The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has committed $50 million to Scape Australia, one of the country’s major providers of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA).
This investment will accelerate the electrification of up to 20 residential buildings within Scape’s portfolio of 17,000 beds spread across major cities, including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide.
The initiative aims to remove gas infrastructure from these buildings, enhancing energy performance and advancing decarbonisation standards to support a net-zero future.
CEFC’s Head of Property and Executive Director, Michael Di Russo, highlighted the significance of the project: “Electrifying Australia’s existing buildings is essential to achieving our net-zero goals.
“This is the first large-scale residential electrification project focusing on existing buildings that the CEFC has invested in, and the largest residential apartment electrification project that we are aware of.
“This is an important step in addressing the challenges in electrifying existing buildings and sets a pathway for cutting emissions across the broader residential sector to try and get Australian homes off gas faster.”
The $50 million investment will not only focus on removing gas but also establish a pilot program to test advanced ‘behind-the-meter’ load-shifting initiatives.
These initiatives involve installing sophisticated metering and control technologies that allow buildings to optimise energy usage and respond to pricing signals from the electricity grid, making electrification more cost-effective.
The investment also supports Scape’s ambition to explore PassivHaus principles in future developments.
These principles are renowned for improving overall energy efficiency by up to 70 per cent compared to other high-performing buildings, fostering even greater sustainability in student housing.
Craig Carracher, Founder & Joint CEO of The Living Company (parent company of Scape), stated: “This investment is a bold step forward in our mission to be the Earth’s best living company.
“At Scape, we don’t wait for change – we drive it.
“Electrifying our national portfolio at scale is not just the right thing to do, it’s a strategic commitment to the future our residents deserve, and the planet urgently needs.”
Carracher stated that their buildings provide homes for thousands of young people, and the company feels a duty to set a leadership example by cutting emissions, eliminating fossil fuels, and integrating sustainability deeply into their design, retrofit, and operational practices.
He added that collaborating with the CEFC allows them to speed up this transformation and establish a new standard for both the student housing and wider residential sectors.
Australia’s residential sector accounts for approximately 24 per cent of the country’s electricity use and 10 per cent of total carbon emissions.
Given that around 16 per cent of Australia’s 11 million homes are apartments — properties that generally lag behind commercial buildings in sustainability — there is significant potential for decarbonisation within this sector.
The retrofit of existing buildings is critical because up to 80 per cent of buildings that will still be in use in 2050 have already been constructed, but current renovation rates fall short of what’s needed to meet net-zero targets.
Since its inception, the CEFC has invested $3.5 billion in decarbonising Australia’s property sector, with over $2 billion allocated specifically to the residential sector up to June 30, 2025.
The Scape electrification initiative represents the CEFC’s largest investment in residential electrification to date and signals a major step toward reducing emissions in Australia’s housing market.
This project aligns with the Australian government’s national Net Zero strategy and Built Environment Sector Plan, strengthening efforts to eliminate fossil fuel usage from the housing sector and future-proof residential buildings against climate impacts.