When single father Frankie Camilleri began house hunting in Melbourne’s inner west, he expected to end up back in a period weatherboard, sinking weekends into a renovation like the ones he had tackled before, not in a brand-new townhouse at Bradmill.
Instead, rising construction costs and a desire for a low-maintenance, energy-efficient home led him to Frasers Property’s all-electric Yarraville community, a development built on sustainability principles drawn from one of the most detailed passive house studies undertaken by an Australian developer.
Camilleri inspected a string of traditional three-bedroom weatherboards in Yarraville, Seddon and Kingsville priced between $1.1 million and $1.4 million, only to discover that extending or renovating to fit his needs, including a home office and a sauna, would add well over $100,000 to $150,000 to the bill.
With those figures in mind, a brand-new home suddenly made more financial sense than an old one that required extensive work.
He bought a two-storey, four-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom townhouse on a corner block and moved in with his son, Oscar, in late 2025.
The home came with double glazing, solar panels, improved airtightness and premium continuous thermal insulation as standard, features he says have made a noticeable difference to both comfort and running costs.
“I’m sitting in my place right now and [there’s] no heater on and it’s like 6 or 8 degrees outside, and I’m fine,” said Camilleri.
“I barely use any electricity at all.
“I can virtually run off grid if I wanted to for a couple of days.”
The sustainability credentials built into Bradmill’s townhomes are underpinned by a comparative study Frasers Property carried out at its Life, Point Cook community, where the developer constructed two identical houses, one built to a standard 6 Star rating and the other to the international Passivhaus standard.
Assessed by global consultancy Arup, the pilot found the passive house used roughly half the energy of the standard build over a year of occupancy, while also delivering better indoor air quality, lower humidity and reduced noise.
Those findings have since been applied across Frasers Property’s projects, including Bradmill, where the elements found to offer the best value have been built in as standard rather than offered as costly upgrades.
Kate Nason, Sustainability Manager, Development for Frasers Property, said the study allowed the team to prioritise the inclusions that delivered the most benefit to buyers without pushing up prices unnecessarily.
“Providing customers with energy bill savings was the main priority, but the improved quality of living is another benefit that becomes very obvious the moment you step into the townhomes,” Kate said.
Solar batteries, electric vehicle chargers and a balanced air filtration system are available as upgrades.
The filtration system, a first as a standalone package for a volume builder, filters pollen, dust and pollution before it enters the home and allows air to be refreshed without opening windows and losing heat or cool air, a feature Frasers Property says is drawing particular interest from families managing asthma or allergies.
Bradmill’s green credentials extend beyond the homes themselves.
The 26-hectare site, once home to a textile factory that closed 25 years ago, sits alongside the newly opened Federation Trail cycling path into the CBD and has benefited from reduced heavy vehicle traffic since the completion of the Westgate Tunnel.
A 1.5 hectare linear park will run through the community, connecting to nearby McIvor Reserve and Angliss Reserve, while the heritage-listed factory buildings on site will eventually be restored into resident facilities including a gym, pool and co-working spaces.
For Camilleri, the environmental performance of his new home has come with an unexpected social dividend too, with a close-knit group of families forming around the first residents at Bradmill.
