Cate Blanchett is known for playing queens, spies and troubled artists on screen, but her latest headline-making role is a lot simpler: smart homeowner. In early 2024, the Oscar-winning actor and her husband, playwright and director Andrew Upton, have sold their three-bedroom Prahran, Melbourne home for more than $3 million, well above the property's price guide of $2.25 million to $2.45 million, according to listing agency Kay & Burton. The couple purchased the same home for $745,000 in 2006. In between, they added solar panels and a water tank, two features that, according to a 2015 study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, tend to raise what buyers pay.
A quiet real estate move that worked
Alwill Architecture transformed this Prahran home into a modern open-plan living and dining space with a loft-style upper level backing directly onto Victoria Gardens. It was due to go under the hammer on March 9, 2024, but was sold privately after generating what real estate agency Kay & Burton described as an overwhelming level of interest from buyers. It may sound like simple market luck that a $745,000 home sold for over $3 million in 18 years, but research suggests two upgrades made along the way might have contributed in part to that price.
Why solar panels are changing the price
The rooftop solar panels on the house are not a small detail. Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories and several universities, published a study called “Selling into the Sun” that examined almost 22,000 home sales in the United States, including almost 4,000 with solar systems, in eight states. Buyers paid more for homes with owned solar panels, on average paying a premium of about $4 per watt of installed capacity, the study found. In an average residential system, that means nearly $15,000 of additional value. With electricity prices rising in Australia, rooftop solar has gone from an afterthought to a selling point.
