Apartment Buildings

Apartments by the numbers

• Up to 60% of energy consumption in large buildings, like apartments, comes from common areas and shared services
• Around 25% of administrative fund levies are spent on utility bills alone
• 15% of Australian households live in apartments, according to the 2016 Census
• 80% of people want information about a building’s environmental performance at the point of sale or lease

About NABERS ratings for Apartment Buildings

NABERS ratings for apartment buildings quantify your building’s energy and water performance. We give your building a rating from one to six stars, based on the energy use of shared services such as car parks, lobbies and gyms. Your water rating can include shared water use only, or all water use, dependent on your preference and metering.

Apartment buildings with at least four apartments on at least two floors are eligible. You can find out more about minimum requirements at the NABERS Energy and Water for Apartment Buildings Rules page.

Energy and Water ratings

Use NABERS to rate the energy and water usage (paid for by the owners corporation) within the common property areas of your building. This includes (but is not limited to):

• Lifts and lobby areas
• Car parks
• Gyms
• Pools
• Water features

Note: The rating does not include the energy consumption of individual residences.

Preparing for your rating

To prepare for your NABERS rating:

1. Get ready: Source quotes from a few NABERS Accredited Assessors to understand the scope of work, then present your case to your owners’ corporation for approval.
2. Gather your data: Collect 12 months of historical data on energy and water consumption, and details about the size and features of your building. Your Assessor will be able to guide you.
3. Achieve NABERS certification: Organise for your Assessor to conduct a site visit to validate your data and identify areas for improvement.
4. Improve your rating: Take action to reduce your energy and water consumption during the next 12 months and enjoy the savings. Collect data to feed back into your next rating to track your performance.

For more information, consult our NABERS for Apartment Buildings fact sheet.

NABERS Waste Platform

Use the NABERS Waste Platform to upload and track your building’s waste data month-to-month. The platform automatically converts it into useful management insights. The different graphs on the platform represent key performance waste metrics that are designed to demonstrate how well a building separates its waste into streams that can be composted and recycled.

Find out more about pricing for your sector, and the NABERS Waste tool.

Gas-Powered Central Domestic Hot Water Systems and NABERS Ratings

Currently, NABERS ratings for Apartment Buildings exclude the common property domestic hot water systems. This exclusion allows a building to achieve 100% on the NABERS Renewable Energy Indicator—even if it uses a gas-powered system for the central domestic hot water. Stakeholders have flagged this issue, and NABERS is taking steps to address this.

Why were central gas hot water systems excluded?

In 2018, when NABERS created the Apartment Building rating, the NABERS program was only able to collect limited data on gas-powered central hot water systems. This was partly driven by the fact that some central heating systems are managed by external companies, who bill each resident based on their hot water usage. Buildings in these situations struggled to source the gas usage associated with this equipment, as gas bills were held by these external companies and were not easily available to residents. After consulting with stakeholders, NABERS made a pragmatic decision to exclude these systems, on the grounds that this information was not available to many owners corporations seeking to conduct a rating. 

In 2023, NABERS released an Renewable Energy Indicator, a metric to provide information about how much energy in a building is coming from renewable sources or from fossil fuels. However, because central hot water was not included in the mandatory coverage of a NABERS rating for apartment buildings, buildings with gas-powered hot water systems could theoretically still achieve a 100% Renewable Energy score. This issue was identified by stakeholders late in 2024, and NABERS is working to address this.  

NABERS plans to address this issue

1. Short term: NABERS will inform stakeholders about this issue via updates to our website and stakeholder communications. 
2. Medium term: NABERS will add disclaimers to rating certificates and reports to clarify if a building uses a gas-powered central domestic hot water system. 
3. Long term: NABERS will seek funding to amend its rating system, so it better accounts for these gas-powered systems, in consultation with stakeholders. 

Getting involved

NABERS will invite industry input through a formal consultation process, to be announced later in 2025. In the meantime, if you have insights, data or examples you would like to share, or would like more information on this issue, please contact us at: nabers@environment.nsw.gov.au.