Brokers are like rooftop solar - Part 2
One of my first posts Why Brokers Are Like Rooftop Solar was about praising Australia's rooftop solar achievements and how it is like how brokers have become customers' #1 choice for getting loans. Though I always suspected rooftop solar added value to your home, now there's definitive data that on average it is worth 2.7% to your house value or around $23,000, nationally. The data, that apparently was 2 years in the making, comes from Cotality in their recently released report Watt's it Worth which can be accessed from their website.
One of my reads on the Report was it found generally that the lower the solar penetration, the higher the additional value it provided. Eg. Hobart and regional Tasmania has the lowest national penetration at 16% and 11%, but some of the highest value increases at 5.4% ($30,000) and 3.1%, respectively, vs. Adelaide at 44% penetration and a 1.7% premium value.
Current rooftop solar penetration is at 38% nationally and is skewed towards locations seeing the most sun. Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth are in the low-mid 40s and Melbourne is at 25%. It may be that this premium, though material, may be short-lived. As penetration continues to grow it becomes a given as most of the houses purchased will have it.
Testing these findings on the ground locally with some real estate agents in eastern Melbourne, they said they don't really see the difference in transaction values. Now it may be that homes closer to the area's median value fair better with a solar premium than those worth 2-3x or more the median where it's less of a factor. Be interesting to see if the data has some correlation to this. Watch this space.
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