Comment: CEFC turns property spruiker

The much-maligned Clean Energy Finance Corporation has perhaps one redeeming feature - the predictability of its public relations flow to showcase the futility of its endeavour.

The CEFC's latest effort is to plough up to A$125 million into a vehicle called the High Income Sustainable Office Trust.

The Corporation, a plaything of Greens-leaning bankers, bequeathed to the nation by the recently ousted minority Labor government, asserted in a media release yesterday that improvements to older commercial buildings will "bring properties to the equivalent of at least 4.5 stars under the National Australian Built Environment Rating System."

HISOT "will buy, own, refurbish and introduce sustainability improvements in up to a dozen commercial office properties," in a fund planning to mobilise $400 million in investment.

"About 20 per cent of Australia's national greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings, and commercial buildings account for nearly half of these. More than 90 per cent of the emissions from commercial buildings comes from the consumption of grid-supplied electricity," CEFC CEO Oliver Yates said in his release.

Energy efficient commercial buildings use less electricity and command higher rents, leading the green bank into a world that promises "high income" returns, Yates said.

The effectiveness of the CEFC in addressing this social problem is rarely considered, nor is the apparent shortage of deals suitable to soak up its resources.

Marketed early on as a "$3 billion bank" the CEFC has still so far only committed $1 billion or so in finance.