Chair and Managing Director's Report
A large proportion of our younger generation is being priced out of home ownership, with far too many people reliant on the private rental market, which can be unreliable, overpriced and, on occasion, unsafe. With the national priority of housing affordability, the Housing Choices team has concentrated on its mission to provide quality affordable housing in collaboration with our partners. We are proud of the work done this year and remain focussed on maintaining our passion and drive to find innovative ways to assist more people out of housing stress and into secure accommodation. The roll out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is also affording an opportunity to build on our existing commitment to housing people with a disability. This year has also been a foundation year for Housing Choices, with the first full year of Tasmanian operations and the formal transfer of Common Ground Adelaide in March. In addition, a new service was introduced to augment the service portfolio with the acquisition of a private rental business – Urban Choices Property – which commenced in April. There has been early success with considerable growth in the number of investors across Melbourne and in regional Victoria. Further expansion is planned as the service becomes more established. Again our recent resident survey results reflected that on a national basis 87 per cent are happy with the overall service provided to them, which is consistent with national results from the previous year. Amongst the key findings are that 89 per cent of residents are satisfied or very satisfied with their property and 90 per cent with the location of their home. And in addition, 85 per cent told us that when they contacted Housing Choices.
Over the past year affordable housing has made headlines across the country, and is one of the biggest social issues of our time as people cope with the current market forces.
Arthur Papakotsias
Chair
Michael Lennon
Managing Director
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ANNUAL REPORT 2015–16
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