So, you know, I don't know any other regulation that delivers a plus for every single person involved in the journey, right? This is no longer benefiting one sector. It benefits everyone. This is like a win-win-win-win-win. How many times do you need to say win? There we are.

Cecille Weldon: I really want to address everybody. The most exciting part of this whole journey for me is that we are now entering what is now formally being called a market-driven phase. This is ours to lose. This has been developed for us. And this has now been confirmed by everyone in the READI Forum — that the market-driven phase will occur way before regulation, and that's because there's already market evidence that these properties get a higher price in a shorter time frame, but consumers are desperate for this information that we are not delivering.

Cecille Weldon: So, for your real estate customers, this is about now. Right? So, if you've got a set point of saying home energy ratings is regulation, I'll kick it down the road until I have to do it — you're not understanding the opportunity. And I'm here to be able to open that up for you.

Cecille Weldon: So, the main thing in the market-driven phase is to really bring key energy efficiency features into your focal point at point of sale or rent, and that is a now opportunity. And home energy ratings for existing homes are being released early — they're being released early to support renovation. So you need to think: home energy ratings for renovation. Later, it'll be home energy ratings for regulation.

Cecille Weldon: This gives us an opportunity for everyone to understand what their home's going to get in a regulatory environment, and if they're planning a renovation, which everyone is going to be probably in the next couple of years, to make sure these features are in that renovation, so they're best placed if they decide to put their property on the market. In any case, they get the short-term benefits of reduced running costs and increased comfort.

Cecille Weldon: And the other thing is the carrot. The carrots are going to come way before the stick, and a key example is something that was released last week — a no-interest loan from the New South Wales Government, which we're going to unpack. But there are low or no-interest loans beginning to flow into the property market, and these are targeting one thing and one thing only — the energy efficiency property upgrade. These loans can be one feature at a time, or can be a cluster. The banks are putting them online, the fintechs are also putting them online, and now the government's introducing them, and has key fintech partners as delivery partners in this process.

Cecille Weldon: So we are missing in this conversation. We need to understand that finance and the money is flowing. So if anyone thinks this is just going to suit the big end of town, and consumers without much money are going to be disadvantaged — this is not the case. There's going to be huge amounts of market enablement flowing through the market from now, but really beginning in force early next year.

Cecille Weldon: So, you have a beautiful six-month runway to get your teams up to speed, and to really start to be engaging your real estate customers, or your consumers if you're B2C. So, these are the key parts and opportunities for the market-driven phase.

Cecille Weldon: We've been at the development stage — collaborative research, develop, refine. This is in terms of a national pathway for regulation. We have now got this beautiful market-driven phase that's been put in place, and everything is aligning for that. And then that will lead to a regulation-driven phase, and we're going to hear about how New South Wales will be the first state to really begin that phase.

Cecille Weldon: Part of the regulation-driven phase is regulation readiness, because once it's announced, there'll probably be around an 18-month runway for you to get everything in place. But do not underestimate the importance and the opportunity to put in place new revenue opportunities, either for you or for your customers, or both, in the market-driven phase.

Cecille Weldon: So let's go through these three parts of the market-driven phase in a bit of detail. Key energy efficiency features are the focus point right now, and we participated in some really important research at the beginning of this year with REA Group, RVA Group and Domain. This was independent research looking at a property listing, and looking at how home energy ratings are going to look in a property listing, and whether our data standard — key energy efficiency features — if they were co-located with a home energy rating, did they make any difference?

Cecille Weldon: This research was overwhelming, I think, for Kylie and me, and everyone that participated in it, because what it showed is key energy efficiency features, when they're co-located with a home energy rating, help people understand what the rating is. Without it, people didn't know what it was, they were confused, there was uncertainty. When they were there, people went, "Oh, I understand — they're the features that are in the home. Can I have a look at those?"

Cecille Weldon: Then the big takeaway for us is that consumers said, even if energy ratings aren't there, can we have these now? This wasn't just one or two or three householders. Everyone wanted them now. And the bigger opportunity is they said, "Can we click through and see the master list?" This is people looking at a property ad, seeing the key energy efficiency features that are there — there might be three of them or two of them, you know, it might be split system air conditioning, ceiling fans — and then they're saying, "Can I see the whole list?" Because they want to know: what's my upgrade opportunity? What's the master list?

