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Not exactly. Purpose-built co-living in Melbourne is designed around private bedrooms with ensuites or dedicated bathrooms, shared living spaces, and proper amenity. It's typically operated under Victoria's rooming house framework, which sets standards for fire safety, privacy, facilities and management. The result is closer to a premium rental product than an informal share house.

No. Many of the people we speak to are exploring co-living as their first purpose-built investment. What matters more is clarity on your goals, your capacity, and your appetite for a higher-management asset. We help you understand the build side; your accountant, broker and financial adviser help you understand the structure side.

A standard dual-occ is usually two dwellings on one title. Co-living is multiple private rooms — often six to ten or more — under a single dwelling or commercial rooming house classification. The compliance, licensing, fire separation and amenity requirements are more involved, which is why a builder with rooming-house experience matters.

In our experience, yes. A broker who's great at arranging a standard home loan doesn't necessarily have experience with rooming house or co-living construction finance — it's a different lending category with different serviceability and structuring considerations. We've observed that clients working with a broker who specifically knows this space tend to get finance sorted in less time and with a better-fitted structure. This is our own observation as builders, not financial advice — we'd encourage you to ask any broker directly about their experience in commercial or rooming house construction lending before choosing one.

Enough land area for the rooms, parking, outdoor space and amenity your design needs. The right answer varies by council, zoning and overlays, so we assess specific sites before you commit to buying.

Not automatically. Some zones and overlays restrict the number of rooms, building height, car parking or outdoor space. Some councils are more familiar with rooming house applications than others. We flag these risks early in the town planning stage before you commit to a design.

Melbourne's job market is comparable to Sydney's, land is generally more affordable, and Melbourne has the largest number of single-person households of the three east-coast capitals. That's the tenant segment co-living is built for.

It depends on numbers, not intent. Under the Residential Tenancies Act 1997, a building is legally a 'rooming house' once 4 or more people live in rented rooms under separate agreements — and once that threshold is met, it must be registered with the local council as prescribed accommodation under Part 6 of the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008. Registration exists to enforce hygiene, maintenance and safety standards given the shared facilities and higher turnover these properties involve. Below that threshold it typically sits under ordinary residential tenancy law instead. Your specific design and occupant numbers determine which category applies, and we work through this with you at the concept stage.

Class 1a is the standard residential classification for a house or townhouse. Class 1b covers a boarding house, guest house or hostel under 300m² and ordinarily housing fewer than 12 people — where most co-living builds of our scale actually sit. Class 3 applies once a building is larger than the Class 1b limits, and importantly, a Class 3 build requires a commercial builder — most residential builders are only licensed and set up for Class 1a. Which classification applies depends on your specific design and occupant numbers, and it shapes the compliance path from there — we work through this with you once we understand the scale you are planning.

We design with input from the rooming house operators and property managers we work with. They tell us what room sizes get the best feedback, how much storage matters, where shared kitchens need to sit, and what makes a space feel private rather than institutional. That feedback loop shapes every concept.

We provide fixed-price construction once the design, engineering and selections are locked. Before that, we can give indicative costings based on the site and concept. The earlier we look at the land, the more accurate those early numbers tend to be.

No. Most investors we work with use specialist co-living or rooming house managers once the build is complete. We can introduce you to the operators in our network — the same people whose operational insight shaped the design.

There are two separate rules to know here. First, SMSFs generally can't borrow to fund construction — an LRBA can be used to buy land, but not to build on it with borrowed money; construction needs to come from the fund's own cash, not a loan. Second, since 10 August 2026, new SMSF borrowing arrangements can only be used to acquire business real property — a Class 1b co-living build no longer qualifies. As commercial builders, we can build to a Class 3 classification instead, which may allow an SMSF loan to proceed if your lender is willing to lend against it and your adviser confirms it meets the business real property test. We're builders, not finance experts — this is a conversation for your lender, broker and SMSF adviser before any design work starts.

Rooming houses sit under their own regulatory framework in Victoria, covering three separate areas: registering the property with the local council, an operator's licence, and ongoing physical minimum standards (heating, security, safety checks, and similar). Licensing requirements and fees are updated periodically, so rather than list specifics that can go out of date, the current requirements are set out directly by Consumer Affairs Victoria. Most of our investors use a licensed operator rather than holding the licence themselves; the building still needs to be designed to meet the minimum standards from the outset.

Not necessarily — most investors we work with engage a licensed rooming house manager rather than holding the licence personally. If you're considering self-managing, the licensing requirements (including the fit-and-proper-person check, current fees and renewal terms) are set out by Consumer Affairs Victoria under the Rooming House Operators Act 2016. Check their website or contact them directly, since these details are reviewed and updated over time.