When Fabio and Venee Fabbo were faced with the decision point many homeowners face to renovate or rebuild, it was money that made the decison for them.
While never happy with the layout of the Kaleen home, Fabio said they were leaning towards a knockdown rebuild, "but we didn't have enough money, which turned out to be a blessing".
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Now, three years after significant changes to the home to make it more liveable and sustainable, the couple have slashed their energy bills and yearly consumption in half and effectively increased the home's energy efficiency rating from 3.4 to 6.8.
"I lived in this house for about 10 years by myself before I got married, and I was never happy with the plan," he said.
"I got the idea [to just renovate] from friends who knew about building and said the home was structurally sound. We saved pretty close to 50 per cent of what it would have cost for a knockdown rebuild."
And should the Fabbo family decide to resell their Kaleen property, it could be worth an extra $125,000 more than houses less energy-efficient because of the sustainable inclusions in the house, according to the Domain Sustainability in Property Report, released on Thursday.
Meanwhile, for an energy-efficient unit, it could fetch $72,750 more than a unit that isn't energy efficient.
The report revealed that sustainable homes came with an attached premium price for home buyers hoping to save up on their energy bills. The ACT is the only jurisdiction with a mandatory disclosure of an EER for properties on sale or for rent. An EER measures how sustainable a home is, the higher the number, the greater the energy efficiency.
The Fabbo family kept the brick shell of the home, and focused on installing quality wall insulation, double glazed windows, a colourbond roof, and made everything run on electricity rather than gas.
Now only using column heaters to warm their home in winter, Fabbo said "that's all we need".
Now the Fabbo family uses 30 per cent of the amount of energy of a typical family home. The report found that the price per square-metre of homes in 2022 with an EER rating of 6 was 99.3 per cent more expensive than those with a poor EER in the capital.
While the report revealed that sustainability is important to Canberra buyers, it also found that they were "being steered subconsciously towards an energy efficient home" Domain chief of research and economics Dr Nicola Powell said.
"The interesting part for me in this research is the fact that buyers don't necessarily start their search by seeking an energy efficient home."
