Building Energy Efficiency Disclosure Act 2010

The Building Energy Efficiency Disclosure Act requires energy efficiency information in the form of a Building Energy Efficiency Certificate, to be provided when commercial office over a certain metrage is offered for sale or lease.

The most recent Commercial Buildings Disclosure Programme, updated over June-September 2016, lowered the mandatory disclosure threshold on commercial office buildings from 2,000 to 1,000 square meters. This should see an additional 1,000 commercial buildings now disclose their energy efficiency when they sell or lease their property and aims to deliver more than $50 million in energy savings, and approximately 3.5 million tonnes of emission reductions over five years. Disclosure changes will commence 1 July 2017.

In relation to lowering the threshold, the frequency of required tenancy lighting assessment was lowered, to every five years instead of each year. This provision entered into effect as of September 1st 2016.

Heavy financial penalties apply for non-compliance. The aim of the Building Energy Efficiency Disclosure Act is to improve the energy efficiency of Australia's large office buildings by helping to provide buyers and tenants with credible, comparable energy efficiency information to take into account in their market decisions. An update in effect since 1 July 2015 reduces the regulatory burden on building owners and landlords and waives the requirement to provide a certificate under certain circumstances.