Vivienne Chartrand (left, standing) Sarah Lamb and Yumi Numata (seated) decided to buy a house together in 2022 to avoid renting or each buying a condo with limited space.Thomas Bollmann
Meet Vivienne Chartrand, Sarah Lamb and Yumi Numata – together, they’ve found a path to owning a home in today’s torrid housing market.
In June, 2022, the three Toronto residents purchased a duplex in Toronto’s West End, converting the two units into space for three people to live.
“The three of us lead separate lives, but we wanted to have a community. I knew Sarah through work, and Yumi and Sarah lived together as roommates, but we wanted our own spaces, too,” says Ms. Chartrand, a fundraiser in the not-for-profit sector. (The three all became friends through a volunteer project they were working on.)
“None of us individually had enough money to buy a house and none of us wanted to invest in little condos that we wouldn’t actually want to live in,” Ms. Chartrand says.
“We each put in different amounts for the down payment and contribute equally to the monthly mortgage payments,” Ms. Numata says.
Co-owning a home with people who are not directly or romantically related is still a niche but it’s growing in popularity as housing prices continue to stick at high levels, says Parimal Gosai, a Toronto-based lawyer and realtor.
Lesli Gaynor, a realtor and former social worker and restaurant owner, co-founded Husmates, a digital platform that helps prospective co-owners find matches for house-hunting.
“We have sold approximately $100-million worth of co-ownership properties since 2018. That represents 67 homes and 182 different people who now live together in co-ownership situations,” he says.
“I became a co-owner myself when I [became] a single mom and bought a house with two other women,” Ms. Gaynor says.
Ms. Gaynor and Mr. Gosai and their platform require prospective co-owners to go through an extensive workbook to make sure that they really want to co-own and help them find the most suitable partners. After doing the work, Ms. Lamb says she considers the co-owning of her duplex to be relatively straightforward, as long as the co-owners agree on how the financial and living situation will work.
“In some ways it’s not much different than the way many people may own properties with other people, and they all have their names on the deed. We simply added an agreement among ourselves on how we’re going to manage the property and live,” she says.
Banks and financial institutions are starting to catch up to the idea of co-ownership.
— Parimal Gosai, Toronto realtor
To make sure they are all on the same page – literally – the three women developed a mission statement for their home, says Ms. Numata, who works in higher education.
“It says: as a collective rooted in trust, friendship and shared responsibility, our home is an opportunity to enter the real estate market and begin building equity. We will create a home that balances flexibility and independence with accountability and community; showing up for one another in support of day-to-day needs, as well as longer-term goals that relate to our home and community,” she says.
“We see co-ownership as both a social and financial solution for a lot of people,” Mr. Gosai says.
“The shared cost is one advantage, of course, but it’s also an attractive alternative for younger people with shared values who seek a household and for older people who are looking for a way to age in place rather than in an institution,” he says.
“Banks and financial institutions are starting to catch up to the idea of co-ownership, for instance, by offering fractional mortgages where different co-owners have different terms,” he adds.
From left: Lamb, Chartrand and Numata developed a mission statement that describes their home as 'a collective rooted in trust, friendship and shared responsibility' and 'an opportunity to enter the real estate market and begin building equity.'Thomas Bollmann
Ms. Lamb says getting housing insurance was tricky. “We had to go to a number of companies before our broker found one that fit,” she says.
While there’s no central database showing how many homes are co-owned, it’s now common enough that realtors and websites are recognizing the growing interest. In addition to Husmates, Collaborative Home Ownership in British Columbia, offers advice and helps connect people to prospective matches.
Some governments recognize co-ownership’s increasing popularity and to some extent consider it a way to address the housing affordability crisis. In 2019, the Ontario government published a co-ownership guide, explaining different co-ownership options and listing the benefits of these arrangements as “affordability, access to more neighbourhoods, more efficient use of housing stock and community.”
“Fresh approaches will give people more options and access to housing that is affordable,” the Ontario guide says.
The government, Mr. Gosai and Ms. Gaynor agree that prospective co-owners should be aware that there are different types of co-ownership arrangements. Having a rich uncle’s name on the deed is not the same as the co-ownership arrangement Ms. Chartrand, Ms. Lamb and Ms. Numata have, for example.
There are also different ways to be a co-owner – for example, if one person dies the survivors might inherit that share, or it might go to the deceased person’s estate.
The trio has worked out other scenarios – important for any good contract – like looking at what happens if they no longer want to be co-owners together, Ms. Numata says.
“We used some templates from Husmates and developed a contract that includes scenarios such as making sure there’s time when someone wants to leave for the others to figure out what that looks like for them as remaining co-owners,” she says. “Wills, life insurance, instruction to family members and emergency contacts are all in place to reflect the agreement.”
Keeping a happy home requires a bit of work, says Ms. Chartrand. “We’re strategic about how we want to live together. We hold house meetings, and earlier this week we spent a few hours cleaning up.”
“We try to intentionally work on the relational aspects of co-ownership – living together – with practical shared decision making,” adds Ms. Numata. “And we revisit our agreement from time to time to ensure that our vision continues to be aligned.”