Defense Housing potential????

Defense Housing is a Government based property marketing company. They usually develop or acquire land within a 20km radius to a army base. They then get builders to build low set houses (generally) and then sell these on to investors. The organization will make a small profit from the deal.

As an investor you can be locked into a long term deal where they will also manage your property for a higher than normal management fee. However, over a 10 year period you will be ahead.
 
check out the DHA website. Some of them a overpriced - but not all. Just like investing in any other property you need to do your research and know your area.

I would actually like to buy one of these for my next purchase - although, I am going to be looking for one that has only 1-5yrs left on the lease so that I can move into in myself afterwards (my way of getting the PPOR I want but cann't yet afford to actually move into yet).
 
With valuers making purchase difficult one cannot go wrong when purchasing from a marketing organization.

However, if the say you need to cross collatralise then run for the hills as they will be using your equity to hide the inflated price. Where possible get a stand alone loan for each property.
 
Hi - I'm not a property investor (I actually found this site looking for something else) but would like to make a comment about your interest in investing with DHA. I'm actually a DHA tenant.

I have lived in several DHA houses, both owned (by DHA) and lease back (which is what you're looking into doing) and I just cannot see it being a wise investment. Maybe I'm dumb to a few facts on property investment, but I am not dumb to the way DHA handle their maintenance.

As tenants, we've had to fight for some pretty serious and not so serious maintenance requests to be done. I'm not talking about changing lightbulbs or washers either.

Let me see, we've had raw sewage spilling UP through the drains for 6 months at one property. That started happening after the garage flooded. The drainage system was completely wrong and it cracked. After 6 months of it, we were told yet again it wouldn't be fixed because someone with public title was having his gardens done and the bobcat was needed there. If I owned the house I wouldn't be impressed. Despite the garage being UMR, there was no inspection to see if there was any damage caused to the house from the flooding (which previous tenants and plumbers had gone through before). But I guess as a DHA owned property that statement is pretty irrelevant.

We had one house where there was a leaking pipe under the tiles. I'm guessing in the end the entire bathroom had to be pulled down or something and same goes for the walls because they were black with mould from ground to 3/4 of the way up. We had tried everything but when you're bleaching and using mould stuff twice a day and it's spread to the bathroom, it's not because we as tenants were negligent. In 18 months that we fought them over the mould, they replaced the vanity unit twice, resealed the tiles on the outside, blamed us. I don't know what happened, we had someone step in and declare the house and OH&S issue so we were moved out. That was a lease back property.

We had another (lease back) property that had cracked tiles. No biggie until the rain was too much and it started to rain in the loungeroom. It took 5 weeks for them to even acknowledge there was a problem and even then I had to explain that it was prior to another storm, otherwise, it was going to be a problem put aside for up to another 4 weeks (in theory and I will get around to explaining that). It took several weeks for the roof tiler to appear and I was told I should consider myself lucky they came out that quickly because I wasn't a priority. There was no inspection to see if there was any damage done to the ceiling cavity. Just the tiles replaced and the plasterboard patched and painted.

Another (lease back) house we had was built on foundations instead of a pad, which is common for that area and no biggie for us. Except that it had come off the support beams. I will give them that they were pretty quick to get in an engineer on that one though. We were posted shortly thereafter but did see that the house was being gutted for repairs.

This house is also a leaseback. I will just go as far as to say they've been served a Breach Notice.

You know that fresh lick of paint they promise? That's what you get. A single coat of paint. And every third time it's 3 coats. That new carpet? Commercial. And even they've even said it's not suitable, just cheap.

I don't know what impact the Residential Tenancies Act has as far as owners of properties of schemese such as what DHA offers, but I do know DHA are of the belief they are NOT required to act in accordance with it, that they have an exemption. I don't know about anywhere else in the country nowadays, but back in the late 90's there was a court case in NSW that proved they were. Look it up on the Australian Government Soliciters website, the OWNER of the property that took them to court was Henderson. I do know that currently (confirmed yesterday) that there is no exemption for them in Western Australia.

If you really want to hear what tenants have to say about DHA and the way they manage properties, there is a Facebook Group called I Hate DHA. So many stories come out on there it can really give you a good picture of what they're like once they've got your house.
 