Cecille Weldon: So, this is very powerful research that validates our data standard and how important it is to meaning-making with this new opportunity that's coming down the line, because we're going from what a home has to what a home can do for you.

Cecille Weldon: But it's also an absolute catch point for all the consumer demand that the research is showing that the real estate sector isn't feeling. Because the real estate sector isn't feeling it because there's nothing visible for people to attach to. When people are given a visible point of features — key energy efficiency features — and someone leans in, consumers go, "Oh my god, this is wonderful. Where is that? Thank you. Oh my god, I've been looking for this. I can't see it, and I don't know how to ask for it." Whereas when it's there, they get engagement. So without visibility, our real estate customers are not getting the conversation happening, and so they're not hearing what consumers really want.

Cecille Weldon: The big takeaway from this research in terms of the premium household experience when home energy ratings become regulated: it's the home energy rating co-located with energy efficiency features. Now, it won't be mandated to have that there. It's likely the mandated settings will be very small. But what's important to know is that when you deliver the premium household experience, when they're co-located, there's full engagement in this property, and the perception of value and attraction goes up.

Cecille Weldon: This was really powerful research. This project was delivered to us as an opportunity because we've had a seat at this table and because we're seen as key stakeholders. I'm very grateful for REA and Domain for their really engaged participation in this research.

Cecille Weldon: It didn't matter much how the layout is. On the left there, you can see there's just key energy efficiency features and a list. The second one is a list with little prompts underneath it, and the third one is just spread through the normal list of property features, but just with some icon identifying it. That was pretty even — a third, a third, a third of householders liked this one or that one — but they didn't much care. All they care about is they want to see them highlighted.

Cecille Weldon: Key energy efficiency features — that's the title. Now, how do you deliver on that? It's very important. Those key energy efficiency features that were tested are what is enabled by the Proptech Energy Efficiency Data Standard, which you've heard me talking about for some time. What this delivers to everyone that signs up — and the final set, now this householder research has been completed, the final set is going to be delivered shortly, in the new financial year. We're just waiting on a couple of other key pieces from the CSIRO to put in the mix for everyone. This data standard enables it to flow into your CRMs and to be able to make those key energy efficiency features visible.

Cecille Weldon: So, in terms of you — you've got a data standard that enables a heading of features: key energy efficiency features. They drive value and engagement when they're visible. But also, most importantly, our data standard has now been included in real estate agent training. The training course that's being developed nationally to upskill agents on home energy ratings that the Commonwealth is developing with the states and territories — they asked us if we could please include it. This has now been included in real estate training. So the real estate agents will know that this key list exists, and they will start to want to see it in their CRMs and their enablement, whether it's appraisals, lead generation, maintenance, compliance, or insights. People are going to want to see it. This is driving literacy and engagement and removing barriers.

Cecille Weldon: There's also a big stick reason why you need to do it, because CSIRO interrogated some of the back-end data that we are using, the data sets that we are using to inform energy efficiency, and it showed that they are missing, wrongly identified, or ambiguously identified. So you have a little Horizon 1 problem right there, in that you need to clean up your data set because it is wrong. And we make this very easy for you, because you can just replace it with this very robust, very informed data set that's fit for purpose, that includes the appliances, the shell of the building, the energy generation — everything is fit for purpose for property experiences.

Cecille Weldon: The second part of the market-driven phase is the early release of home energy ratings, and this is coming with a big campaign. So this is not supposed to be shown until July the 1st, but we've got permission to be able to show it to you here today. So remember what I said — that home energy ratings for existing homes, remember they've existed for new homes — this is home energy ratings for existing homes, and it is being released early to support the renovation pathway for all Australians.

Cecille Weldon: Previously, you may have seen this logo, NatHERS — Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme. This is the software, but it's also the governing body that organises everything in terms of certification, compliance, codes of conduct, all sorts of things around any sort of national plan. NABERS is normally something for commercial buildings, but they do have something for apartment common areas, and this is being considered as a key part of the apartment conversation. So, NABERS Apartment Buildings gives you the common area rating, which is going to be very important moving forward, because 60% of the bills for large-scale apartments come from the common area expenses.

