Registrars Overview

Under the objects of national community housing law, the NSW Registrar of Community Housing (the Registrar) seeks to reinforce the viability and diversity of the community housing Sector, protect government and tenant interests, and also induce confidence and encourage financial support for the Sector.

This performance report provides insights on the trends and patterns of NSW Tier 1 and 2 community housing providers (CHPs) for which the Registrar has regulatory coverage.

Over the last year the Registrar has implemented a targeted approach to regulatory activities with a strong focus on protecting government funding and equity by applying better practices.

A number of Campaigns targeting potential areas of emerging risk have also provided valuable insights and analysis of business operations including the viability of the Sector and pressures facing CHPs. This report brings the results of this work together, along with compliance assessment outcomes.

Registrar’s key highlights of performance include:

The Tier 1 and 2 community housing Sector is diverse and viable and will remain viable in the foreseeable future (10 years). In the Registrar’s view, governments should be confident in investing in the Sector.

Performance against most metrics are variable, the biggest change is the number of complaints received by the Registrar about CHPs increasing significantly since the last reporting period. Some of this increase is proportionate to Sector growth. Some is likely to be a natural progression of work the Registrar has completed with CHPs to make their policies and procedures more visible, clearer and accessible to tenants.

Overall at an aggregate level, the majority of CHPs are meeting targets however decreases of performances were seen across most of the tenancy management services, rent arrears, evictions, occupancy rates and property utilisation metrics. The decrease could be attributed to a range of factors discussed in more detail in the report.

Metrics seeing an improvement compared to the previous reporting period include improved performance of completing urgent and non- urgent repairs.

While the Sector is currently operating viably, structural pressures exist that are working against viability incrementally over the long-term. These, combined with less-positive economic settings going forward may increase the pressure on viability. This trajectory should be monitored and considered when conducting long-term planning and developing policy setting. This report provides more detail about the pressures on CHPs.

Cost pressures will increase for CHPs; this could erode profit margins over the long-term. Cost pressures arise due to a combination of policy and economic settings for which income is not keeping pace, and include reducing levels of subsidy and higher costs of business working with government.

Pressures are forcing companies to diversify and commercialise which is a strength of the Sector over public housing; however, has consequences for the traditions of the not-for-profit Sector.

From the Registrar’s view, key considerations arise for government to adjust how CHPs are commissioned. Stock Transfers to the CHP Sector have drawn attention to the significant capacity of CHPs to improve tenant and asset outcomes over the public housing sector. Strong balance sheets have to date assisted most CHPs use a proportion of their profit margin on tender and contract compliance. However streamlining tender costs and contracting and oversight duplication could ease some of the pressures on CHPs over the next 5-10 years.

In addition, the lack of certainty for CHPs operating in the national disability market has created some closer scrutiny of forward forecasts of these CHPs by the Registrar.

Continue on to read in more detail about the current performance of Tier 1 and 2 CHPs in NSW.

Next Page - Part 2: The NSW community housing regulatory system