Max Fragar, our founder, Life Fellow PIA and Registered Planner, discusses what you need to know about the difference between a boarding house and an apartment.
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Or for those that prefer to read, here is a transcript of the video…
Boarding house vs apartment
I’m Max Fragar, Council Approval Group. The essential difference between the two is that the boarding house we have know evolved from what we used to call boarding houses. When I was a young fellow, what a boarding house was is a room in an old building with a common room and they didn’t have a very good reputation. Now, the state government has changed them. They are more commonly known as New Age Boarding Houses.Very few boarding houses that we’re doing now are not of the self-contained. They have become, basically, a studio apartment.Boarding house rooms are self-contained, maybe 20-25 square metres. Home units or flats are different. They go under different rules. They are generally larger.
The difference? Home units or flats are different. They go under different rules. They are generally larger. Many councils have rules that make units and flats unnecessarily large. A large sector of our community doesn’t want a large apartment. They don’t want to heat and clean a large apartment.
Boarding house rooms must continue to be rentals. They cannot be owned individually. You can own a number of boarding houses. You could even have more than one boarding house on one block. But the individual suites, the individual boarding house room can’t be separately sold. Whereas, home units, you can have strata-titled.
Advantages of a boarding house
There are some advantages to boarding houses vs apartments. Boarding houses are focused on the rental market, and therefore really, really valid parts of the community. You know, young doctors, nurses, teachers, police, and people that self-employed are busy and want good accommodation, close to employment, close to the shops, and close to the cafes.If you want to go ahead with a boarding house development, we think they’re great and we’d love to do it. So, if you’d like to have a consultation, book in a consultation with one of our team. We’ll talk about what you want to achieve and recommend the next step to you. We can even assist you with the whole process.
Article Last Updated: 28 June 2024