Hi all,

When considering the saying that “money follows management” I find the WPAC investment into DHA interesting.

DHA is a bureaucratic government ran organisation. Having seen the ridiculously over inflated contracts paid by DHA for simple maintenance work I would not be surprised if the majority of DHA built houses where purchased at a premium in the first place. Over inflated wholesale price means over-inflated purchase price.

A little surprised by the comments that DHA ‘provide quality housing built to above average specs’. Having experienced DHA housing for the last ten years I have observed that wherever they can penny-pinch on spec they will. An example being that at my last house DHA did not install a pergola because this is not considered ‘community standard’ and was not within spec – even after the builder offered a significant discount on the construction. Air-conditioning anywhere outside Darwin and Townsville is not considered ‘community standard’ and is therefore not installed (try living through an Adelaide summer with thought that air-conditioning is not ‘community standard’!). It could be argued that the above are not deal-breakers when purchasing an IP but I do believe that they add a certain amount of perceived value.

Paying a 16% premium for property management you would expect premium management. The cost of this management offsets the seriously inflated contract prices that DHA pay any contractor for any work. There is no vested interest in looking after the properties by the public servant property managers so why would they seek competitive quotes for repairs and maintenance. That’s why you pay double the market value for property management and a loaded premium for the property purchase.

DHA is universally derided within defence. DHA are also known as ‘Don’t Help Anyone’ because of their general lack of customer service and public service mentality. I could fill pages of this forum with DHA horror stories and I am sure that any defence member reading this would be nodding their head right now. DHA have (currently) only one customer to service and they cannot even get that right.

In stating my points I am putting aside the property purchasing side of the house within DHA; where ever DHA buy it will 9in general) eventually gain no matter how over-inflated the price.

The point I am making is that as an organisation I would not invest one brass penny into DHA; which makes the $100M investment by WPAC even more interesting.

Money follows management? Not in this case.