Want to make your townhouse or apartment efficient, safe and healthy?
There are a number of actions you can take as an apartment owner, owner corporation or property manager.
Apartments Sustainability Guides
We have developed a series of guides share what sustainable measure you can take, and what apartment owners and owners corporations can do.
There are simple guides for:
Go Electric
Make your home and building clean and healthy by moving your apartment building to all-electric.
The Apartments Guide to Electrification provides a step-by-step process to transition to all-electric for both common areas and your home, be it an apartment or townhouse.
The apartment guide makes choosing the best electric products – a new heater, cooktop, hot water system – simple by providing product recommendations. The benefits and considerations for each product have a rating of Best, Good and OK.
The guides were as developed as part of the Unlocking Sustainable Strata project by Merri-bek and Yarra City Councils in partnership with HIP V. HYPE Sustainability, The Knight, and Strata Community Association Victoria. The project brought together collaborators to learn, trial and design effective solutions so people who live in existing apartments and townhouses benefit from energy upgrades to ensure their homes are healthy, comfortable and affordable to run.
High Life Living
High Life Living houses resources on how to make apartments, apartment buildings, and units more comfortable, efficient, healthy, and lovely to live in.
Find strata-specific resources and check out the case studies. Watch videos and review the slides from the 2026 seminar sessions in News and Updates.
Merri-bek City Council is a partner of the High Life Expo.
Solar for Apartments
Solar for apartments can be trickier to set up than a single dwelling but it’s a great way to get to know your neighbours and share the process and benefits. The key is to get other residents and your body corporate involved early so that you can gauge the appetite for solar and work together to find out the best solution for your needs.
There are several options available for apartments to access solar, from shared or single systems. Watch the webinar to learn more.
Victorian Solar for Apartments program
Through the Solar for Apartments program, grants of up to $2,800 per apartment, with a maximum grant amount of $140,000 for buildings of up to 150 apartments, are available until Tuesday 30 June 2027 or until all rebates are exhausted, whichever comes first.
Solar for Apartments is jointly funded by the Victorian and Commonwealth governments and is delivered by Solar Victoria.
Grants are delivered to Owners Corporations who will be required to sign a funding agreement with Solar Victoria. Owners Corporations will need to pay the upfront costs of the installation with grant funding provided to them after milestones are met.
Apartment buildings up to eight storeys with between 5 and 150 apartments are eligible for grants, and Owners Corporations will have the choice to install multiple solar PV systems, a single large solar PV system coupled with solar sharing technology, or a combination of both.
Find out more here: www.solar.vic.gov.au/apartments
Shared systems
Allume’s SolShare enables apartments to share a single rooftop solar installation, upfront costs and the benefits of installation. With SolShare technology, the solar system can supply electricity to common areas, apartments and can also include any businesses on site. Not everyone has to participate. According to Allume, their systems achieve an average 40% reduction in grid energy usage for apartments which can be increased with batteries. Read more.
Single systems
Another option for solar for apartments is to install single systems.
A single system could be installed to service the common areas of the building, and pools or gyms, and the costs and benefits shared through one electricity metre and account.
You could also include single systems per apartment but you’d need to negotiate the available roof space. Single systems can be more straightforward to administer but you don’t make the most of bulk-buy savings or enjoy the full benefits of sharing the experience with your neighbours.
Other options
There are other ways to invest in solar in an apartment without installing solar on your roof.
The easiest option – and something you could even do today – is to switch your individual apartment to GreenPower, so that the energy you buy is 100% renewable. Even if you get solar, you can still go with GreenPower. Contact your energy provider or use the Victorian Government’s Energy Compare website to ensure you’re getting the best deal.
You also be part of a solar garden or form a buyers-group with your neighbours and access GreenPower Connect to support a specific renewable energy project or help get one off the ground.
Read more
How to get solar in apartments
How to get the most out of your solar
Energy switch for renters
How to move away from gas and why you should
New guides to make apartments sustainable
