How a $2m retrofit stacks up for investors

A $2.2 million renovation has put a 1960 Melbourne apartment block on track to become the country’s first energy-positive residential retrofit, producing more electricity than it consumes and cutting mains water consumption by more than one-third.

The Fitzroy renovation by impact investor Tripple, headed by Jake Milgrom-Marabel, and Bec and Adam Milgrom – the children of Rich Lister Naomi Milgrom – cost $3500 a square metre and cut embodied carbon by 80 per cent compared with a knockdown and rebuild.