WHAT IS SPECIALIST DISABILITY HOUSING?

Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) is a form of housing designed for people with extreme functional impairment or very high support needs. SDA housing has accessible features to assist residents with a disability live more independently. Typical examples include specialist designs, such as wide doorways, lower countertops, remote control technology and spaced-out layouts.

The Australian Commonwealth Government provides funding for SDA participants who meet specific eligibility criteria, as part of its National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). At the end of July 2023, the NDIS reported approximately 23,449 active participants who required some SDA support with more than 20% of current participants either seeking or unhappy with existing accommodation. Total NDIS participants have grown at a CAGR of 18.92% since 2020 with an additional 5,750 participants over the last twelve months, up 32.53% from 2022.

HOW DOES NDIS PROPERTY INVESTMENT WORK?

Investing in SDA is a form of impact investing which provides NDIS property investors with the opportunity to make a positive and measurable social impact whilst earning attractive returns.

Under the NDIS, The Australian Commonwealth Government provides funding to eligible SDA participants through a market-based approach by allocating funding to eligible participants. A participant can use that confirmed funding to then source the support including housing that appeals to them from the market.

Institutional investment in the sector especially from impact focused funds has increased given the attractive returns with partly government-backed revenue funded by the NDIS which has an annual budget for SDA estimated to be $700 million. Building the scale of housing required for the SDA market is expected to stimulate around $5 billion in private sector investment.

GLOBAL TRENDS

The interest in impact investing continues to grow globally with over US$30 trillion invested in professionally managed funds globally compared to under US$4 trillion in 2006.

In Australia and New Zealand, impact investment has more than doubled during the past 7 years to US$1.2 trillion. During this time Japanese impact investment has increased eightfold to US$4.3 trillion while impact investment in the United States and Europe is currently US$8.4 trillion and US$14 trillion respectively.

HOW TO INVEST IN SDA

SDA is an emerging asset class that has huge potential to have a measurable impact on the lives of people living with a disability and generate attractive returns for investors that have the capacity to deploy capital at scale.

The Polar 993 Group is pleased to be able to assist investors to access opportunities in the SDA property sector.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this paper is of a general nature only and is not to be taken to contain any financial product advice or recommendation. Nothing in this paper is intended as financial product advice and it does not take into account any person’s investment objectives, financial circumstances or specific needs. This paper is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of any offer to acquire interests or any other investment and should not be used as the basis for making an investment. Polar 993 Limited (ACN 642 129 226) (AFSL 525458) and Polar 993 Advisory Pty Ltd (ACN 649 554 932) (AFSL 531197), their directors, officers, employees, agents or associates do not guarantee repayment of capital, the performance of any fund or any service. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.