Australia and New Zealand put solar on more detached houses than almost anywhere on earth, and almost none on apartment buildings. Not because the roofs are wrong — because nobody owns the decision. A building's roof is common property, the power bill it would offset is a common cost, and the paperwork sits with a committee that has enough to do. That is a solvable problem, and in several states somebody will pay for half of it.
New Zealand's grid is already about 80 to 90 per cent renewable, so solar here is bought for the bill rather than for the emissions — and with electricity prices where they are, the bill argument is strong enough on its own. There has been no long-standing residential solar subsidy, though EECA has signalled that Warmer Kiwi Homes is expanding to include solar, with eligibility still being worked through. In the meantime, low-interest lender finance is how most body corporates fund it.
Governed by the Unit Titles Act 2010, administered by Unit Titles Services.
Programmes open, allocate and close, and the terms change between rounds. Check the current position with the administering body before you budget around any of these.
Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority
The current New Zealand government energy programmes, including the signalled expansion of Warmer Kiwi Homes into solar. Check here for eligibility as details are confirmed.
Official pageNew Zealand retail banks
Several New Zealand lenders offer low or zero interest finance for solar, batteries and other energy upgrades. Where no grant applies, this is the practical funding route for a body corporate.
Official pageNew Zealand seasonal variation is significant. A full year is the only useful basis.
In Quarter: The building's common property spending is already in Quarter — this year's power bills and the two years before them — so the figure the whole business case rests on is one you pull rather than reconstruct from a drawer.
Ten or more principal units changes your maintenance planning and disclosure obligations, and a capital project this size belongs in the plan.
In Quarter: Ask Quarter and it quotes the Unit Titles Act and Regulations directly — the notice period, the quorum, the threshold, in the Act's own words rather than a paraphrase of them.
The long-term maintenance plan should already tell you when the roof is due. Use it.
Confirm what your lender offers and whether the body corporate can borrow in its own right.
Consumption, quotes, saving, funding route. Minute it and distribute the minutes within the required period.
In Quarter: Build the motion from the quotes and the budget, send the notice to every owner off the ownership register on the statutory clock, and record the vote as it is cast — a decision carries its majority automatically and emails the outcome to whoever raised it.
Compulsory in New Zealand, and a new common property asset with a service life belongs in it from installation.
In Quarter: Upload the plan you already have and Quarter reads it into a costed schedule of items, lifecycles and due years. From there it projects the fund thirty years out and tells you the annual contribution that actually funds it.
The plan usually already says when. Check it before you mount anything.
The plan is a statutory document, and an unlisted asset is a visible gap at the next review.
New Zealand winter generation is much lower. Annual figures only.
A house puts solar on to cut one household's bill. A building puts solar on to cut a bill every owner is already paying through their levies — lifts, lighting, pumps, ventilation, the car park. That common load runs during the day, which is exactly when the panels produce.
The physical job takes a few days. The decision takes most buildings a year. Quarter compresses the second one.
Your actual common power spend, from your actual bills, rather than a vendor's estimate of a building like yours.
Scope, cost, funding, and the effect on levies — put as a resolution rather than a proposal, with the quotes attached.
The resolution, the quotes, the scheme details and the consumption history, in one place, on the day the round opens.
Quotes, contracts, approvals, invoices and warranties recorded against the decision that authorised them.
The bill before and the bill after, visible to every owner, so the next project is an easier conversation than this one was.
General information about New Zealand, not legal or financial advice for your building. Legislation is amended and grant programmes open and close — check the current position with Unit Titles Services or the administering body before you act on anything here.
Tell us about your building in New Zealand and we will show you exactly how Quarter would run it.
