Smart Home Technology: What Every New Build Should Include in 2026
15 May 2026 · 3 min read
A smart home isn't defined by how many gadgets it has. It's defined by how well those systems are integrated from the very first design sketch, rather than added on afterwards. That distinction matters enormously, because retrofitting technology into a finished home is almost always more expensive, and less elegant, than designing it in from day one.
Start With Solar and Battery Storage
Rooftop solar paired with battery storage (a Tesla Powerwall or sonnenBatterie, for example) is now close to a baseline expectation for a new luxury home, not a premium add-on. Beyond the environmental benefit, a well-sized solar and battery system materially reduces running costs, particularly under Victoria's newer Whole-of-Home energy requirements, which we cover in more detail in our guide to NatHERS star ratings.
Whole-Home Automation, Not Isolated Smart Devices
There's a real difference between a home with a smart thermostat and a smart speaker, and a home where lighting, climate, security and audio-visual systems are unified under a single platform. The latter is what genuinely changes how a home feels to live in, and it's only really achievable when the wiring and infrastructure are planned before the walls go up.
EV Charging as Standard, Not an Afterthought
With electric vehicle ownership continuing to rise, a hardwired 32A EV charging point in the garage or carport is a sensible standard inclusion on any new build, rather than something to retrofit once you've bought the car. Installing the circuit during construction is dramatically cheaper than adding it to a finished garage.
Passive Design Still Does the Heaviest Lifting
Before any technology is switched on, good passive design, cross-ventilation, thermal mass, and correctly sized eaves for your block's orientation, does more for comfort and energy performance than any single smart device. Technology should complement good design fundamentals, not compensate for the absence of them.
A Dedicated Home Theatre, Done Properly
If a home theatre is part of your brief, acoustic treatment and projection infrastructure are far easier and cheaper to plan into a room's structure than to add afterwards. This is one area where the gap between "good enough" and genuinely excellent comes down almost entirely to decisions made at the design stage.
Building Toward a Higher NatHERS Rating
Smart technology and energy performance are closely linked. At Saleh Homes, we design toward a 10-star NatHERS rating target on our smart-home builds, well beyond Victoria's current 7-star regulatory minimum. That target shapes decisions on glazing, insulation and orientation long before any technology is specified, which is exactly why it needs to be part of the conversation from your very first design meeting.
What to Ask Your Builder
Before you finalise a design, ask specifically how automation, solar, battery and EV charging infrastructure will be wired into the build, and whether your home's orientation and glazing have been considered as part of that plan, not treated as a separate conversation. A lifetime maintenance package is also worth asking about, since smart systems benefit from ongoing support well beyond handover.
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