How Middow works
We lease the whole house. We furnish it and pay every bill*. You rent one room, all in. The owner gets the same rent every month, full or empty.
From an empty house to your front door
We lease the whole home
One agreement with the owner or their agency, with us as the tenant. No applicant queue, and no vacancy gap between one household and the next.
We furnish it and take the bills into our name
Beds, desks, sofa, whitegoods, plus electricity, gas, water and internet. The room is ready to live in on day one and nothing is in a tenantβs name.
We advertise the free rooms one at a time
Each room gets its own card, its own price and its own video. Rooms that are taken are simply not shown, so nothing you see is already gone.
You book a 15-minute inspection
One-on-one, online, at a time you choose. If you are still overseas, the walkthrough and a call do the same job. That is how most of our tenants arrive.
We keep it running, every week
Weekly cleaning with condition photos, maintenance on a 24-hour response, and rent that reaches the owner on the same date each month.
The same arrangement, from three sides
One house, three people with something to gain. That is the only reason this works.
If you need a room
You get a furnished room with one weekly price covering every bill*, a real video of the actual house, and a decision on inspection day instead of a fortnight of silence.
For rentersIf you own the property
You get one lease, rent on the same date each month whether the rooms are full or not, furnishing at our cost, and condition photos rather than a six-month gap.
For ownersIf you are the agency
You get the vacancy off your desk without losing the owner. We are the tenant, not the manager. The client and the rent roll line stay with you.
For agenciesHow Middow makes money
Middow is a rent-to-rent operator. We pay the owner an agreed rent for the whole property, then rent the rooms individually on all-inclusive terms. Our margin is the difference between those two numbers, minus what we spend on furniture, utilities, cleaning and maintenance.
That means we only do well when a house is full and running properly. An empty room costs us, not the owner. A house nobody wants to live in costs us twice. It is worth knowing, because it tells you what we are actually motivated to do.
35+ Melbourne homes have run on this arrangement since January 2023.
Still wondering
Is this a share house or a rental?
Both, in the ordinary sense. You rent one private room under your own agreement and share the kitchen, bathroom and living areas with the other people in the house. Your bond is lodged with the RTBA the same as any Victorian tenancy.
Who else lives in the house?
Most of our tenants are international students and young professionals, mostly in their 20s and 30s, from all over Europe, Asia and South America. We interview everyone before they move in, and we tell you who is already there before you commit.
Why is it cheaper than renting a flat?
Because the fixed costs of a house (the rent on the building, the internet, the water heater) get shared across everyone rather than carried by one person or one couple.
What is Middowβs role exactly?
We are the tenant on the head lease and the rental provider for each room. That means the owner has one party to deal with, and you have one party to call when something breaks.
How quickly can I move in?
Tenants typically secure a room within about a week of first contact. If a room is listed as available now, it is genuinely empty and you could be in it within days.
More in the full FAQ.
See what is open right now
3 rooms across 3 homes, each with a walkthrough filmed in the actual house.