A Turning Point for Aging Lifts
Many lifts in Australian buildings are 20, 30, even 40 years old, well beyond the typical 20–25-year lifespan during which reliability declines. For portfolio directors, facilities managers, strata committees, and owners’ corporations, elevator modernisation is no longer a “someday” project; it’s a pressing priority.
In 2025, a perfect storm of forces will transform how we approach lift upgrades. Revolutionary technologies (IoT sensors, AI analytics) are redefining what a “smart” elevator can do. New compliance mandates, from Australian Standard AS 1735 updates to the upcoming National Construction Code 2025 (NCC 2025), are raising the bar for safety, accessibility, and energy efficiency. Innovative tools like the Elevator Lifecycle Risk Index (ELRI™) now empower decision-makers with clear, data-driven insight into their lift’s condition and risks.
In short, the cost of doing nothing is rising. An outdated lift isn’t just an eyesore; it’s potentially unsafe, energy-hungry, and a drag on your property’s value. Modernising your lift has become both a strategic investment and a compliance necessity. Read on to learn how new trends, technologies, and regulations converge to make proactive lift upgrades the smart move, and how tools like ELRI™ can guide your decisions.
Modernisation on the Rise: Trends Driving Lift Upgrades
A quiet revolution is underway in plant rooms and lift shafts across Australia. Elevator modernisation is surging as building owners confront aging equipment and seize new opportunities. Many mid-century lifts are reaching end-of-life: breakdowns are happening more often, replacement parts are scarce or obsolete, and maintenance costs are climbing yearly. Rather than gamble on an old system, more owners opt for a planned upgrade before a catastrophic failure occurs.
This wave of modernisation is reflected in market trends. Industry forecasts show that Australian elevator upgrade spending is growing rapidly, even projected to nearly triple by 2032. The reasons are clear. New high-rises aren’t the only game in town; older buildings must modernise to stay competitive. No one wants a creaky, slow lift in a Class A office or a high-end residential block. Tenants and buyers now expect reliability, safety, and comfort as standard. In commercial real estate, a modern elevator can be the difference in attracting premium tenants. In strata complexes, a refreshed lift boosts property values and resident satisfaction. Simply put, modern, efficient elevators are becoming the norm, and buildings that don’t upgrade risk falling behind market expectations.
Compliance Matters: Keeping Up with AS 1735 and NCC 2025
If your lift hasn’t been upgraded in years, it’s likely not up to today’s codes. AS 1735, Australia’s lift standard, has introduced many safety and accessibility requirements over time, such as infrared door sensors (to prevent doors from closing on people), in-cab emergency communications, fire service controls, and disability-friendly features. Older lifts often lack some of these critical protections. Likewise, the National Construction Code is continually updated; NCC 2025 will further raise standards for building accessibility and energy efficiency, including vertical transport systems.
Modernising your lift is an opportunity, and in many cases an obligation, to bring it into compliance. Upgrades typically involve installing the latest safety devices and ensuring the lift’s performance meets current benchmarks. After a major modernisation, a certified inspector will test and certify the elevator under AS 1735 before it returns to service, giving you documented peace of mind. Staying ahead of code changes also helps avoid issues like insurance complications, liability in the event of accidents, or council orders to upgrade a non-compliant lift. In short, compliance is a key driver for modernisation: it keeps passengers safe and keeps you on the right side of regulations.
Smarter, Faster, Safer: The Promise of Smart Elevator Tech
Today’s elevator upgrades aren’t just new motors and buttons; they introduce smart technology that can dramatically improve performance and user experience. By modernising now, you can leap forward into this smarter era:
- Predictive maintenance (IoT & AI): Modern lifts are equipped with sensors and internet-connected controllers that constantly monitor components. These can alert maintenance teams before a part fails; for example, if a motor is overheating or a door is misaligning, issues can be fixed proactively. This IoT-driven predictive maintenance means fewer breakdowns and far less downtime.
- Traffic optimisation: Advanced controllers use AI algorithms to manage elevator traffic efficiently. One example is destination control: passengers enter their floor on a keypad or smartphone app, and the system groups riders going to the same floors in the same car. The lift optimises trips to reduce waiting and travel times. This can significantly speed up service and eliminate those stop-every-floor rides in a busy building.
- Integrated building intelligence: Smart elevators integrate with your building’s other systems. They can tie into security (only stopping at particular floors for authorised users), into fire alarms (switching to evacuation or fire-service mode during emergencies), and even into energy management (parking idle cars and switching off lights/fans to save power). The elevator becomes a connected part of your building’s ecosystem, contributing to overall efficiency and safety.
- Better user experience: Modernisation can bring touchscreens, voice-announcement systems, and even touchless controls. Imagine calling the lift from your phone or waving a hand to select your floor; these features are available now and are increasingly expected in premium developments. They make elevators more accessible and hygienic and give your building a cutting-edge feel. Plus, a sleek new interface and a smoother, quieter ride make the building more pleasant to live or work in.
Adopting these smart technologies during a lift upgrade does more than make your maintenance team happy – it delights your users and adds real operational value. You’ll spend less time reacting to outages and more time benefiting from a system that practically manages itself. In an age of smart buildings, upgrading an old analog lift to a digital, connected one is a leap that keeps your property current and competitive.
Energy Efficiency: Lifts that Save Money and the Planet
Modernising an elevator isn’t just good for safety and performance, but also a big win for energy efficiency. Older elevators can be surprisingly energy-hungry: inefficient motors, outdated drive systems, and lights or fans that run 24/7 all add up. By contrast, the latest lift technologies are engineered to minimise energy use:
- Efficient drives and motors: New traction machines with variable-frequency drives use power much more sparingly, adjusting energy draw to the load and movement needed. With regenerative drive technology, elevators can produce energy, feeding electricity back into the building when the car travels down with a heavy load or up with a light load. Instead of wasting that energy as heat, it’s recaptured as usable power.
