Joint Property Ownership

As house, land and apartment prices soar to record highs across Australia, the barrier to entry on the property market has become an even&nbsp;more distant dream for some.

The great Australian dream of owning seems farther than ever and this holds especially true on the income of a single person, with more and more Aussies holding out on buying their first home, or any home until they have a partner.

Some however have turned to co-ownership.

It&rsquo;s a natural extension for some, to go from renting a property with their best friend or siblings, to owning one together.&nbsp;

In NSW in particular, there have been a growing number of property co-owners who are not married or in a de-facto relationship with their co-owner.

Not only is this happening among&nbsp;friends and family, property co-ownership is even occurring among strangers, with new proptech firms, such as BrickX and DomaCom,&nbsp;focusing on fractional ownership.

BrickX focuses on individual houses and units, where investors can buy Bricks that make up a percentage of the value of the property.

A Brick&rsquo;s value will change depending on the most recent evaluation of the property&rsquo;s value as well as what people are willing to pay, similar to the stock market, it&rsquo;s speculative.

DomaCom operates in a similar fashion, but with investments on a larger scale across many segments of the market, where purchasers are locked in for a certain period of time.

The newest co-ownership proptech is Mortgage Mates, described as something similar to a dating website for home ownership.

Calling themselves, &ldquo;the Bumble of home ownership,&rdquo; they match clients with other individuals (Mates) who have the same housing preferences, to own and live in a home together.

A more established example is Co-Own.com.au where multiple parties have a purely business relationship with just one party/person as the owner occupier.

There are different pro&rsquo;s and con&rsquo;s to shared ownership of a property amongst friends, family and strangers.

The main positives of co-ownership are mainly the normal benefits of owning a property, quicker access to the housing market, safer and more flexible investment options and not &ldquo;throwing your money away&rdquo; on rent.

Negatives abound, changes can arrive in your relationship with the friends you are co-owning with, they could find a partner, have a child, fall ill, default on the loan or even have a falling out with you.

The best way to mitigate some negatives is a contract and for services like Co-Own.com.au, they even recommend a property manager, but these can only do so much.

It’s a natural extension for some, to go from renting a property with their best friend or siblings, to owning one together

Joint Property Ownership

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