Does a solar installation invrease the value of a property

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Tariqe

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I seem to be hearing both sides of the coin, a friend had to remove his solar installation, as the buyer didn't want it, nor pay additional for it.
Any thoughts ??
 
Like with anything in a house -- new kitchen, borehole, shed, its creates value if the buyer thinks its valuable.

I'd imagine any "rational" buyer should realise saving say R1000 on electricity per month has value (at 8% Cost of Capital should be worth R150,000) .. But house buying (and people in general) are not very rational!
 
After seeing some people's installations, I would be very circumspect, not just any install would create value. People may perceive it as something that would require a whole lot of extra maintenance.
I do think that a proper, neat and certified installation, using reputable and contemporary kit, properly documented, together with purchase slips and warranties, would add some value.
I don't think that one would get one's money back though, but it may act as a differentiator. It's similar to having a swimming pool, some love it, some don't.
 
Pineapple Smurf said:
What idiot would ask for it to be removed?
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If it were designed, selected and installed by another idiot, then definitely. No-one wants a liability, and no-one wants something that looks like it needs to be fiddled with all the time in order to make it work. It needs to be there and just work, properly, all the time.
 
I can only imagine this would be requested if a person owning a house valued at R1.4mil has just had a energy solution installed at R400 000+ and expects to regain his costs.
 
The increase in value of value is likely to be limited (as previous posts have said).

It should however increase the attractiveness of your property to the buyer who is conscious of this sort of thing (but said buyer is unlikely to want to pay the market value of the house + cost of installation).
 
Willing buyer, willing seller. "Value" is subjective, so for some it will add value, for others it won't. Personally for me it will depend on the installation: if it has enough panel capacity for what I need (at least 3 kW on paper), is installed on the best place on the roof (uhm, why is that panel on the only bit of East-facing roof you have?), and is in a sensible voltage range I'll see it as valuable.

I don't like Axpert (subjective, not going to debate the reasons here), so for me an Axpert won't add value to the house as I will replace it.

Batteries - that will depend on the age and certification. E.g. if it is lithium, 2 yo, and has IEC62133 or IEC62619 certification I'll see it as valuable. If it is a 5yo VRLA I'll ask the seller to remove it.


So all in all, it is a very subjective matter and will very much depend on the buyer's technical knowledge, or lacking that, the seller's marketing skills.

*Edit - the DB board: if there is a rotary transfer switch in a little box next to the DB it certainly won't add value in my opinion. I will change it to a DIN rail installation with a DIN rail transfer switch, so I may have to factor that cost in as well.
 
Yeah, this is a very complex thing, with many many factors.

In theory it should increase the value of the property, but the more people get up to speed with the idea of solar and some of the basic things (like battery age etc) the more the value becomes entirely subjective to the purchaser.

I would never do solar in my house as a means of increasing the value of the property (unless the intention was to literally flip the house as soon as possible)
 
Asking for it to be removed is a bit silly. It's like the buyer asking for the 4th bedroom to be removed because he only wants 3 bedrooms and doesn't want to pay extra for a 4th bedroom. I would tell the buyer to take it or leave it.
 
unfortunately my friend needed to sell, so he removed it, it least he is installing the system in the new house in another city
 
Tariqe said:
I seem to be hearing both sides of the coin, a friend had to remove his solar installation, as the buyer didn't want it, nor pay additional for it.
Any thoughts ??
Click to expand...
It will increase the value but you wont recoup costs from the sale of the house.

The problem is that the entire system could fail the day transfer happens. Its definitely a nice to have though.
 
deweyzeph said:
Asking for it to be removed is a bit silly. It's like the buyer asking for the 4th bedroom to be removed because he only wants 3 bedrooms and doesn't want to pay extra for a 4th bedroom. I would tell the buyer to take it or leave it.
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If it was a shoddy installation, or had out of date batteries, or any number of other things, it isn't silly to get it removed as it could be way more of a headache for the new owner than the previous owner (who was intimately involved in installing and running the system)
 
ToxicBunny said:
... (who was intimately involved in installing and running the system)
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^^This is one of my main concerns with the whole Smart Home concept. If my house were to get new tenants today, they'll need to setup a router with my current Wifi credentials to access the various Sonoffs, the Victron controller, the smart cameras... Smart Device Handover will need to be a well considered phase of selling my house.
 
I wouldn't purchase a new property with a solar installation visible from the street unless the property had decent security including CCTV linked to armed response.

Installing a visible solar PV system without the relevant security to complement it is like painting a target on your back in this country.
 
Paul_S said:
I wouldn't purchase a new property with a solar installation visible from the street unless the property had decent security including CCTV linked to armed response.

Installing a visible solar PV system without the relevant security to complement it is like painting a target on your back in this country.
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Or you can purchase the property and install your own cctv security linked to arm response? Solar is really nothing out of the ordinary, just like people take measures to protect their belongings like cars and other property, solar is just one of those, people I know who installed solar certainly did not have to go out of their way increasing security and I have never heard of anyone waking up to find their panels ripped off the roof.
 
The estate agent showing people the house might also be clueless and unable to answer basic questions.
 
Most people when selling a house, want to recoup all the costs of the solar installation. The buyer says no, rather take that price off the house and I can then do whats works for me with the money saved. In that case, the seller then often moves all the gear onto the next house. I've seen people move the same solar system onto 3 houses as the second-hand value doesn't really make it worth selling.
 
My solar system cost R230k but its probably only worth R150k if I had to redo it today.

I would probably only add R120k to the property value if I were to include it in the sale. I do think some sellers with pv installed are placing too high a value on the solar setup.

@Tariqe how much extra was the seller adding to the selling price and how much did he end up selling the property for?
 
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