Brisbane Co-Living Returns: 5 Lessons From Real Rooming Houses

We tracked real results from new Co-Living homes in Deagon, Bald Hills, Geebung, Ashgrove, Lawnton, Northgate and Coopers Plains. Here is the short version. The full numbers are in our Queensland Co-Living case studies.

Rents have been rising

At Deagon, average rent rose from $400 to $446 per room per week in 12 months. At Bald Hills it rose from $416 to $470. Five rooms magnify every increase: $54 more per room is about $14,000 more a year.

Judge it on net yield, not gross

In Co-Living the owner usually pays utilities, internet, cleaning and higher management fees. Deagon’s outgoings came to $24,648 a year, which took a 10.63% gross yield down to 8.33% net. That is still strong, but it is the number to compare. See the full cost breakdown.

Design decides how tenants live together

The homes in these studies give every tenant a bedroom, a separate living room and their own bathroom, about 22m² each, off one central hallway. Equal-sized suites mean no room is the “cheap one”, so rents hold across the whole house.

Specialist management fills rooms fast

Twenty-five brand-new rooms across five homes were fully leased in 7 to 31 days, at an average of $466.80 per room per week. In most re-lets, the next tenant signed before the last one moved out.

Finance needs a specialist

Not every lender takes rooming houses. On a $1,295,000 Queensland house and land example, staged construction drawdowns cut first-year interest from about $64,500 to $38,630. Dropping from 70% to 65% LVR saved a further $776 a month after completion.