DHA charge a 15% management fee instead of the usual 7% that other managers charge. But they do all the minor maintenance for that, they cover the cost of cleaning between tenants, you get rental income even when they are unoccupied, and when the lease has run out, they re-carpet and repaint the property. We have one DHA rental, and one managed by a real estate agent. I know which one I prefer. The rental income for DHA leased is usually at the top of the bracket for the area, and as far as capitol growth is concerned, that is entirely dependent on the property market in that area. Unfortunately for the OP, there doesn't seem to be many DHA properties in Tassie
I will give you a DHA tenant customer perspective on this one.
I am a long term defence employee here, over 25 years service and have lived in DHA properties ranging from absolute dumps to brand new properties. DHA are supposed to maintain the property for the owner. From my experience DHA are 10 times worse than normal real estate agents. I have also had investment properties so know what it's like dealing with real estate agents long distance. If you can get some one to come around and do the maintanence or fix what is actually requires repair. The amount of band aids or outright crap fixes performed by DHA that I have seen over the years I will never never never have a DHA INVESTMENT PROPERTY knowing that "the investor" is paying top dollar and through the nose for this supposed premium investment service.
In between tenants ( posting cycles) they are suppose to have the property professionally cleaned etc and they actually take this out of the defence persons allowances now on posting. The bullShit charges they Can also impose on a member borders on criminal. You have a vacation inspection a few weeks prior to your removal date and they will identify issues that require cleaning/fixing. You can have your married quarter spotless, have the gardens immaculate and then still get stung after you have moved out. A lot of members are taking photographic proof now on vacation to stop this from happening otherwise it is your word against theirs.
Most properties are not professionally cleaned because a lot of older defence personnel are used to having what we used to call the white glove clean when defence housing was run by defence. They clean the properties to an inch of their lives for fear of been slugged thousands of dollars in charges for absolute minor things. Very rarely a carpets cleaned in between tenants although they are charged for it. DHA will send cleaners around just before tenants are supposed to move in and are lucky to have a lick and a promise. This grieves me no end when we are forced to pay Hundreds of dollars to have a house professionally cleaned and we clean it out ourselves and then have to do the same thing at the other end. Nine times out of ten before you move in to a defence property you ask to get the keys early so you can clean it before your effects arrive. If the average person saw what goes on with DHA during Posting cycle they would be moritified.
Long term defence personnel know to take dated photos of the property when they first move in, ensure they have an email trail for all maintanence for The property they moving into so that they do not get stung by DHA trying to shaft the tenant with repairs they were supposed to fix either prior to a tenant moving in or during tenancy through wear and tear etc. Most defence personnel I know would prefer to be in their own homes or seek private rentals than have to deal with DHA because the experience is that bad.
Thank god for a number of years I now have my own home and I no longer have to deal with DHA.
Also define fair wear and tear. A lot of defence families can stay in one property for 9-12 years. I have seen members been told they have to pay for full refurbishment and repainting of houses after living in them for that long. Most members will improve homes, establish gardens and increase the value of the property. A lot of the time houses were already old before moving in and in poor to average condition before they moved in. Add children growing up from babies to teenagers, of course a property will deteriorate and have fair wear and tear in carpets on walls, vertical blinds etc. The stress and threats a member has to go through on a already very stressful period during posting is unbelievable if their are housing issues, usually resulting in internal DCO advocates having to be appointed to try and resolve the issues.
I have been in two brand new homes over my years, the first person to move into a brand new property. The lists of defects we have had to try and get DHA to fix on both occasions would make your eyes bulge and if you were the owner investor you would physically be ill. I have even had to engage a lawyer to resolve a maintanance and safety issue with DHA with a brand new oven that had a design fault that caused the oven door to fall off. Theovendoor caused a serious foot injury to my wife and 18 months of rehab to fix. Luckily she was in defence as well so all our medical bills were paid for. We were without a useable oven for months because DHA would not replace it claiming there was nothing wrong with it. It took a letter threatening to take them to court and A letter from and independent repair person at my own cost identifying that the supplied oven was faulty and had been identified with a safety recall which I had already provided them with before they finally replaced the oven with a new model. To make things worse these ovens had been bought in bulk and were fitted to nearly all the DHA houses in the estate we lived in and ours was the only one replaced that I am aware of. . I hate to imagine what would have happened if the same injury my wife received happened to a a child or defence spouse who was a civilian and had to pay for the medical bills themselves that we experienced.
DHA is a money making machine, they charge premium prices for poor to average builds at best, rip off the owner with massively inflated management fees at double the standard rate. They are now almost a law to themselves and just about untouchable. There have been a number of inhouse investigations on DHA within government on their "management practises and behaviour".
Ask any defence spouse about DHA, there will be very few that will give you a positive view of them.
Would I invest in a DHA property, from my experience as a customer (tenant), experience first hand what actually happens to the properties and having my own investment properties over the years I most definitely would not.
Cheers, Chris
