Australians are paying a premium for independence at home, with new research showing self-sufficiency features now add about 7 per cent – or $75,180 – to the average $1.074 million property.
Demand is strong, with 67.6 per cent of buyers actively hunting for homes with solar, water storage or food production and willing to pay more, rising to 73.8 per cent among younger buyers.
Commissioned by Sheds.com.au and conducted by Primara Research across 1000 Australians, the study finds the strongest pricing power where both uplift and base values are highest.
New South Wales leads, combining the highest percentage uplift with the nation’s highest average prices to deliver a $103,000 premium at 7.9 per cent.
Queensland sits at $78,600 (7.4 per cent), Western Australia at $72,900 (7.2 per cent), Victoria at $60,300 (6.5 per cent) and South Australia at $51,900 (5.5 per cent).
Buyer intent mirrors the price impact: 73.5 per cent of NSW buyers say they’d pay more for self-sufficient homes, ahead of 68.6 per cent in Queensland.
When asked to rank what matters most, buyers pushed self-sufficiency infrastructure to the top of their lists.
Source: Primara Research survey of 1,000 Australians for Sheds.com.au, March 2026
The standouts as a single highest priority – each nominated by more than 10 per cent of respondents – were solar panels and off-grid energy, vegetable gardens and food production space, rainwater harvesting and water tanks, and battery storage.
“The Middle East crisis has been a turning point,” says Peter Drennan, Research Director at Primara Research.
“When global supply chains fracture and energy prices spike, Australians stop seeing self-sufficiency as a lifestyle choice and start treating it as a financial strategy. That shift is now showing up in property values.”
Younger buyers are powering the trend
Nationally, 47.4 per cent of Australians say they would pay more than 5 per cent extra for a self-sufficient home, rising to 51.8 per cent in NSW.
By generation, 35.9 per cent of Boomers say they’d exceed that threshold, compared with 53.8 per cent of Gen Z and 52.4 per cent of Millennials – a gap that reinforces why intent peaks among younger cohorts.
Meanwhile, the financials favour sellers who have invested.
A complete off‑grid power system for a three to four-bedroom home costs between $15,000 and $45,000, but the value uplift runs from $51,900 in SA to $103,000 in NSW.
Coralee Andersen with what her best friend calls “the dooms day garden”. Photo: Steve Pohlner
On paper, the premium more than covers installation in every state, and that’s before factoring any contribution from water storage, gardens or food production infrastructure.
“This premium has nothing to do with saving on power bills,” Drennan says.
“Buyers placed $75,000 of value on independence from the grid and the supply chain. With two-thirds of buyers searching for it, sellers who have invested in self-sufficiency are holding exactly what the market wants.”
For homeowners weighing upgrades, the data suggests the strongest returns accrue when resilience is visible and functional: panels paired with batteries, rainwater systems sized for household use, and productive outdoor spaces.
Is electricity in Australia really that expensive?
New research shows that 34.9 per cent of Australians are finding it difficult or very difficult to live on their current income, with growing electricity contributing to household pressures.
While the price of electricity is often discussed, it is often judged by a single, blunt measure – the price per kilowatt‑hour (kWh).
However, new iSelect data shows that Australia’s electricity costs per square metre, stretches a lot further than other global nations.
Solar and battery storage also ranked high as a sustainable must-have.
Indeed, Australia benefit from one of the lower power prices in the world, according to the research, recording an electricity cost per square metre of 0.17 cents.
National electricity prices average 0.36 cents per kWh.
By comparison, Sweden tops the new index, with Swedes paying 0.77 Australian cents for electricity per square metre of an average sized home.
Ireland follows with a cost of 0.69 Australian cents per square metre, with the UK rounding out the top three at 0.64 Australian cents.
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