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The Strata Community Association (SCA) has called for better inclusion of apartment and strata residents in Western Australia’s household battery rebate scheme after the state government expanded access to the program.
Western Australia’s Residential Battery Scheme, complementing the federal government’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program, enables a combined rebate of $5,000 to $7,500 towards the cost of a 10kWh battery installation.
Earlier this week, Minister for Energy Amber-Jade Sanderson confirmed apartment residents in strata communities may be eligible for the battery rebate and interest-free loans that are also available.
However, this is dependent on certain factors such as solar access, individual metering, and the legal structure of the strata company.
The SCA is calling for the scheme’s eligibility criteria to be expanded to explicitly include residential owners corporations, strata schemes, and properties with embedded networks.
While SCA Australasia president, Joshua Baldwin, welcomed the recognition of strata’s role in the housing landscape, he noted the scheme would not include most strata residents in practice.
He deemed the greater access to strata an “encouraging move”, but declared there was still a long way to go.
“If the government is serious about reducing power bills and accelerating the energy transition, strata households must be given an equal seat at the table,” Baldwin said.
“The rebate program is being presented as a household affordability measure, but it does not align with how strata communities are structured.
“Owners corporations often operate under legal business names with ABNs, even when the building is entirely residential.
“That means a large proportion of strata communities may not qualify under the current rules.”
The SCA identified the need for significant improvement in policy to better reflect the “realities of apartment living”, highlighting sustainability and cost-of-living relief.
“More than 5 million Australians live in strata-titled properties,” Baldwin said.
“They should not be excluded from critical environmental and financial benefits simply because of outdated administrative assumptions or infrastructure barriers,” he concluded.
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