DHA Owner's Club

17/03/2025

So DHA has once again published a supposedly independent / third-party report showing how much savings an property investor can make use DHA. But how reliable is this?

Well once again the report leaves some glaring questions to be answered.

1. The study does not seem to factor in the cost of the annual valuation fee we have to do. This can be over $1k of extra annual cost. In a private lease we don't need to do a valuation but with DHA this needs to be planned for. As the DHA savings for units averages about $2.7k then this one line item will significantly reduce that value.

2. The study compares maintenance costs excluding structural repairs, but how is 'structural' is defined. Is it per industry standard or per DHA contract definition ie anything connected / fixed to the property structure. This effectively means, that doors, tiles, taps, lights, gyprock, etc would all be classified as structural.

Without such a definition, I don't see how the analysis could have been done. So this leave much doubt in my mind as to the veracity of their claims and once taken into account could well overturn the findings.

3. The report concludes showing how low DHA fees are as a % of assets compared with various Superannuation funds. While I do not contest this finding, I do wonder the relevance as their comparison ignores the returns / income from these alternatives [which could potentially be much higher and so out weight the added costs]. To make this a meaningful comparison the relevant data to examine would be net returns [after costs]. I'm sure that the report writers are smart enough to have thought of this and done the analysis. So then the question remains why did they not present it? Could it be that the results of a net returns analysis did not show favorably?

Note this is not to say that a DHA property is not a good investment. I myself have one and there are certainly some pros to the DHA approach - but one must be careful. DM me if you'd like further information / details.

30/09/2024

DHA Portal fixed. Ok so after spending several days talking and emailing several staff there, finally managed to get my login fixed. It’s not the same as before but at least I can get in now. Message me if you’re interested in the detail.

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24/09/2024

DHA Online Portal Down.
If you’ve been having difficulty logging into the DHA online portal, rest assured you are not alone. For the past several weeks [maybe months] now the DHA online portal has not been operating properly. Specifically their two factor authentication has suffered extreme latency - rendering it non-functional. As most user know, when one logs into the DHA portal they will send an SMS and require that the code in the SMS be entered to enable login. However the SMS does not arrive until 10-15mins+ later by which time the code has expired [only good for 8 minutes]. DHA has long been aware of this problem but strangely has not been able to fix it. Having working in this field before, such system failures are trivially easy to rectify and is normally set right in a matter of hours if not minutes. So for them to prevent access to their portal for so long is perplexing. Let’s hope they get their act together and fix this soon - especially as they direct all communication with them to be through that portal.

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28/07/2023

DHA Webinar.
So DHA hosted a Webinar on Monday 24 July 2023 to present the findings of a study which they commissioned. The intent was to inform all of us of the cost advantage of investing in DHA property vs privately leasing.

During the Q&A session I posted some qns which the DHA moderator declined to address saying they would answer these individually. Curious since there was still time to spare at the end of the session which ended early and somewhat abruptly in my opinion.

So here we are over a year later and I've still not heard from DHA with regard to the questions I posed. Hard for me to understand what is taking so long as the questions were rather simple. For example [paraphrasing here]

1. Does the study factor in the cost of the annual valuation fee we
have to do? This can be over $1k of extra annual cost. In a private lease we don't need to do a valuation but with DHA I've had to do one every year.

2. As the study compares maintenance costs excluding structural repairs, I asked how 'structural' is defined. Is it per industry standard or per DHA contract definition ie anything connected / fixed to the property structure. This effectively means, that doors, tiles, taps, lights, gyprock, etc could all potentially be classified as structural.

Deafening silence from DHA on these two items. Curious as to do the study, they would have needed to know the answers to those questions wouldn't they?

So did anyone else post questions to DHA which were not answered? Keen to hear your thoughts.

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19/06/2023

So I recently cam across an owner who was struggling with maintenance and the question came up as: "What actually is covered by DHA and what is for owner to pay for?"

Unfortunately there is no simple answer to that - many factors come into play.

First and foremost is the version of the contract you are on. Some of us are still on the very old V5 or slightly old V6[b], [c] while most nowadays are on V7. Generally the older the version the better the terms.

Another factor is the property manager. They have a good deal of discretion so we'd need to look things like:
[1] does he or she want to help you out,
[2] Does he/she have the experience and influence within DHA to approve and/or get approval for those works,
[3] 'other' factors.

The third factor is yourself. Meaning your negotiations skills, knowledge of property management practices, knowledge of DHA departments and contracts, etc.

So far in my years as a DHA investor, I've been able to keep on top of these 3 areas and have not yet had to pay for any maintenance. Meanwhile DHA have tried to put several items to me totalling over $20k but in each case, I've been able to turn it around and get them to pay for it.

Email me if you'd like to know more.

02/05/2023

Another qn I’ve been asked is:
"As a DHA owner, do I have to do a valuation for myself each and every year?"

Strictly speaking the answer would be no Nothing in the service agreement compels you to do so and in fact DHA would probably prefer if you don’t.
However in my experience it has been beneficial in every case to do a secondary valuation.

From what I have seen Opteon and JLL before them have consistently under valued the market. Not surprising given the drivers at play here as well as the fact that they may be doing your valuation in Aug or September [due to volume] and therefore estimating what it will be worth months into the future on 31 December. Contrast that with your secondary valuation which will be done in January or February and has the benefit of hind sight

So doing a secondary valuation is my general recommendation. There maybe exceptions to this so please feel free to contact me if you’d like to discuss further or in more detail.

27/04/2023

So I've been asked who I used for my rental valuation. This year I used Vanguard. They are not the cheapest but as I needed to do an on-site this year they worked out to have the best deal. Most importantly, they got me the outcome I was looking for. There are others I have used and each have their respective pros / cons. Please feel free to email me if you'd like more info. [email protected]

09/04/2023

This year is the first that Opteon has done the valuations. What has your experience been? For me, they were ridiculously below market value. Even trying to get a rental decrease. Ludicrous.

Naturally I hired my own valuer and set them straight.

09/04/2023

To kick things off, just send me an email. [email protected]

02/03/2023

This club is for DHA landlord's who currently lease out their property to the DHA. Feel free to join and share experiences as well as seek advice from each other. Please be factual and respectful. Thanks.