Hi there,
I am quite new to property investment, had a look at DHA properties (invest.dha.gov.au). It sound very appealing and interesting with secure long term lease.
Just wanted to check if someone has experience with them esp in term with capital appreciation given most of the properties are quite far away from CBD.
I am looking at long term investment with secure returns.
Thanks
Welcome to the forum,
If you do a search on this, you will find quite a bit has been discussed on the forum already – shoudl help you. The ADF are giving incentives for members to buy their own properties quite strongly, so maybe demand for rental properties and or return will lessen in the future.
All the best.I work in local government (by-laws) and have had some very bad experiances with DHA housing, most DHA houses are not looked after, treated poorly and DHA housinf officers are very hard to contact and get action for the tenents to clean up or stop causing a nuisance to neighbours. If your fussy about the up-keep and running of the property I would be a little put off!
virgininvestor wrote:I work in local government (by-laws) and have had some very bad experiances with DHA housing, most DHA houses are not looked after, treated poorly and DHA housinf officers are very hard to contact and get action for the tenents to clean up or stop causing a nuisance to neighbours. If your fussy about the up-keep and running of the property I would be a little put off!Having spent 5 years in the Army living around friends and work colleages who lived in DHA house's i THINK YOU ARE SPEAKING ABSOULTE RUBBISH.
Any way if you do a search for DHA on this site you will find some good info,….. If you are a hands off "set and Forget" type investor I think they can make good investments.
v8ghia wrote:Welcome to the forum,
The ADF are giving incentives for members to buy their own properties quite strongly, so maybe demand for rental properties and or return will lessen in the future.
All the best.When your in the Army facing getting posted to a new location every 3-4years buying a house in your posted location is not really appealing,…
especially when rental assitance packages are so good,… alot of soldiers generally buy property in there home town and continue to get rental assitance in their posted location,…. thats what myself and alot of my mates did anyway. at one stage we were renting a house for $325 / week, the three of us were getting nearly $100 a week rental assitance each,… mean while two of us had 2 properties in Brisbane and the other had 1 property on the central coast.
and with DHA it doesn't really matter any way because you get your rent even if the house is vacant for 12 months, which some of them are.
I'm also ex-military and I'd have to agree with tysonboss's assessment of virgininvestor's comment, though perhaps not the tone in which it was delivered.
The military take excellent care of their housing, are exceedingly strict with tenants (much more than any other property manager I've ever dealt with), and being the employer as well as property manager, they have good leverage to ensure that their "requests" are complied with. They will use the chain of command if necessary, ie if someone's a pig in their home, they will get hauled into their boss's office, ie "bring your hat, don't bring your coffee mug". I know, I've been the one doing the shoutingcounselling!So I would have to say that defence housing is a very easy investment. But I would share your concern about capital appreciation. Ask some military people what's happening with the base's future, because in many areas the base is the major economic centre in the area, and if it's expanding, I think your investment would be pretty sound. The area around Yamanto (near Amberley RAAF base) is one that I believe is going to expand enormously for decades – there are all sorts of expansion plans for the base, so I should think that one's pretty secure. Other bases, though, are becoming smaller.
The other reason I personally wouldn't invest in defence housing is your limited ability to add value – the military want the house pretty much as it is, and won't pay more if you improve it. Nor can you subdivide. If you need to sell, you're stuck with the lease which may affect sales price as you limit the market that you can sell to.
But as mentioned before, if you don't want to add value and want "set and forget", and it's near a solid base with expansion plans, then they can be a great investment.
Warmest regards, Tracey in Brisbane
The main deterrent that I found when investigating this style of investment was the low nett return. A management fee of around 20% of gross rent regardless of how many DHA properties that you owned. Sure the rental is attractive, increases are set and forget, maintenance is a non-issue.
The things that you must weigh up are the period of time that you are going to have the house 'locked up' with DHA, your exit strategy, potential of the property location beyond the lease expiry (maybe subdivide then relet 2 to DHA at a later date), in the end you must be happy with the nett return on the property.
Thanks for your comments and info. I think virgininvestor's comment was bit extreme. My personal exp with defence people has been really good.
Given all pro's and con's i found very intersting to see few properties in Point Cook area went on hold before being invertised on website.
Any one has more info "Point Cook" in Victoria? I think this area has good potential – very close to city (20 km) and in victoria growth corridor. Also RAAF base is very close and seems to expand further.
