New to Private Practice? Your First Consulting Room Checklist

You’ve got your AHPRA registration, a growing client list, and a spare bedroom doubling as an office. But seeing clients at home blurs boundaries, and the local café isn’t cutting it for telehealth. You know you need a proper consulting room — but where do you even start?

The wrong first room can cost you hundreds of dollars a month in unnecessary fees, lock you into a lease that outpaces your client growth, or land you in a location your clients won’t travel to.

This checklist is for allied health practitioners — physios, psychologists, counsellors, OTs, speech pathologists — making that first move into rented space. It cuts through the noise so you can find a room that works for your practice, not against it.

The Problem: Leases That Don’t Fit Your Reality

Traditional commercial leases assume you have a steady patient load from day one. Most demand a 12-month commitment, a personal guarantee, and upfront fit-out costs that can run AUD 5,000–15,000 for basic clinical furnishings and signage.

For a practitioner seeing 8–12 clients a week in their first year, that’s a financial straightjacket. You’re paying for space you’re not using, and you can’t scale down when your caseload dips during school holidays or January.

The result? Burnout from working extra sessions just to cover rent, or giving up on private practice altogether.

The Alternative: Room Hire That Grows With You

Room hire — also called sessional or casual room rental — flips the model. Instead of signing a lease, you pay for the hours you actually use. Most rooms on HealthcareRooms are available by the half-day, day, or session block, with rates ranging from AUD 35–80 per hour in suburban centres to AUD 80–150 per hour in premium metro locations like Sydney’s CBD or Melbourne’s Collins Street.

You bring your laptop and your clinical tools. The room comes with:

Clinical-grade furniture (treatment table, desk, chairs)

Reception and waiting area access

Wi-Fi and utilities

Basic consumables (hand sanitiser, paper towels)

Often, online booking and payment processing

No fit-out costs. No personal guarantee. No paying for Mondays when you only work Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Your First Consulting Room Checklist

Before you book a viewing, run through these seven points:

1. Location — Will Your Clients Actually Come?

Map where your current clients live. A room 15 minutes from their homes beats a flashy room 40 minutes away. Check parking availability and public transport access. In cities like Sydney or Melbourne, a room near a train station or with off-street parking is worth an extra AUD 10–20 per hour.

2. Hours — Can You Get the Slots You Need?

Some rooms are available 7am–9pm, others only 9am–5pm. If you want evening or weekend sessions — common for psychology and counselling — confirm those slots exist before you commit.

3. Room Size and Layout

A standard consulting room is 10–15 square metres. For physio or OT, you may need 20+ square metres for treatment space. Ask for exact dimensions and photos of the room, not just the waiting area.

4. What’s Included (and What’s Extra)

Get a written breakdown. Many hire agreements include reception, cleaning, and basic utilities. Some add charges for:

Credit card processing (often 1.5–3%)

After-hours access (AUD 10–20 per session)

Storage for equipment

Use of a separate telehealth booth

5. Minimum Commitment

Most room hire agreements require a minimum of 1–2 sessions per week, with 30 days’ notice to reduce or cancel. Avoid any agreement that locks you into a fixed number of sessions for longer than 3 months.

6. Insurance Requirements

You’ll need professional indemnity insurance and public liability insurance (typically AUD 10–20 million cover). Some practice managers also require you to name them as an interested party on your policy. Check before you sign.

7. Try Before You Commit

Book a single session before signing any agreement. Test the Wi-Fi speed, check the noise levels between rooms, and see how the booking system works. A room that looks great in photos may have thin walls or no natural light.

The Evidence That Room Hire Works

Take Sarah, an occupational therapist in Brisbane’s inner south. She started with one day a week in a shared room at AUD 60 per hour. Within four months, her caseload grew to three days. She switched to a larger room in the same building at AUD 55 per hour for a block booking. No lease renegotiation, no moving costs.

Or consider Mark, a psychologist in Melbourne’s Fitzroy. He pays AUD 80 per hour for a room with a couch, desk, and soundproofing. He books 15 sessions per week. His monthly room cost: AUD 4,800. A comparable leased room would have cost AUD 2,500 in base rent plus AUD 800 in outgoings, insurance, and fit-out amortisation — and he’d be paying for 40 hours he doesn’t use.

Two Paths Forward

If you’re a practitioner ready to find your first room: Start by browsing available consulting rooms in your city. Filter by suburb, room size, and available hours. Book a single session to test the space before committing to a regular booking.

If you’re a practice manager with spare room capacity: List your room on HealthcareRooms. Practitioners like Sarah and Mark are actively searching for flexible, affordable space. You set your rates, your hours, and your minimum commitment. List your room today and turn empty rooms into reliable income.