Why Pick Your NDIS Housemates First, Not the House (2026)

The way NDIS housing usually works is backwards. You find a listing, call the provider, maybe do a meet and greet, maybe move in on a trial, and then find out whether the people you're living with are a good fit. By then you've already moved. Picking your housemates first, then choosing a provider and a house around them, flips that order and dramatically improves your odds of a home that actually works. It takes longer up front. It saves enormous time, money, and heartache later.

This article is for NDIS participants and families deciding how to approach a move, and weighing up whether to take the quick path (grab a vacancy) or the deliberate one (choose your people first). We'll walk through how the current pathway actually works and why it so often fails, ask you to reflect honestly on your own experience of moving out, and lay out a better order for doing this. The short version: get the people right first, and almost everything else follows.

How NDIS housing usually works right now

Here's the standard pathway, step by step, the way most people experience it.

You find a listing for a vacancy, usually on a property-style platform or through a provider. You call the provider. If you're lucky, they arrange a meet and greet, a short visit where you see the house and maybe meet a housemate or two for half an hour. Sometimes there isn't even that. Then you move in, sometimes on a trial basis, sometimes not. And then, only then, once you're already living there, you find out what it's actually like. Whether the housemates suit you. Whether the support works. Whether this place feels like home or like somewhere you're stuck.

Look at the order of that. The single most important factor in whether a shared home works, the people you live with, is the very last thing you find out, and you find it out after you've already moved in. You commit first and learn second. That's backwards, and it's a recipe for exactly the outcomes we see all the time: mismatched housemates, stressed households, tenancy breakdowns, and participants having to move all over again.

Think back to the first time you moved out

Let's take the pressure off NDIS housing for a second and think about something most of us have lived through: moving out of home for the first time.

When you pictured it, the house mattered. Of course it did. You wanted somewhere in a decent spot, close to things, near transport or work or your mates. The location, the rent, the state of the kitchen, all of it counted.

But think honestly about what actually made a place feel like home, or what made you leave one. When push came to shove, was it really the house? Or was it the people? The share house you stayed in longer than you should have because you loved the people in it. The nicer place you left because you couldn't stand a housemate. The night you decided to move out because of who you were living with, not because of the building.

For almost everyone, the thing that determined whether a house became a home was the people in it. A great house with the wrong people is somewhere you endure. An average house with the right people is somewhere you belong. We all know this from our own lives. We just don't apply it to NDIS housing, where the system asks people to pick the building first and hope the people work out.

Why would it be any different for someone with disability? It isn't. The people are still the thing that matters most. The current pathway just ignores that.

The better order: people first, then provider, then house

So here's the reframe. The way NDIS housing should be done is the reverse of how it usually happens.

Start with the people. Work out who you're going to live with before you worry about the building. That might look like a few different things depending on your situation:

• A group you pick. You find compatible housemates, get to know them, and form a group of people who actually want to live together. Then you go looking for a provider and a house as a unit.
• By yourself. If your situation and funding allow you to live alone and that's genuinely what you want, that's a legitimate choice too. (Just weigh it honestly against the isolation risk, which we cover in group homes vs SIL.)
• Into a vacancy, but on your terms. Maybe there's an existing house with a spare room. Fine, but instead of moving in blind, you get the chance to meet the people who already live there first, and decide whether they're a fit before you commit. This is faster but you do have less control in this.

Then choose the provider. With your people sorted, you approach providers as a known quantity. You're not a single bed to be filled; you're a group (or an individual) who knows what you want. That puts you in a far stronger position.

Then find the house. With the people and the provider settled, the building becomes the easiest part to solve. Location, accessibility, size, you're choosing a house to suit the people, rather than squeezing people into whatever house had a vacancy.

All three of these paths, picking a group, going solo, or vetting a vacancy before you commit, are things you can do with Marco Polo Portal. The whole point of the platform is to let you sort the people first, whatever "the people" looks like for you.

The honest downside: it takes longer

Let's not pretend this is free. The deliberate approach has a real cost, and it's time.

Picking your housemates first takes longer than grabbing the next available vacancy. You have to find compatible people, get to know them, have the conversations, do the meeting-up, and only then move on to providers and houses. Where the quick path can have you moved in within weeks or even days, the deliberate path can take months.

That's a genuine downside and it's worth being upfront about it. If you need a bed next week because of a crisis, the deliberate approach is harder to pull off (which is exactly why we always say start early, before a move becomes urgent).

But weigh that time against what it's preventing.