Cecille Weldon: 1 July, the home energy rating for existing homes will be released for renovation purposes. Stage 1 was the new software being pressure-tested in all sorts of environments, the training framework, everything, looking at how we can keep it on — people were using it, assessors were using it in place, it's been refined. The average assessment time has been cut to about 2.5 hours. There've been improvements to the certificate. They've opened assessor training and accreditation to everyone that's interested in this. And there's a new home energy rating website going to be launched very soon, with a "find an assessor" tool.

Cecille Weldon: Stage 2 is about to be released, and then beyond that, third-party software will be introduced, and some of our members have been involved. Through some of these updates, we've been able to connect them through to opportunities to provide UX interfaces for home energy rating assessments and to deliver all sorts of new opportunities to the market.

Cecille Weldon: Delivering a home energy rating requires an accredited NatHERS assessor — that's a Certificate IV in Home Energy Rating Assessment, and also upgrade guidance. But there's a new opportunity that has now been put in place, and this is called an accredited NatHERS data collector. This is an amazing new role, and to be honest, I think it's fit for purpose for many of us, many of the proptech.

Cecille Weldon: What that means is — in order to get scale, because if everyone's doing a home visit, it's going to take a while, and we need to really develop scale, that's why it's being released early for renovation purposes — a NatHERS data collector is somebody that may already be in the home. Does that sound like you guys? It could be somebody doing a floor plan, it could be somebody doing a building inspection, it could be somebody doing videos, LiDAR, it could be all sorts of things. You can get upskilled and certified as a NatHERS data collector. You have the software on an iPad or whatever, and you capture key data points that are then fed through to the remote NatHERS assessor, and they are able to generate that assessment. So there can be many data collectors, and they have a relationship with a NatHERS assessor. Linking the assessor with the data collector is something that everyone's working on right now, but this is an amazing opportunity to be able to leverage the fact that you're already in the home, or to be able to create a new business opportunity by training up a new workforce to be data collectors.

Cecille Weldon: The new training will be available by the end of 2026, and the accreditation from early 2027. So this is why I said the next six months are an opportunity for everyone to lean in and find out if this is right for you. The training will be open to new entrants and existing professionals, even real estate professionals. If individuals complete the training and accreditation requirements, they'll be able to work with an assessor to deliver those home energy ratings, so that new relationship is going to be an important one. And I certainly think if you're in building inspection, compliance, or maintenance, this is absolutely an opportunity you need to lean into.

Cecille Weldon: In terms of the back end of things, Accurate Enterprise is the CSIRO-enabled piece that enables the NatHERS assessment, and MagicPlan has been used to enable some of this data collector role. It doesn't have to be MagicPlan — you can reach out to CSIRO, and I can provide you those pathways to be considered as one of those partners.

Cecille Weldon: There were third-party user interfaces, an invitation to participate in that, and some of our proptech in that mix, which is exciting. So there are eight EOIs for user interfaces that have been received, and four UI developers aiming to submit for accreditation in coming months. So, this means that you can put something on the front end of a NatHERS assessment and deliver other opportunities.

Cecille Weldon: There's going to be a new brand. You're going to start to hear "home energy ratings for renovation." You're going to start to see advertising, social media — everything is going to be built. That NatHERS logo that you saw before is going to only be used for the governance part of this scheme. The new scheme is going to be much more user-friendly. The new logo is simply "Home Energy Rating." There's going to be a new website — rather than the NatHERS website, it's going to be homeenergyrating.gov.au.

Cecille Weldon: For all the cynics in the room, recent research showed that 81.4% of households that were asked and were in a position to, were interested in getting a home energy rating assessment to inform their property upgrades.

Cecille Weldon: There's going to be a digital media kit release that we'll get early information about. This is so perfect for your real estate customers, to be honest. We really need you to lean in and just drop any hesitation you've got about whether this is important or not, because the people that aren't in this conversation are really not going to be seen as understanding what the future of property really is.