- LED lighting and standby mode: A modernisation will replace old incandescent or fluorescent cab lights with LEDs, cutting lighting energy use by 80–90%. Smart controls also turn off cab lighting and ventilation when the elevator is idle, putting the system into a low-power sleep mode during off-peak hours while staying ready to respond instantly to a call.
The result of these improvements is dramatic. A full modernisation can reduce an elevator’s energy consumption by 50% or more (with some projects reporting up to 70% savings). Although lifts often account for a few percent of a building’s total electricity use, this significantly reduces utility costs and carbon footprint. For building owners pursuing sustainability targets or green building ratings, it’s an obvious way to make progress. And as energy regulations tighten and electricity prices rise, an efficient elevator isn’t just eco-friendly, it’s increasingly cost-effective and future-proof.
ELRI™– Your Lift’s Risk Score at a Glance
One challenge in deciding on a lift upgrade is answering the question: “How urgent is this?” That’s where the Elevator Lifecycle Risk Index (ELRI™) comes in; it turns the condition of your lift into a clear, objective metric.
Think of ELRI™ as a credit score for your elevator. By evaluating factors like the lift’s age, make, maintenance record, known issues, and compliance gaps, ELRI™ generates a single risk rating that tells you how your system stacks up against modern standards. For example, you might learn your lift rates as “High Risk” (say, 8.5 out of 10) due to an outdated controller and frequent breakdowns. Or it might be “Moderate Risk,” indicating it’s in decent shape with only minor upgrades recommended.
This kind of clarity is incredibly helpful for planning and budgeting. Data replaces guesswork. A high ELRI™ score can galvanise a strata committee or board to approve a modernisation budget by clearly illustrating the liability and cost of inaction. Conversely, a lower risk score might justify deferring major works for a couple of years while focusing on more minor fixes. ELRI™ reports also pinpoint specific risk factors so that you can target the most critical upgrades first, maybe the control system and door safety need attention ASAP, whereas cosmetic cab renovations can wait.
Another benefit is communication. You can show an ELRI™ assessment to insurers or safety auditors as proof that you’re proactively managing your lift’s risk. It demonstrates diligence and may even support better insurance terms, since you identify and mitigate issues before they cause claims. For peace of mind, having an independent, data-driven assessment means you’re not relying solely on one contractor’s opinion. It’s a neutral benchmark aligned with industry standards.
The best part: getting an initial ELRI™ Lift Risk Score is straightforward and often free. It usually starts with an online questionnaire or a quick on-site check by a lift consultant, with no extended shutdowns needed. In short order, you’ll have an easy-to-understand report card for your elevator. Armed with that knowledge, you can decide on the next step confidently: whether that’s scheduling an upgrade now or planning a few years out. Either way, you’re managing your vertical transportation assets proactively, not reactively.
The Risk of Doing Nothing: Why Inaction Isn’t an Option
What if you leave your old lift and hope for the best? Here are the stark risks of inaction:
- Safety incidents and liability: Outdated lifts lack many modern safety features, increasing the odds of an accident. If a preventable mishap occurs due to antiquated equipment, you could face serious legal and financial consequences for negligence.
- Sudden service failures: The older the lift, the greater the chance of a major breakdown without warning. If rare parts are needed, such failures can take weeks to fix, disrupting life for everyone in the building. Emergency repairs also cost a premium, far more than planned upgrades.
- Skyrocketing maintenance costs: Aging elevators can become money pits. You might sink thousands into keeping an unreliable lift running, only to face another breakdown months later. In contrast, investing those funds in modernisation yields a new system under warranty and far lower upkeep costs.
- Reputation and value hit: A chronically malfunctioning lift is noticeable to tenants and visitors. It signals poor management and can tarnish your building’s reputation. Tenants may get fed up (or demand rent discounts), and property values can suffer. A new lift, on the other hand, signals a well-maintained, safe building.
- Missed efficiency gains: Every month you delay upgrades, you pay higher electricity bills than necessary and miss out on smart-tech benefits. Those unrealised savings and improvements are an ongoing loss that grows as energy prices rise and technology marches forward.
In short, doing nothing might save money this year, but it often leads to much higher costs (and headaches) down the line. Modernising on your terms is preferable to an enforced, emergency upgrade after a serious incident or a total lift failure. When considering the stakes – safety, legal liability, financial efficiency, and asset value – the “wait and see” approach doesn’t stack up.
Conclusion: Elevate Your Building with Confidence
The writing is on the wall: Safer, smarter, greener elevators are rapidly becoming the standard. Proactively modernising your lift eliminates risks, ensures compliance with evolving codes, delights users with improved service, and protects your property’s value. In this new era, using tools like ELRI™ and embracing advanced tech means you can plan an elevator upgrade with confidence and clarity, rather than chaos and uncertainty.
The best step you can take now is to get informed about your lift’s status. Don’t wait for an accident or compliance notice to force your hand. Instead, take control: get a free ELRI™ risk assessment or schedule a professional lift audit. With that knowledge, you can map out a modernisation timeline and budget that suits your building, before emergencies dictate the terms.
Ready to bring your elevators into the modern age? Contact us today to book a free ELRI™ Lift Risk Assessment or a no-obligation modernisation consultation. Our experts will help you understand your options and craft a plan that aligns with your safety, compliance, and financial goals. Don’t get left behind with failing, out-of-date lifts. Let’s work together to elevate your building’s future, starting now.
