Co-purchasing a home to get into the Vancouver housing market

Buying a home on your own can be difficult, especially with the red-hot housing market these days. However, an initiative that aims to help people co-purchase properties in B.C. with friends, families, and even strangers is now expanding across the province.

Last year, a dozen people in Metro Vancouver and Victoria found partners and housing thanks to CoHo BC, which is expanding its matchmaking efforts to include the Sunshine Coast, Cowichan Valley, Okanagan, and other parts of B.C.

“So much of our housing is really designed for multiple families or can be shared and be collective. And through co-owning, you can save money, get more housing, build community, live more sustainably.

“And we really support people through that process,” Noam Dolgin with CoHo BC explained.

CoHo includes lawyers to help with agreements to co-own a home. People are able to eventually sell a share or buy one another out.

“Every situation is unique. Every partnership will decide for themselves how they want to structure their exits,” Dolgin explained.

Amid the high cost of housing, Dolgin says this co-ownership option offers people, who otherwise couldn’t afford it, the opportunity to become homeowners.

“The entry point to get into housing is just becoming more and more insane. And by working collaboratively, you can hack the system and bring that price down, depending on the product, 20, 30, 40 per cent. That doesn’t necessarily make housing cheap in Vancouver but at least it makes it accessible for people,” he said.

Dolgin adds those interested in this setup should “look at this as a marriage.”

“The process, in general, is like dating, engagement, and marriage. You date the housing and the people to find the right partner and the right product. Then you go through an engagement phase, where you talk about your finances, talk about how late you stay up at night, you talk about everything, all your quirks, your goals, your long-term goals, how likely you are to move. Then, when you found the right partner and the right product, you sign a prenup, you buy a property, and you go into a long relationship together.”

He says this setup especially makes sense in the case of houses that are already designed for multiple families.

Elizabeth Wilcox and Tom Kehler met Ashley Pullman and Christopher Nichols in just a few months and bought a house together where they live in two separate suites through CoHo.

Photo of Elizabeth Wilcox with housing partners Tom Kehler, Ashley Pullman, Christopher Nichols and children. (Photo credit Noam Dolgin)

Nichols explains the greatest benefit to co-ownership is that he and his partner could secure a home they were excited about.

Wilcox adds, “It really gives us room to grow … the house really has that potential to suit us for long term, to make changes according to our needs. So all those pieces that went along with the co-ownership and having a house that really makes it suitable for long term as well, depending on how things go.”

Wilcox says the set up takes collaboration and cooperation for it to work which gives a “real sense of community.”