Hi,
There is no need to be so rude and vocal, I was simply stating the experiences I have had this such properties. Good for you if you have had a pleasant experience, thats really nice, but thats the point of the forum for everyone to state their view so how about some respect.
The housing your probably talking about is located in NSW and QLD where there is a heavy defense presence. I'm talking about ones in and around Melbourne Victoria were there little defense areas or bases. Many of the defence houses around here are on a single block, often with only one in the street. I have 3 at the moment which I have severed Notices on to clean up the property and one for noise issues. (point cook area)
Just because your in the army, does not make you the best tenant in the world, have you seen the videos on you tube?
virgininvestor wrote:Hi,There is no need to be so rude and vocal, I was simply stating the experiences I have had this such properties. Good for you if you have had a pleasant experience, thats really nice, but thats the point of the forum for everyone to state their view so how about some respect.
The housing your probably talking about is located in NSW and QLD where there is a heavy defense presence. I'm talking about ones in and around Melbourne Victoria were there little defense areas or bases. Many of the defence houses around here are on a single block, often with only one in the street. I have 3 at the moment which I have severed Notices on to clean up the property and one for noise issues. (point cook area)
Just because your in the army, does not make you the best tenant in the world, have you seen the videos on you tube?
All I am saying is that your original comment is wrong,… DHA is a set and forget investment you can be assured that when the property is handed back it will be in good condition it will be freshly painted and re carpeted,
To say that if you rent your house to Dha it will not be looked after is just false,…. you have a far greater chance getting bad tenants if you rented the house through a normal property manager,…. Even if as you say you got a tenant from Hell who damaged your property and trashed every thing, thats not your problem dha will take care of it before hand over
Also DHA houses are not rented to young immature groups of soldiers they are only lent to Married or defacto couples and families, any unmarried or single soldiers with no family that want to move off the base have to look for a house at the local RE office just like anybody else.
Sorry my mistake I read the orginal post wrong, I was thinking DHS, Department of Human Services, sorry for the misunderstanding
My PPOR is in Point Cook, it's a fairly nice and new area and has experienced around 8% growth over 12 months according to a few free postcode profiles (see postcode 3030). There's a new marina development beginning development in 08 around 5km away at Werribee South beach. Parts of the Hoppers Xing/Werribee district are a bit rough but there's some nice newer areas. There is a new shopping centre under construction at the moment (early 08 opening) and a train station is planned.
Just be mindful though, I suspect Point Cook is in for a slower sustained growth and it may not meet your cashflow/growth requirements given the higher DHA management costs. It's nowhere near as fast as the inner city areas at the moment.
Tysonboss1 wrote:Also DHA houses are not rented to young immature groups of soldiers they are only lent to Married or defacto couples and families, any unmarried or single soldiers with no family that want to move off the base have to look for a house at the local RE office just like anybody else.
Really? I have a 26 year old single friend who has a 3 bedroom DHA property in Sydney (not sure of the suburb name, it's a newer area up from Campbellfield, about 15km south of Bankstown off the M5). Nice place too, but I assure you he looks after it. After having met some of his defence force mates, though, I'd be a bit concerned if they all had DHA housing.
ngardiner wrote:[Really? I have a 26 year old single friend who has a 3 bedroom DHA property in Sydney (not sure of the suburb name, it's a newer area up from Campbellfield, about 15km south of Bankstown off the M5). Nice place too, but I assure you he looks after it. After having met some of his defence force mates, though, I'd be a bit concerned if they all had DHA housing.
Well that is definatly not the normal thing,… Are you sure it's a DHA property.
Because when I left the army 2 years ago there was a shortage of DHA properties so even alot of married couples were forced to rent on the open market,…
also within the army DHA properties are referred to a "married" Accomadation. I can't think of a reason your mate would be living in a dha house, unless he was defacto or had a kid.
I did some research on DHA properties. Got a mixed feedback on it – I do agree its really a "set and forget" kind of investement!
On other note: How good are they in re-evaluating and increasing rent every year?
Any comments?
Thanks
ranjitsudan wrote:I
On other note: How good are they in re-evaluating and increasing rent every year?Any comments?
Thanks
they do include rental increases in the lease, you would have to ask them how they are calculated though..
The military take excellent care of their housing, are exceedingly strict with tenants (much more than any other property manager I've ever dealt with), and being the employer as well as property manager, they have good leverage to ensure that their "requests" are complied with. They will use the chain of command if necessary, ie if someone's a pig in their home, they will get hauled into their boss's office, ie "bring your hat, don't bring your coffee mug". 
I know, I've been the one doing the 
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