Sustainability goes mainstream for Australian property buyers
Green is the new black among prospective homebuyers
2 min
The number of for-sale listings promoting eco-friendly inclusions in homes has jumped in recent years as would-be buyers prioritise sustainability, new research reveals.
Analysis by Ray White shows a clear trend in what the real estate group has dubbed ‘green listings’, with energy and water-saving features the most frequently mentioned in ads.
“Over the last three years, there has been an increasing proportion of listings with ‘solar panels’, ‘battery’ or ‘off-grid’ appearing in advertising copy,” Ray White data analyst William Clark said.
“This is not an exhaustive list of ways a house can be green, however solar panels were the most frequently advertised, while batteries and being off-grid make a house green to the greatest degree.”
Sellers are responding to increased demand from homebuyers but regulatory changes in some states, including laws against gas connections in new builds, are also driving the trend, Mr Clark said.
Most listings with green features mention just one, he added.
“Although, it is also becoming more frequent over time to see two to four and even five green features per house. In 2023, we even saw eight listings with five green features.”
Queensland had the highest proportion of green listings (20.3 per cent) in the 2022-23 financial year, followed closely by the Northern Territory (19.6 per cent) and South Australia (19.5 per cent).
The country’s two most populated states, New South Wales and Victoria, had the lowest proportion of green listings with 11.4 per cent of all ads each.
“There’s no denying that all states have sufficient physical space to support more properties with rainwater tanks and a self-powered grid, but we saw in the results that Queensland, with large amounts of wealth along the coast, had the most green listings,” Mr Clark said.
“Meanwhile, New South Wales had a lot of ground to cover in last place. As the industry modernises and more laws are put in place, will 2024 see even more green listings?”
The findings mirror analysis by data house PropTrack earlier this, which found 55 per cent of surveyed Australians rate a home’s energy efficiency as being “extremely important”.
That figure was up 17 per cent on the same period last year, perhaps indicating the desire to save money during the cost-of-living crunch, the research concluded.
The analysis found solar power was the green feature most searched for (71 per cent) while other items on property searchers’ wish lists included double-glazed windows, effective insulation, hydronic heating and electric vehicle charging.
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Odd Culture Group brings a new kind of after-dark energy to the CBD, where daiquiris, disco and design collide beneath the city streets.
Odd Culture Group brings a new kind of after-dark energy to the CBD, where daiquiris, disco and design collide beneath the city streets.
2 minSydney’s nightlife has long flirted with reinvention, but its latest arrival suggests something more deliberate is taking shape beneath the surface.
Razz Room, the new underground bar and disco from Odd Culture Group, has opened in the CBD, marking the group’s first step into the city centre.
Tucked below street level on York Street, the venue blends cocktail culture with a shifting, late-night rhythm that moves from after-work drinks to full dancefloor immersion.
The space itself is designed to evolve over the course of an evening. An upper bar offers a more intimate setting, suited to early drinks and conversation, while a sunken dancefloor anchors the venue’s later hours, with a rotating program of DJs and live performances.
“Razz Room will really change shape throughout a single evening,” says Odd Culture Group CEO Rebecca Lines.
“Earlier, it’s geared towards post-work drinks with a happy hour, substantial food offering, and music at a level where you can still talk.”
As the night progresses, that tone shifts.
“As the evening progresses at Razz Room, you can expect the music to get a little louder and the focus will shift to live performance with recurring residencies and DJs that flow from disco to house, funk, and jazz,” Rebecca says.
The concept draws heavily on New York’s underground club scene before disco became mainstream, referencing venues such as The Mudd Club and Paradise Garage. But the intention is not nostalgia.
“The space told us what it wanted to be,” Lines explains. “Disco started as a counter culture… Razz Room is no nostalgia project, it’s a reimagining of the next era of the discotheque.”
Design, too, plays its part in shaping the experience. The upper level is warm and textural, with timber finishes and burnt-orange tones, while the sunken floor shifts into a more theatrical mood, combining Art Deco references with a raw, industrial edge.
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