It was my understanding that DHA manage the property, but that the LL was still the one responsible for the upkeep and maintainance?
 
From DHA website

Repair and maintenance
DHA takes care of an extensive list of non-structural repair and maintenance items, ensuring your property is maintained to a high standard.

DHA will also organise any emergency repair that is essential to preserve the property and/or protect health, safety and security.
 
If there is such a thing as cheap defence housing, I have yet to see it. The DHA is about sucking in patriots to house servicemen on the cheap. The only winner is the government.
 
Having said that, if you just lease direct to a Defence person, and you're a good landlord, when they move out they'll generally advertise for a replacement person to take over the lease on their networks.
 
Yup... as I understand it, if a house meets the requirements listed on the webpage, then you can lease it to DHA.

Maybe in some places, but I know in canberra here they aren't even slightly interested in a private residence becoming DHA. We are building in Casey, and tried to speak to DHA a couple of times about taking them on as a tenant (either there or in any other residence we might purchase / build in the future). There standard line was either "DHA are not looking as putting defence personel in that area at the moment" or "DHA already have defence housing in that area".

Having said that, if you buy defence housing in Canberra, it is possible to get some at market value, or not very far above. But then we are still very much a rising market here, and all the good stuff gets snapped up as soon as it is listed.
 
Hi there,

I am onto my 4th DHA House and have nothing but praise for them. It is a no stress investment, you buy, you put away and you know that it is well looked after and maintained. My first one in darwin - was sensational , and I bought three others in Medowie NSW, Burton SA and Douglas, QLD. All have grown in value and I am happy with them.

I bought my last one privately and I know that Westpac recently released 300 odd houses ranging in prices from 330K to 700K all with leases up to 10 years remaining. My last one, I negotiated a good price and was happy with that deal. The DHA site is a fixed price and yes , I think you may pay overs..... But I can sleep at night knowing my house wont feature on Today Tonight or I will end up in some tribunal or have a nice hydroponic home renovation story.

Peace of mind - DHA is your place.
 
Hi there,

I am onto my 4th DHA House and have nothing but praise for them. It is a no stress investment, you buy, you put away and you know that it is well looked after and maintained. My first one in darwin - was sensational , and I bought three others in Medowie NSW, Burton SA and Douglas, QLD. All have grown in value and I am happy with them.

I bought my last one privately and I know that Westpac recently released 300 odd houses ranging in prices from 330K to 700K all with leases up to 10 years remaining. My last one, I negotiated a good price and was happy with that deal. The DHA site is a fixed price and yes , I think you may pay overs..... But I can sleep at night knowing my house wont feature on Today Tonight or I will end up in some tribunal or have a nice hydroponic home renovation story.

Peace of mind - DHA is your place.

I've had a look at DHA and found the returns to be approx. 4%. No thanks!
 
Hi,
just thought I'd let you know of my very recent experience (settled 3 weeks ago). Just bought a DHA house in Medowie. Purchase was private and so we got a good price. Currently yielding 5.6% gross and the lease runs out in 20 months. They will repaint inside and out and recarpet at the end of the 20 months, so the extra 9% management fees we will be paying over this time we will recoup in the work they complete at the end of lease. There are some properties on Invest Assured (Westpac sell off) that are offering yields over 5% but I'm not sure if the prices are negotiable.
We bought a DHA many years ago in Townsville from DHA directly and yes it was a premium price. Sold it after 7 years and got a good return (wish we hadn't now though). So DHA seems to be a bit of a mixed bag of experiences. I would buy another with a longer lease but only if I could get it privately.
Cheers
 
I was looking at purchasing a DHA (private sale) in Brisbane in the last couple of months. Appears that vendor was selling due to DHA reassessing the rent to a lower rate!
Yes, this can happen, and yes, you can appeal, but what a headache having to do so.

Too complicated and there are no guarantees that they won't lower the rent even again, so I skipped on that deal.
 
in line with Brrmm, i have heard similar, that often the initial rent is appealing however when the rents jump DHA keep it in line with the agreement, so a gap between privately let dwellings vs DHA houses appears.

Would be interesting to hear from those who have held them for @5 years to see.
 
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