Investors are important to us as they help us sustain a high quality, well-located property portfolio and a healthy long term financial structure. We sell and lease back properties through our property investment program, directly lease properties from private owners and negotiate with existing investors to renew or extend leases.
Our lease agreement
Other companies have attempted to emulate our turnkey lease product, however, few can match our ability to provide investment opportunities across Australia, our unique role as both the tenant and property manager and our credibility as a GBE.
Distinguishing features of our lease agreement include:
- a long lease term (typically nine or 12 years; greater when lease options are exercised)
- reliable rental income payable from the date of settlement and no loss of rental income if the property is not occupied
- an extensive range of property care services provided during the lease term in return for a service fee, including:
- property and tenancy management
- organising and covering the cost of most day-to-day, non-structural repairs and maintenance
- annual rent review to market value
- restoration of the property at lease-end (includes professional cleaning and, depending on the length of the lease, repainting and/or recarpeting).
As with any investment, investors retain some responsibilities and risks. These include the payment of compulsory insurances, applicable government or council rates and taxes and responsibility for some repairs and maintenance items.
Our web-based system, Online Services, provides investors with self-service capability to view information and perform a range of tasks. For example, access their lease and property details, update their contact details, view financial and rental statements and view completed property inspection reports and maintenance details.
Refer to Housing portfolio later in this section of the report for information about the proportion of our portfolio that is leased.
Refer to Part 3 of this report for more information about our services to investors and investor satisfaction.
Case study: Thousands of happy investors
Many people don’t realise that you don’t have to be an ADF member to buy a DHA investment property. As at 30 June 2017, we managed 13,149 properties on behalf of investors. Most DHA investors live in Australia, but some live overseas. They come from all walks of life and have different life experience. The one thing they have in common is that they all want to generate wealth and secure their financial future.
Ping, who lives with his wife, Lily, and their son, Andy, in Darwin (NT) is among our thousands of happy investors.
Before buying a DHA investment property, Ping and Lily had three non-DHA investment properties. ‘We were always having problems with property managers,’ said Ping.
Ping and Lily plan to retire to Queensland, so that’s where they looked for their next investment property. But they felt it was essential to find a good property management team as they wouldn’t be able to manage the property themselves or inspect it easily. That’s why they chose DHA.
‘In 2006 we bought a DHA property in Brisbane. It’s perfect because they look after your investment. It’s set and forget. As DHA is a government business, we trusted them to manage our property.’
Ping and Lily are now looking to buy their second DHA property.
‘In my mind the perfect retirement is me and my wife travelling around the world. Our investment with DHA will allow us to achieve that.’
View this and more investor success stories on our website.