Cecille Weldon: The kit's going to have key messages, promotional assets, newsletter content, and ways to connect. That is likely to also be given to the real estate sector. The rebrand for NatHERS will be rolled out in the next month or so. And remember I mentioned NABERS for apartment buildings? That's going to also have that brand with it, so people will understand they're part of the same ecosystem, even though that's for apartment building common areas and this is for the individual apartment and the home. The technical and regulatory brand will stay the same — NatHERS, Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme — but the consumer-facing brand will be this new one.

Cecille Weldon: In the Stage 2 part of the promotion, there's going to be lots of social media. I encourage you all to link into the Department of Climate Change's Instagram, Facebook, and follow energy.gov.au. You're going to start to see these things appear. Key messages: improve comfort, save on bills, energy efficiency made simple.

Cecille Weldon: This is the new version of the energy rating certificate, and remember, this has not been released. We're not allowed to share this, but you can have a look at it. This shows you what the Home Energy Rating Certificate will look like. This is on the low end — that's the number there, 35 out of 100. That's the one that will be on the property listing. The star at the top relates to the building details in the blue panel there. You can see there's a star next to building details. That top one relates to the shell of the building, but the overall rating, which includes the solar, the appliances, and the building shell, is out of 100.

Cecille Weldon: There are lots of opportunities about how to position a low rating and a high rating, and there's lots of training coming for that. So there's really important, transparent information, and very granular. What is important is the first version of this — on the back was the upgrade opportunity. The first version was a generic upgrade opportunity. The new version in the Stage 2 release, which is July 1 for renovations, is very important. The information on the back will be targeted to that property, not just the general climate zone. So, on the front is where it is now, on the back is how you can upgrade. And every time you upgrade, you get a higher rating.

Cecille Weldon: So, the first thing was key energy efficiency features — making them visible as soon as possible and getting your agents to start introducing them. There's an opportunity for lots of engagement and lunch-and-learns from the CRMs once you've got that on board to help agents understand what they are and why they're important.

Cecille Weldon: The second part of the market-driven phase is the home energy rating released for renovation and aligning to all of the campaigns that are going to happen. The third one is the really exciting part of the story, and that's the low or no-interest loans. You're going to start to see them flow through the market much more, at much more speed, because a market-driven phase is as it sounds. We need finance, we need clarity, we need visibility, we need rewards by showcasing these in the property when it's time to sell or rent. These are all the drivers to catalyse a market, and they're all collecting. We have to make sure we're opening our data sets to receive these.

Cecille Weldon: This is the one announced by New South Wales. What's important to know is this is for landlords as well. So anyone in the property management space that thinks that landlords don't have the money — why should anyone think they've got the money? This is for landlords as well. It's a combined income of about $210,000 per annum that gets you access to a no-interest loan of up to $15,000 to be able to upgrade your home with any of these things. And you can see down the bottom, NatHERS assessment — you can also use the money to get a home energy rating assessment.

Cecille Weldon: It's been delivered by two fintechs: Bright and Plenty. These are the approved delivery partners. The fintech in this space is very interesting. I know that a lot of proptech have a convergence of fintech and proptech, and this is certainly something for you to put on your radar. Some of your solutions are already fit for purpose for this, but you don't have the energy efficiency data set. All you need is that data set, and then the money can flow to the right key pieces.

Cecille Weldon: When you go to the Bright website and Plenty website, what makes these fintechs interesting is they're feature by feature. You go in and you see all of the features, and you can choose which one. Some of them are lower items, like a ceiling fan, others are bigger things, like a household battery storage.

Cecille Weldon: So, the regulation-driven phase. We've talked about the market-driven phase — that's now about getting all your ducks in a row and leaning in, because the people that understand and get all of this in place early for their real estate customers, people are going to be sticky. If you're not, people are going to jump ship to those that are, I can tell you right now, because this is a big flow-through opportunity for everyone.

Cecille Weldon: In the regulation-driven phase, home energy ratings start being used instead of renovation for regulation — that's at point of sale or rent. At the same time, in this regulatory phase, key energy efficiency features are extremely important because they're going to be co-located. So the key energy efficiency features are important now to catalyse the market in a market-driven phase, and then what they provide is a soft landing for when home energy ratings become regulated into the marketplace. They're very important.

