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The President’s Report - Healthy homes and my experience.
Over the last 2 years I have been upgrading some of my rental properties and will share with
you a few thoughts.
Property one is an older high stud house which was potentially cold, and damp. When I
bought the property it had no insulation and the only installed heating was two open fires.
The first job was to install a log fire into one of the fireplaces. While this was an improvement it
struggled to heat the whole house.
Next, I installed a positive pressure ventilation system, one of the types you see advertised
which take ceiling space air and duct it into the home. This made a big difference, not only
capturing day time heat from the ceiling, and drying out the property, but in mixing the air and
distributing heat from the log fire around the home.
The third part was insulation using a subsidised landlords package for low-income tenants.
This cost $500 and was ceiling insulation, foil under the floor and a polythene ground cover
under the house.
The change has been remarkable. I have been working in the vacant property for a few
weeks and even without heat in mid winter the house feels comfortable to walk into. The
temperature may not be warm first thing in the morning but because of the low humidity
you do not feel the damp cold of some houses which are vacant.
The house warms up during the day with sun on the roof. Feed back from tenants has been
very good. The cost of all this has been over $6000. Value for money? To me: yes, in this
case for the result, and counting this home as a test bed to try especially the ventilation
system.
Property 2: A small 3 bed house, more modern, on a concrete floor, with no installed heating.
A quality heat pump was installed. Comment from my tenant, that since then, the kids have not
had a sick day off school. Cost of this operation $3000.
What have I learned and where to from here?
I am happy with the results and intended to continue investing back into my business. I feel I
will gain payback with lower turnover while having rents in the upper bracket for each type of
property.
The best solution, heat pump or ventilation system (or both) is still a debate I am having and
varies with each property.
The more comfortable and less stressed your tenant customers are in their home environment
the more productive they will be in their working lives and the better they will be able to afford
your property. At least that is the way I hope it works.
One outcome however has been the self-installation of a homemade positive pressure
ventilation system in my own home. Not a set and forget tenant friendly system but
I am happy with the results so far.
Jim Lowe

PRESIDENT’S REPORT.