The time you save is enormous

The few weeks or months you spend getting the people right up front is small compared to the time, money, and heartache of getting it wrong. Think about what a bad match actually costs:

The phone calls when it starts going wrong. The house and stakeholder meetings that go nowhere. The stress on the participant, who stops sleeping, withdraws, or escalates. The toll on the family, fielding the calls and watching it unravel. The search for a new provider. The notice periods. The cost of moving twice. The risk that the other housemates get displaced too. And the emotional weight of having to move a loved one out of a home that was supposed to be their fresh start, because they couldn't get along with the person they were placed with. (We've written a whole guide on what to do when an NDIS housemate isn't working out, because it happens so often.)

Set those two things side by side. A few extra months of careful choosing, versus the very real possibility of a failed placement, a distressed participant, and a second move done under stress. The slow path isn't slower in the end. It's usually faster, because it avoids the do-overs.

It just makes sense

Strip it all back and this isn't complicated. It's logical.

The people are the most important part of a shared home. So you sort the people first. You don't leave the most important factor to chance and discover it after you've already committed. You deal with it up front, when you still have choices, rather than at the end, when your only choice is whether to move again.

Every other part of the housing puzzle, the provider, the house, the funding, the support, can be adjusted around the right group of people. But you can't easily fix a household built on the wrong match. You can change providers and keep your housemates. You can change houses and keep your housemates. What you can't do cheaply or painlessly is unpick a group of people who were thrown together by a vacancy and don't fit.

You reap what you sow. Put the effort into the people at the start, and you grow a home. Skip that step and grab whatever's available, and you tend to harvest exactly what you'd expect: a house full of strangers hoping it works out, and too often finding it doesn't.

The deliberate path asks more of you at the beginning. It gives more back for years afterward. For something as important as where and with whom you live, that's a trade worth making.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the usual way NDIS housing works?

Usually you find a vacancy listing, call the provider, maybe do a short meet and greet, maybe move in on a trial, and then find out afterward whether the housemates and support actually suit you. The most important factor, the people you live with, is the last thing you learn, and you learn it after you have already moved in.

Why is picking housemates first better than finding a house first?

Because the people you live with matter more than the building. Picking compatible housemates first, then choosing a provider and house around them, means you sort the biggest factor in whether a home works before you commit, rather than discovering it after you have moved in. It is simply doing the most important part first.

Doesn't picking housemates first take longer?

Yes, up front it takes longer, often months rather than weeks, because you need to find compatible people and get to know them before choosing a provider and house. But it usually saves time overall by avoiding a failed placement and a second move, which cost far more time, money, and stress than the extra weeks of careful choosing.

Can I still pick my housemates if I want to move into an existing vacancy?

Yes. Even with an existing vacancy, you can get to know the people already living there before you commit, rather than moving in blind. Marco Polo Portal lets you meet potential housemates first whether you are forming a new group, moving into a vacancy, or working out what suits you, so the people are never a surprise.

What if I want to live alone?

Living alone is a legitimate choice if your situation and funding allow it and it is genuinely what you want. The people-first principle still applies; it just means deciding that living solo suits you rather than discovering a mismatch later. It is worth weighing honestly against the isolation risk that comes with living alone.

What does a bad housemate match actually cost?

More than people expect. A bad match can mean stress on the participant, sleepless nights, withdrawal or escalation, a strained family fielding the calls, house meetings that go nowhere, a search for a new provider, notice periods, the cost of moving twice, and the chance the other housemates are displaced too. Avoiding that is the real value of choosing well first.

How do I find compatible housemates before choosing a house?

You can use existing networks like day programs, supported employment, and community groups, or a purpose-built matching platform. Marco Polo Portal lets you build a profile, see compatible people, get to know them, and form a group before approaching any provider, so you sort the people first and choose the provider and house around them.

Is it really worth the extra effort?

For something as important as where and with whom you live, yes. The extra effort at the start is small compared to the years you spend living with the result. You reap what you sow: put the work into the people first and you grow a home, skip it and grab whatever is available and you often end up moving again.

Your home. Your housemates. Your call.

The current way of doing NDIS housing asks people to commit to a building and then hope the people work out. We'd do it the other way around for ourselves, because we know from our own lives that a home is made of people, not bricks. There's no good reason to apply a different rule to someone with disability. Sort the people first, choose the provider and house around them, and you give yourself the best possible shot at a home that lasts.

If you want to pick your housemates first, whether that's forming a group, going solo, or vetting a vacancy before you commit, Marco Polo Portal is built for exactly that. It's $97 a year for participants, non-renewing, and usually claimable through your NDIS plan. If you're a support coordinator helping clients find matches that actually last, our coordinator page has the tools. And if you're a SIL or ILO provider who'd rather welcome a pre-matched group than fill a vacancy and hope, our provider page is built for you.

Your home. Your housemates. Your call. Always.

‍