Cecille Weldon: New South Wales is going to be the first to make an announcement, and it's likely to be an 18-month runway from that announcement. So there are two documents that you need to know about. One is the national document that's been developed, that we were a part of, that identifies our data standard as being a key market enablement and identifies the proptech sector as key stakeholders in the whole journey. But this is what has been pressure tested through lots and lots of piloting and research, of which ours was one. So all the assumptions in this document that's been created with all the states and territories in harmony — harmonised settings nationally. Every state and territory will bring it in at a time that's right for them. This document has been pressure tested since it was first released.

Cecille Weldon: The next document you need to know about is the New South Wales Consumer Energy Strategy. What's important for you to know — Action 19 in this commits the New South Wales Government to the introduction of voluntary disclosure of home energy ratings, and moving through into the possibility of a mandatory setting. And that's what we're going to hear in the next few months. The New South Wales Government, because of this, has been key to all sorts of pressure testing. Is it fit for purpose? Is it scalable? What is it going to look like in a property ad? What are the compliance settings we're going to put in place? What's going to be mandated? How's the real estate industry going to operationalise these in their workflow processes? And we've been a part of all of these stories.

Cecille Weldon: The different roles, the perspective of different stakeholders — all of these have been in consideration, and all of these documents have been finalised. There's also been real estate training being developed for your real estate customers, and I was lucky to be a part of that as well. So… I'll just stop the share for a second.

Kylie Davis: We've had some great questions, Cecille.

Cecille Weldon: Awesome.

Kylie Davis: So, first of all, I want to thank you for the work that you've done on this, because a lot of the shape of this has been — having participated with you in the consultation with government — it is a direct output of some of the vision that you've had for this sector. But the questions that we've got are...

Kylie Davis: David Hellier from Arcanaut asks: do we know yet if the 0% interest loan will require a NatHERS existing home certificate for qualification?

Kylie Davis: So, do you need to get an assessment and a certificate before you do it, and then do it again? And I guess there's costs involved in that.

Cecille Weldon: My understanding is that it isn't required, David, but I've got a meet-up with the New South Wales Government next week, and I will clarify that for you. My understanding is that the assessment is just one of the things you might like to get. If there's an upgrade opportunity already in that property — so it might be space heating and cooling — the main criteria is around the income of $210,000 combined income. And renters can also apply for it if they're things that can be added to the property — they're not fixed in the property, they're things that they can bring in with them. So they're available to renters as well as homeowners and landlords.

Kylie Davis: Okay. And a follow-up question to that: would photo or video evidence of key energy features from each property be a valuable attribute to make visible on the listing platforms?

Cecille Weldon: Look, the beauty about the data standard — and you haven't received it yet, David, you're one of our signatories, so thank you — one of the things we provide is the line of sight, so "is it there? Can I see it?" And then there's the verification levels. So, the big verification is going to be not just the photograph, which will be important, but also, for instance, it might be the model, the make, the date it was installed, the warranty documents. This is where the opportunity to upload evidence rather than just a photograph comes in. So when it comes to an appliance, the model and the make — we have an API for you that if you've captured the model and the make, you can identify the year that it was installed and the energy rating at the time it was installed.

Cecille Weldon: So, anyone receiving the data set has these add-on things that they can add to deliver more value, because more verified means more valuable. And I think the more we provide that opportunity to your real estate customers, if you're real estate-facing, if you're property maintenance, I certainly would be capturing as much as you can. Because especially in property maintenance, if something gets put in, it can go into an asset register, it can be used for depreciation, and you can say, "Hey, look, it's eight years old, it's going to need to be renewed." So you can be ahead of the game, because a lot of these appliances need renewing probably every eight years.

Cecille Weldon: The two things to remember here for everyone are: is it in the property? Make sure it's the most efficient one if you need to replace it — replace it with more efficient. The other one — if it isn't in the property, add it. And that's what the key energy efficiency data set is going to be able to give you.

