Lauren's 5 bed rooming house.
Yield Street Property Buyers sources Brisbane rooming house sites, runs the full feasibility and coordinates the build through to tenancy.
A rooming house puts multiple income streams on one title, generally 8% and above gross yield. It is the highest yielding product we source in Brisbane.
Lauren Jones, our director, owns a rooming house in Brisbane. She found the site, took it through council, built it and now runs it under the Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act.
Since 2021 she has purchased more than 400 properties for clients in Brisbane as a licensed agent and Qualified Property Investment Adviser. She knows what a rooming house returns because she banks it, and she knows where a project gets hard because she has been there.
We source sites in Brisbane only, and we have partners who can assist across South East Queensland and Victoria. Council rules shift from one street to the next and they change over time, so we stay across one market and inspect every rooming house site in person. No remote purchases and no relying on someone else's report.
A general buyers agent looks for a good home or a solid investment. A rooming house buyers agent looks for a site that can legally and profitably become a rooming house. That is a very different brief.
Before we recommend a site, we assess:
A site can pass every standard buyer check and still fail as a rooming house. Our job is to rule those sites out early so your deposit, time and borrowing capacity go into a project that can be built.
Rooming house rules are not uniform across South East Queensland. Brisbane City Council, City of Moreton Bay, Logan, Ipswich and Redland each apply their own planning schemes. A site that works in one local government area can face a far harder approval path a few streets away in the next.
On top of council planning, a rooming house has to meet other requirements:
We work through these questions with you, your broker and your town planner or certifier before you commit. Our Brisbane rooming house guide covers the rules in more detail.
When your portfolio already consists of high capital growth, established assets, these properties can balance it out and provide reliable cash flow.
Deploy capital into income-producing assets efficiently, without adding to your workload.
Money working outside the business. Passive income that doesn't depend on it.
Income that helps support your retirement, without relying on the market to perform.
Rooming houses suit investors with capital to deploy who want yield first and are willing to understand the strategy. Read more on who rooming house investing suits.
Strategy through to tenancy. All you need to bring is the capital.
We understand your position, goals and whether a yield led strategy fits.
We show you what the numbers could look like based on your goals, and what the process looks like.
Formalising numbers, consulting with our finance team, onboarding.
Sourcing suitable sites on and off market, running the feasibility, presenting the analysis.
Negotiate, settle and assist you through the construction process until your tenants move in.
Every recommendation is backed by a full feasibility: cash required, building costs, rent and yield. Numbers before commitment. Our guide to what a rooming house costs in Brisbane shows what goes into those numbers.
Around the site and the feasibility we bring in solicitors, mortgage brokers, accountants, builders and property managers who have delivered this product before, and we coordinate them so you do not have to. Finance is where most deals fall over, so read our guide to rooming house loans early.
A rooming house is a different building class to a standard home. Our guide to Class 1a and Class 1b dwellings explains what that means for approval and compliance. If you already own a site, read our guide to knocking down an existing rental before you commit.
For rooming houses, we generally suggest $400k or more in capital.
Generally 8% and above gross yield.
Generally 4 to 12 weeks to find and secure your land, then 8 to 12 months to build. Allow more time for complex sites, untitled land or a subdivision.
Furniture and fit-out are part of the budget too. See our guide to furnishing a rooming house.
Under the 2026 tax reforms, eligible new builds can still be negatively geared and can keep the 50% capital gains tax discount. A new build on vacant land generally qualifies, and so does a knockdown that adds supply, such as two rooming houses where there was one house. Replacing one house with one rooming house doesn't. We confirm the position with your accountant before you buy.
Depending on the investment strategy, there is an engagement fee and a successful acquisition commission. We will guide you through what this looks like for your investment, full transparency, no surprises. Where we introduce a builder, the builder may also pay us an introducer fee, which we disclose before you sign anything. Where we are not acquiring a site for you, we are generally paid by the builder, at no or minimal cost to you.
Before you engage anyone, ask:
A good agent will answer every one of these clearly.
You do need a level of capacity and willingness to understand the strategy. However, we educate as we go, in simple language, and we have done the research so you don't have to.
We are licensed in QLD. We source sites in Brisbane only, and we inspect every site in person.
We source properties both on and off market. We have a team who scans online portals and contacts selling agents directly to discover opportunities.
Current packages through our partners are listed on our For Sale page. If nothing there suits your brief, tell us your budget and target yield and we will source it.
Most of our clients need around 30% of the total project cost. Your broker will confirm your position based on your lender and circumstances.
No. Many of our sites have an existing dwelling that is removed. The key is whether the site suits the build and the approval pathway.
Plan for the full journey from purchase to completion to take around a year or more. Planning, design and build all take time and a rooming house has more intricacies than a standard home.
It depends on council rules, lot characteristics and room demand, rather than suburb alone. Areas close to transport, hospitals, universities and employment tend to perform well, but every site needs its own assessment.
Start with our Brisbane rooming house investment guide, which covers the rules, the costs and the returns in one place.
Book a free discovery call. No obligations, just a conversation to understand your position and investment goals.
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