The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) advises that the annual FirstRate5 (FR5) certificate credit price adjustment will take effect from 1 September 2026. From 1 September 2026, the price of FR5 certificate credits will increase from $43.00 to $45.00 per credit (excluding GST). To continue supporting high-volume users, FR5 bulk purchase discounts will remain available until 1 September 2027.

Sustainability Victoria (SV) has updated the FirstRate5 House Energy Rating Software Licence Agreement, which applies to the FirstRate5 (FR5) desktop application, the FirstRate5 website, and FirstRate5 Whole-of-Home. The updated Software Licence Agreement, available on the website, is effective from 3 July 2026. From 1 July 2026, tax invoices issued for FR5 credit purchases will now display DEECA as the issuing entity and include the DEECA ABN. However, Sustainability Victoria may continue to appear on credit card or PayPal account statements for several months while the administrative transfer of banking arrangements is finalised.

The FirstRate5 helpdesk will closed from Wednesday 24 December 2025 (12pm AEDT) and will re-open on Monday 5 January 2026 (9am AEDT). Please note that on 22, 23 & 24 December helpdesk support will be limited and only urgent issues will receive a response.

Sustainability Victoria is conducting a customer survey to gather feedback on the FirstRate5 software and website and FirstRate5's technical support service.