Brisbane Co-Living · Case Study Snapshot · October 2026
Brisbane Co-Living Returns 2026: 5 Lessons From Real Rooming Houses
What new five-room Co-Living homes across Brisbane actually earned, cost to run and took to lease, from Deagon and Bald Hills to Ashgrove, Lawnton and Coopers Plains.
Co-Living homes, also called rooming houses, rent by the room rather than by the house. Income is spread across several tenants, which is why they can produce some of the strongest yields in Queensland residential property, when the location, design and management are right.
We tracked real results from new homes across Brisbane’s north and south in 2025 and 2026. This is the short version. The full rent and yield tables, outgoings, build timelines and finance example are in our Queensland Co-Living case studies on coliving.net.au.
Source: project case studies, leasing reports and indicative lender quotes supplied to properT network, July to September 2026. Gross yields are before outgoings.
Room Rents Have Been Rising
At Deagon, average rent rose from $400 to $446 per room per week in the first 12 months. At Bald Hills it rose from $416 to $470 between first letting in August 2025 and July 2026, lifting the gross yield on cost from 8.6% to 9.7%.
Five rooms magnify every increase: $54 more per room is about $14,000 more a year. Brisbane’s very tight rental market, covered in our Brisbane investment research, is a big part of that.
02 · Net yieldJudge It on Net, 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 an 8.33% net yield. That is still strong, but it is the right number to compare with a standard house.
Management (9%) $10,228 · insurance $3,500 · rates $3,000 · water $2,400 · gardening and cleaning $2,350 · internet $1,320 · electricity with solar $1,100 · fire safety $450 · pest control $300.
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 of private space each, off one central hallway. Every bedroom is the same 3.4m x 3.0m, so no room is “the cheap one” and rents hold across the whole house.
A Geebung home in the same design reached practical completion 156 days after its piers were poured, and was advertised at $460 to $470 per room, a projected 8.9% gross yield on land, build and stamp duty.
04 · ManagementSpecialist Management Fills Rooms Fast
Twenty-five brand-new rooms across five homes in Coopers Plains, Ashgrove, Lawnton and Northgate were fully leased in 7 to 31 days, at an average of $466.80 per room per week. That is $11,670 a week in combined rent.
Vacancy on re-let rooms was just 1.53%. In most cases the next tenant signed before the last one moved out.
Finance Needs a Specialist
Not every lender takes rooming houses, and those that do treat room-by-room income differently. On a $1,295,000 Queensland house and land example ($695,000 land, $600,000 build):
- Staged construction drawdowns cut first-year interest from about $64,500 to $38,630.
- Dropping from 70% to 65% LVR lowered the post-build rate from 8.19% to 7.69%, saving about $776 a month.
- Conditional approval took 3 working days, with settlement about 5 weeks after submission.
Rates are variable and indicative as at September 2026, subject to lender approval. Not credit advice.
Case studies show projects that worked. Check signed leases rather than advertised rents, allow for running costs, and remember that fewer lenders and buyers compete for rooming houses. In Queensland, a home with four or more residents renting rooms is generally a residential service that must be registered and accredited. See the rooming house rules by state.
Strategy Before Property
Is Co-Living Right for Your Strategy?
We have access to current five-room Co-Living packages across Brisbane and South East Queensland. Share your budget and goals, and Stephen Lazar will tell you honestly whether Co-Living fits, or whether a house and land or dual-key property would suit you better.
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