Sydney property buyer reveals NDIS investment nightmare

Ads in Hong Kong promoted the NDIS as a high-return property investment play. That led a Sydney woman into a financial nightmare.

More NSW people are revealing their NDIS investment property nightmares, including one Sydney woman who feels she has been misled.

“Cathy” is facing financial disaster after borrowing $700,000 from relatives who attended an investment seminar in Hong Kong where it was claimed “guaranteed up to 8 per cent rental returns” were on offer through the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Cathy — an NDIS participant who cannot work because she has Parkinson’s disease — said her relatives hoped the investment would deliver a steady income to pay for her medical and living expenses.

But instead it has only added to the pressure she is under.

The NDIS provider meant to find tenants and manage the property, along with about 60 others, won’t take possession.

NDIS specialist disability accommodation investor “Cathy”, right, of Sydney, who has had a nightmare experience with her investment. The NDIS has been promted in Hong Kong as a high-return investment, left, and that led her into a financial nightmare. Pictures Supplied/David Swift

Cathy, who did not want her real name used, contacted The Telegraph in response to a story published earlier this week in which, for the first time, NDIS property investors spoke out about their underperforming homes.

In that article, industry leaders also raised concerns about a lack of oversight of the “specialist disability accommodation” (SDA) market into which the federal government intends to pump $700 million a year as rental income to investors. But the government only pays if NDIS participants move in.

Early in the process, Cathy was presented with a deed of agreement with SDA Select titled “NDIS Home Investment Guarantee Return”, which said the 8 per cent annual return was for seven years, with an option for another seven.

She signed it, but SDA Select did not. Instead, a related company called Property Select Advisory told her to enter a new agreement with a business named Horizon SolSolutions, which trades as Cocoon.

Cathy’s investment property outside Melbourne was finished earlier this year and signed off by an NDIS assessor. But Horizon SolSolutions won’t take possession.

A spokesman for both SDA Select and Property Select Advisory told The Telegraph that legal action had been commenced against Horizon SolSolutions.

He said he could not discuss the details. However, he did say Horizon SolSolutions had refused to take over 50 or 60 properties.

The spokesman said SDA Select and Property Select Advisory did not offer the investment guarantee.

“The guaranteed return is provided by Horizon SolSolutions,” he said.

The spokesman said Property Select Advisory was helping clients “find a solution”, and that discussions were under way with nine other NDIS providers.

Cathy said she had complained to various authorities: “But I’m not getting anywhere.”

In the story published earlier this week, industry leaders said there was an urgent need for more effective market stewardship and engagement from relevant authorities, because there was not a single body that had taken responsibility for dealing with aggrieved investors.

Otherwise confidence in specialist disability accommodation investment would be threatened, it was argued.

A Horizon SolSolutions spokesman said the builder had not “met the standard to which we deliver our homes.”

There was a lack of wheelchair accessibility, the bathrooms weren’t big enough and carer’s quarters needed air-conditioning.

The spokesman said: “How can we take those houses over?”

He confirmed Horizon SolSolutions was responsible for the rental income guarantee to investors, but it only kicked in after handover.

The company had offered to “co-contribute” to cover the cost of making the changes to the houses, he said.

Horizon was preparing to take legal action against the builder, the spokesman added.