Start with the asset that becomes your co-living build.
An ordinary new-build home in Perth or Melbourne — standard residential, standard lending — chosen and laid out from day one to grow into a full co-living build. Smaller deposit. Same team. Same destination.
New builds only · Perth WA & Melbourne VIC
The maths moved. Twice.
Co-living still works. But over the last eighteen months the entry point climbed, and then the tax rules changed underneath it. A lot of good investors got stranded between wanting in and being able to.
Build costs climbed
A purpose-built co-living home costs materially more to deliver than it did two years ago, and the jump was fast. It also lands differently in Perth than it does in Melbourne.
Deposits followed
Which pushed the deposit past what a lot of capable, well-positioned investors can put together this year. Not never — just not yet.
Gearing rules split the market
The May 2026 Budget kept negative gearing intact for new builds and pulled it back on established purchases. The old plan — buy established, renovate, refinance — stopped working.
We don't publish prices, deposits or projected returns here — they move, and they differ between Perth and Melbourne. You'll get real numbers for your position on a call. The background reading is in the Negative Gearing Playbook.
Nobody gets a different destination. Some people just join further back.
Everything we do runs toward the same place — a co-living home earning co-living cashflow. What differs is where you join the road, and how long you're on it before you get there.
The Cashflow Foundation isn't a different road. It's a slip road — it runs for a while at its own pace, then joins the same one everybody else is on.
Buy the right foundation asset
A new build, in a location we already work in, with a floorplan chosen because of where it can go later — not just what it rents for today.
Let it earn while it grows
Tenanted and managed, with the new-build gearing position intact. This is a hold measured in years rather than months — equity accumulates quietly in the background while the property earns.
Grow into co-living
Convert the floorplan to a five-room co-living home, or use the equity you've built as the deposit on a full HMO. Same team, same process, from a much stronger position.
Nobody skips the foundation. For some people the foundation is a full co-living build from day one — for most it isn't, and where you joined has never been the thing that decides where you end up.
Want to see how we'd get you on the right path?
Our team backs you at every step — from the first strategy session through to the day it's leased. Book a call and we'll map it against your actual position.
It's an ordinary house. That's the entire point.
Both Cashflow Foundation build types are standard residential dwellings — in Western Australia and in Victoria. No rooming house registration, no Class 1B classification, no specialist compliance layer. Just a normal home, in a normal street, that happens to have been chosen with a second act in mind.
Standard residential lending
Valued and financed as an ordinary residential purchase — a familiar transaction for lenders and valuers, rather than the specialist assessment a purpose-built co-living home calls for. Your broker will confirm what applies to your situation.
You can sell it to anyone
A four-bedroom family home or a dual key sells to owner-occupiers as readily as to investors. A far bigger buyer pool than a specialised asset, which is what makes it a sensible place to start rather than a bet.
Nothing extra to register
As you buy it and hold it, there's no rooming house registration in either state and no additional building classification. The compliance questions only arrive if and when you choose to convert — and by then you'll have us walking you through it.
It earns like residential, because it is residential
Returns here sit in the range you'd expect from quality new-build residential — with a dual key at the stronger end, since it runs two tenancies under one loan and one set of holding costs. This is not where co-living returns live, and it isn't trying to be. The step up in return is what you're working toward, not what you start with.
Two build types, both designed to convert
These aren't off-the-shelf house and land packages with a co-living label on them. The layout is the whole point.
The convertible 4×3
A four-bedroom, three-bathroom home laid out so that it can be reconfigured into a five-room co-living home later, without tearing the plan apart.
- Rents as a standard family home from day one
- Bathroom and living zones positioned for the later conversion
- Conversion subject to approvals — see the note below
Dual key
Two self-contained dwellings under one roof and one title. Two tenancies, two income streams, from settlement — with a single set of holding costs.
- Two incomes reduce the vacancy exposure of a single tenancy
- One title, one loan, one set of rates
- Works well on standard lots
HMO / Rooming House — Perth & Melbourne
The full co-living build remains the core of what we do, and the destination for most people who start here. Five to nine rooms, purpose-built, managed by Living Rooms, backed by the three Concierge guarantees.
What we actually do for you
Same three-step process as the Concierge path, scaled to a first asset.
Finding and matching the asset
- Site sourcing
- Builder selection
- Package selection
- A strategy session covering what to invest in, where, and when — mapped against getting you into a co-living build
The people around the deal
- Introduction to a trust adviser and accountant, if a trust structure suits you
- Introduction to our specialised finance strategists
- Leasing and management through Living Rooms
- Build-Time and Money-Back Guarantees — see below for what they cover
An investment road map to the end goal
Every part of this is built around getting you to a co-living build — not around getting one property across the line and moving on. We're here for the long road, not the quick buck.
Position first
Borrowing capacity confirmed with a broker before anything is chosen. No point looking at plans you can't fund.
Match the asset
We show you the packages we work with and where each one can go — so you pick against the position you want in three to five years, not just what settles fastest.
Tenanted and managed
Handed to Living Rooms for leasing and management, so it's earning from as close to handover as possible.
What is and isn't covered
Two of the three guarantees carry across. One doesn't.
Included: the 100% Money-Back Guarantee and the Build-Time Guarantee apply to your Cashflow Foundation build, on the same terms as they do to a co-living home. You are covered on finance and you are covered on build time.
Not included: the Rental Guarantee. It's calculated on a weekly room rate, which doesn't translate to a family home or a dual key. Living Rooms will lease and manage the property for you — we just won't guarantee the rental return on it, and we'd rather say that here than have you find it in a contract.
Alongside the guarantees, you're holding an ordinary asset:
- A standard residential dwelling you can sell to an owner-occupier, not a specialised asset with a narrow buyer pool
- A conventional building contract, with the statutory protections that apply to any new residential build in your state
- Ordinary residential lending and valuation, rather than a specialist finance conversation
If a guaranteed rental return is the thing you need in order to sleep at night, that's a fair argument for waiting until a full co-living build is within reach. We'll tell you the same thing on the call.
On purchase, both states are the same. On conversion, they aren't.
The home you buy is a standard residential dwelling in WA and in Victoria alike — that part is simple. The difference only appears at the point you decide to convert it into co-living, and it's a difference worth understanding before you choose a state, not after.
Perth · on conversion
A converted five-room home is treated as an ordinary residential dwelling in WA. Conversion still requires the relevant building and planning approvals, and outcomes vary by local council.
Melbourne · on conversion
Victoria is different. A converted home operating as a rooming house requires registration and a Class 1B building classification. Plan for it at design stage — it is not a retrofit decision.
Two minutes will tell you
Answer a few quick questions about your deposit, borrowing position and timeframe. We will tell you honestly whether a full co-living build stacks up for you now, or whether the Cashflow Foundation is the smarter first move.