The federal government is planning to amend the criteria for the National Affordability Rental Scheme (NARS) to incorporate green elements.
Following last week’s story, Architecture & Design can report the office for the minister for housing, Tanya Plibersek, has drafted amendments to specify more clearly sustainability criteria for dwellings.
A spokesperson for the minister said: “We are currently amending the regulations in time for round three of the scheme, which will open towards the end of the year”.
Applicants will be required to provide information on the energy rating of dwellings, detailing efficient lighting, environmentally-friendly hot water systems, ventilation and water tanks.
Projects that have high-energy efficiency ratings and incorporate good energy efficiency measures will be assessed “more favourably.”
In addition to the changes to the original National Affordability Rental Scheme Act 2008, the minister is planning to send out a questionnaire to successful applicants in round two and one of the scheme regarding the design of the dwellings and the sustainability of them.
“We will be asking the successful applicants of the first two schemes to complete a checklist- to give us an idea of what they are doing around sustainability and design,” the spokesperson said.
The NRAS second round resulted in 27,000 dwelling applications being made, of which 596 incentives for new affordable rental properties have already been given the green light for construction to begin right now.
In the first round of the scheme a total of 3,899 incentives were approved. Each successful applicant receives a tax incentive of between $5,000 and $8,000 for construction of a dwelling to be rented out a 20 percent below market rates.
The NRAS is expected to result in the construction of up to 50,000 new rental properties across Australia by 2012.