Kylie Davis: Yeah, and I guess what we're seeing here is, you know, for decades, we've been fixated on European appliances, and Caesarstone benchtops, and things like that as the definers of value — open plan, or flow, and all that sort of stuff. But I guess where we're moving to, in addition to those things which are luxury items and make a beautiful-looking home, what we're now looking at are those features that are actually going to determine the running costs of the property, and therefore the value of the property going forward.

Cecille Weldon: The other thing I can see coming forward is home energy ratings being released on 1 July for renovation. If I'm going to sell my property in three years' time, and I can say, "Look, this was my home energy rating, I've made this improvement, and this is what it is now" — you can't tell me that's not going to be meaningful in that marketplace, because that shows that the person has upgraded in the right direction. So, I think the big thing is starting to have proof, getting people to keep these things, opportunities to upload them, and really engaging the real estate sector into what it is and making sure — because this is stuff they can't bullshit. They don't know what they're looking at. And if you've got the knowledge for them as a proptech, then this is an opportunity to bring them along on the journey. Currently, us and the real estate sector are the barriers to this opportunity.

Kylie Davis: Yeah, so another question — if future governments reduce or simplify NCC energy efficiency requirements, do you think the market will increasingly rely on independent home energy ratings and digital disclosure of energy features to differentiate properties rather than the regulation themselves?

Cecille Weldon: The National Construction Code is for the new home, and that's got its own journey. The important thing is, people are doing it for the new home, but developers and builders are doing it for compliance. They don't see it as a showcase feature, like a European appliance or a granite benchtop. This is the big shift — we need to enable that to be showcased.

Cecille Weldon: So what people are saying is, it's in the house, but nobody's identifying it. So that's what I mean by "you're leaving it on the table," because the feature's already in the property. The difference is going to be that new homes that are compliant with the National Construction Code — we've never been able to see people showcase that compliance in the market. We've never been able to say, "This is now attractive to the market and we are showcasing this when that property's for sale or rent." So, this is a big difference — it's a market-enabled opportunity now, not just a compliance setting.

Cecille Weldon: What is going to happen is, the more key energy efficiency features become visible, the more consistent they are — which is why we needed a data standard. Our data standard is now being considered as the naming protocol for everyone. I've had meetings with lots of state governments and lots of different players in this ecosystem, because everyone's using the wrong name. And you can see, even in the New South Wales Government, what they're calling those things is different to what Bright's calling them and what Plenty's calling them for the loan. So our data standard is going to start to influence the name of everything. So when everyone does a search, everyone pulls up the funding, the upgrade opportunity — everything at once.

Cecille Weldon: So yes, this idea of being able to quantify the energy efficiency feature — not just solar panels, but a solar PV system. How old is the inverter? How big is the system? We're going to drive literacy and engagement, because there's a hunger for it.

Kylie Davis: Yeah, I was going to say that. The beauty of this is it's doing what we know works so well, right? We're basically creating a consistent data set around features that people are keen to understand, because when they see those features in a property, they align them to a value of that property.

Cecille Weldon: Visibility equals value.

Kylie Davis: Yeah, because there's running costs, right? We've got another question from Marco from Hubble. Hey, Marco — what is the expiry of the certificate?

Cecille Weldon: They're thinking it will be about 10 years. If you upgrade your home, then you would be wise to get it done again. I think this is going to be an opportunity. It's going to be more and more cost-effective for people to do it.

Cecille Weldon: The other thing I'd say — if you're thinking about getting into the data collection opportunity, start with working with the key energy efficiency features first. Get everyone in your team to start identifying or enabling the key energy efficiency features, because a lot of these are similar touchpoints. They align to the data collector. So you need to think of it as: this is simple, a little bit more complex, and then very complex in the NatHERS assessment. It's a really interesting education pathway.

Kylie Davis: Yeah, I think it's interesting to think, too — when am I going to need a certificate? At the moment, with the approach being "renovation before regulation," if you have amazing features in your property that make it very energy efficient, then you would go to the trouble of getting a certificate so that you can showcase it. But if you've just bought a new home and you're living in Melbourne and it's an absolute fridge in winter, then you don't need a certificate to say that we should probably do something to fix the heating and make the place more insulated.

