At present in most areas around Australia there is a strong demand for rental properties, but when a tenant is seeking out a property to rent it seems that they will start looking at whether a property has solar hot water or not. Hot water charges are a large percentage of a power bill and if power bills are going to reach near the $1000 mark for 3 months then tenants will most definitely be looking to rent where they can save dramatically on their power bill.
Government rebates
Government rebates still apply. A rebate of $1,000 for a solar hot water system or $600 for a heat pump hot water system through the Renewable Energy Bonus Scheme – solar hot water rebate. The rebate applies for systems ordered and purchased from 20 February 2010.
There have been a few changes to the rebate eligibility so these would need to be checked out and you can do this by visiting:
http://www.climatechange.gov.au/en/government/programs-and-rebates/solar-hot-water.aspx
The two main changes are:
1. that the claim is made within 62 days of the installation of the system
2. that installation is replacing an electric hot water system
Check to see if there are any other changes that would affect you receiving the rebate.