Right now in Australia, the need for housing for the vulnerable must significantly increase if it is to keep up with demand.
A published report, ‘Specialist Disability Accommodation: Market Insights’ by the Summer Foundation, found the existing supply of SDA needs to grow by 60% to house the 28,000 people the NDIS expects to fund.
The purpose of the report was to demonstrate the scale and distribution of demand for Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), with a view to encouraging both private and community sector interest in the provision of this housing.
SDA ensures the housing requirements of people with extreme functional impairment or very high support needs are delivered and payments cover a wide range of housing options, depending on the individual’s needs.
The initiative is part of a massive 22 billion-dollar government-funded industry. This gives investors, property developers and individuals who wish to have an investment property an opportunity to get maximum returns from the property.
Priority areas for the provisions of SDA are identified through three different lenses in the study.
The first identifies locations that are currently underserved with SDA having regard to the national average rate of per capita provision. This is the ‘supply perspective’.
Recognising that the need for SDA may not follow population shares, the second lens looks at the current supply data with the estimated future distribution of demand for these services. This is the ‘demand distribution perspective’.
The third lens is that of a property investor looking to simultaneously meet SDA needs and generate sound financial returns. This approach interfaces the estimated distribution of demand for SDA with an index of potential property market gains.
The report identified another 33,200 people with very high support needs who “may require SDA on top of the 17,500 already in this form of housing. Of these 33,200 people, 6,200 people are under 64 residing in aged care.”
It is important to understand the nature and scale of demand. The SDA is expected to account for A$700 million a year of NDIS spending when the scheme is fully implemented. The move from grants-based funding to a market-based system in which people with disabilities control their own funding is predicted to create a A$5 billion disability housing market over the next five years.
SDA payment rates have been set to cover the cost of capital and to incentivise a new market. Combined with including the payment in the individual’s support plan, there is hope that a fully functioning, mature and competitive market in which providers compete to provide housing to NDIS participants would assist them to choose and have more control over where they live and who they live with.
Here at HCPA, we specialise in assisting individuals and businesses to either purchase their own SDA property or make additions to an existing property in order to be a suitable accommodation option for participants.
We’ll help you find the land, apply for a loan, put you in touch with the architects and builders, and support you in attracting participants to live in your SDA property. With the support of government funding, your investment property can be paid off in 5 years, all whilst helping support the disability community and making a real difference.
Contact us here, and one of our team will give you a call and discuss how you can start your new property venture today.
SOURCES | The Conversation ‘NDIS needs the market to help make up at least 60% shortfall in specialist disability housing’ | Latrobe Univesity ‘NDIS Shortfall in Disability Housing’ |