Cecille Weldon: It depends how big the upgrade is. And this is where the data standard enables just one feature at a time. "Oh my god, the hot water system's running out, let's get a better one." But if you're looking at a big renovation and a big upgrade, you'd want to get a home energy rating, because you want that to be much more targeted. Now, remember — the larger renovations are going to need energy efficiency compliance anyway. So this is where the opportunity lies. Some people are just curious — "What would my energy rating be?" I think what we're going to see over time with any sort of scale is the cost is going to come down, the time to do it is going to come down, and it'll start to become normalised. We have an opportunity to be the trusted guide as it enters that system. And take the drama out. We're so used to drama every time there's change in the way we do things around here, but we need to really start to see this as a change that you're embracing.

Kylie Davis: We've got another question from David. We know BASIX has two options for an energy rating for renovations over $50,000. How can we make the choice of a NatHERS rating the default instead of the simplified energy model? It would be good to see how to move more stakeholders down that path.

Cecille Weldon: You'll be glad to know that the New South Wales Government is working on that, David. They're working on how to bring NatHERS into BASIX into alignment with the whole national conversation. But the main thing for everyone is this is about the big opportunities for existing homes. It's not just the new home. The new opportunity is the huge amount of stock of existing homes. And so that has always been a little bit messy for everyone, but this framework, the features themselves, is a simple way.

Cecille Weldon: People knew the home was uncomfortable, but they didn't know why. We now have the drivers of comfort, in terms of features and the way they all come together relationally, in terms of a home energy rating. So this is going to be a game changer, because people didn't know why it was uncomfortable, so they didn't know how to make it better. The whole nation's going to be beginning the upgrade journey at the same time. You need to think of it — everyone's going to begin at the same point. 80% of our properties are pretty awful, so they're probably going to be around 40 or 50 out of 100, which means everybody's property has an upgrade opportunity, and that's the new revenue opportunity.

Kylie Davis: We're all off to Bunnings.

Cecille Weldon: So, is there any updates for everyone? And thanks for those questions; they were fantastic.

Kylie Davis: Yeah, excellent. Any other questions? Nope.

Kylie Davis: Well, look, this is going — we are going to be sharing a lot more information as it becomes available. If there is one thing that you can do if you haven't done it yet, please sign up to the Energy Efficiency Standard, the Proptech data standard. And Cecille, do you want to just pop back to that slide to show the QR code?

Cecille Weldon: Yeah, sure. And also, I'd say, if you've got any partners in your ecosystem — if you're pushing data to a CRM, to a property listing portal, to property maintenance, whatever it is — get them on the journey, because the data needs to flow from one to the other to make this really, really a big opportunity for everyone. So get everyone on board if they don't know about it.

Kylie Davis: Yeah, the sooner we all get on the same data set, the faster we can actually start to iterate tech that really solves for this. While we're all spending time, attention, and energy — ironically — and resources cleaning up our data before we move it through, that's literally a waste.

Kylie Davis: The other thing I'd say is that we know Australians are calling out for this. Even when David asks about what happens if governments change and it starts to get watered down — during the last Liberal federal government, Australians installed more solar onto rooftops than they had ever before, even though the narrative was that climate change was a myth.

Kylie Davis: So, if we can not think of this politically, but think about this as the importance of empowering people through good quality data about what is happening in their properties and what they can do to their properties to upgrade and improve them — then it won't matter what governments do around enforcing or not getting behind properties. We actually just want the data, it doesn't matter where it goes, to basically tell the story about what good energy efficiency looks like in a property.

Cecille Weldon: And I think, just to finish off for everybody, you need to understand that the market is already catalysed. It's not about a political party now. This is about rising cost of living, impacting everyone, and everyone needing a solution for that. There are solutions in a property. There are ways to empower people. Nearly one in three people have solar PV. The household battery storage initiative was too successful. Australians love agency. They love freedom and agency, and this gives people agency over running cost and comfort. I think everyone needs to not think that it's about regulation or not, about politics or not. It's just about being able to make the best decisions for them. We need to give them the data, and then step away to help people make the best decisions for themselves.

Kylie Davis: But also create amazing tech that makes it easy for them to go down these paths and upgrade, or make their properties more liveable. Thank you so much, Cecille. It's been a fantastic update, thank you.