- Buy with friends & family
- Get into the market sooner
- Lower entry deposit
- Share costs
- Build your equity
- Professional legal agreements
- What loan structure?
Buying a property with others
When you buy a property as a married couple, usually it is done so as ‘joint tenants’ which means both of you own the property entirely, and in the event that one person dies, that person’s interest transmits to the survivor, even if the joint tenant who died had no will.
This is not ideal for people who want to buy property together (eg. Friends, de-facto, other family members) who want more separate rights.
When you buy property with others (not your spouse) this is called purchasing as tenants-in-common, and has many benefits:
- Is a great way to get into the property market with a lower deposit and borrowing amount
- Each person does not have exclusive ownership of the property but you do own separate interests (like owning shares in a company)
- You can hold equal or unequal shares
- You can bequeath your property to anybody in your will
- Once you have identified the property you wish to buy together, you need to arrange for a loan that accommodates your ‘group’ or co-owner requirements.
The most important aspect of purchasing a property with others is to have a proper legally binding agreement which sets out the rights and obligations of each owner covering important issues like:
- what to do when one co-owner wants to sell their share
- what happens if someone defaults on their mortgage repayments
- how to split property and maintenance costs
- a dispute resolution clause.
Any advice contained in this article is of a general nature only and does not take into account the objectives, financial situation or needs of any particular person. Therefore, before making any decision, you should consider the appropriateness of the advice with regard to those matters. Information in this article is correct as of the date of publication and is subject to change.