Knowing the Market to Ensure Your NDIS Housing Investment Is a Success

Private investors across Australia are increasingly considering NDIS property investment as their next property portfolio addition. Whether you’re a first-time investor or have many years of investment experience under your belt, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) presents an unprecedented investment opportunity — even the most experienced of investors will need to do their homework.

Read on as we cover what you need to know about the Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) market to ensure your investment in the NDIS sector is successful.

SDA housing explained

One of the most ground-breaking components of the NDIS has been the introduction of Specialist Disability Accommodation. SDA properties are purpose-built across four specific design categories to suit NDIS participants with very high support needs and extreme functional impairment.

Without suitable accommodation, Australians living with disability are often left to reside in aged care facilities despite only being in their 20s, 30s or 40s. The SDA scheme provides suitable housing that incorporates provisions to ensure that tenants with significant disability can achieve a level of independence and quality of life that is simply unattainable in traditional homes.

What you need to know about the SDA market before investing

You wouldn’t flippantly invest your money in any investment option without first understanding its merits and the market it operates within. Before you purchase approved SDA housing, get yourself up to speed on the SDA market to give yourself the knowledge and confidence that you’re making a prudent property choice.

Where participants see value in SDA properties

Perhaps it goes without saying that there is no point in supplying an SDA property that is not in demand by NDIS-approved tenants. An NDIS SDA property needs to be built to the strict design standard set out by the Australian Government — this doesn’t mean that merely ticking the boxes to have an SDA-compliant property is going to be fulfilling for the participants living in them.

For example, some recent feedback from NDIS participants is that they do not like:

Clinical homes that feel like a hospital

• Most participants experience enough medical appointments to know that they do not want to live in an environment that feels like a medical facility. Suitable specialist disability accommodation provides an alternative to aged-care facilities — they shouldn’t look or feel like a replica of them!

High concentration of units

• While everybody’s preferences differ, most participants do not enjoy living with a high concentration of others.

Dwellings with more than four bedrooms

• SDA participants find three-bedroom dwellings the most enjoyable, with four-bedroom homes feeling overbearing.

Understand the current demand for NDIS properties

Housing providers inevitably want to provide NDIS homes where they’re needed most. Not only does this work towards providing as many NDIS participants with forever homes, but it also increases the probability of more consistent rental income for the investor. Using SDA demand data to your advantage can help narrow down where SDA homes are most required and the design category of specialised housing most in demand.

The investment and NDIS funding process

One of the main drawcards for property investors to invest in an SDA home are the high rental yields available. This is largely due to the federal Government committing up to $700M towards SDA funding to ensure that as many Aussies that require specialised housing can access an NDIS property.

The NDIS provides a budget to eligible NDIS participants, depending on their individual circumstances. The SDA payments are then paid to the SDA provider, along with any reasonable rent contribution from the participant — this is then forwarded to the investor.

Accessing professionals who intimately understand NDIS property investment

When you choose to invest in an NDIS SDA home, you are required to follow various additional steps over a standard investment property, including engaging an accredited SDA builder, choosing a registered provider under the NDIS scheme, and using a specialist property management firm. At Apollo Investment, our team of professionals intimately understand the NDIS market and the investment process.

The opportunity for social and economic participation that special disability accommodation provides has created a new offering to the investment options available to Australian investors. With Government backed returns and capital growth potential similar to any other investment property while benefiting the disabled community, now is the time to contact Apollo Investment to guide you through making your SDA investment a success.