A growing number of Canadians are choosing to co-own properties as one way to sustain the sky-high cost of housing, a survey by Royal LePage has found.

The data showed 76 per cent of Canadian co-owners, defined by Royal LePage as people or couples who own a property with at least one other person, reported that affordability was a major motivator behind their decision to co-purchase a property.

“The inability to afford a home on their own, and wanting more space and a more desirable location, were among the other reasons co-owners decided to purchase a home with another party,” the report released on Thursday stated.
 
CO-OWNING ON THE RISE
 
Of the real estate professionals that were polled for the survey, 23 per cent said they have seen an increase in the number of homebuyers purchasing with a person other than a spouse or significant other compared to pre-pandemic times.
 
Thirty-two per cent of homebuyers who co-own due to affordability issues purchased properties after the Bank of Canada began hiking rates in March 2022.
 
WHO IS BUYING PROPERTIES TOGETHER?
 
More than half of co-owners, at 56 per cent, own a home with their parents or parents-in-law, while 18 per cent co-own with their adult children, the findings showed.
 
At the national level, six per cent of buyers co-own a home with someone other than their spouse, and 89 per cent of this group said they co-own with a family member. Another seven per cent said they own a property with friends, and eight per cent co-own a property with someone who is not a relative or a friend, the data revealed.
 
Canadian co-owners prefer to purchase a single-family detached home, with 62 per cent saying this was their co-owned property of choice, according to the data.
 
Data from the 2021 census show that multigenerational households are now the fastest growing household type in Canada. 

Forty-four per cent of co-owners said that all fellow co-owners live in the home together, while 28 per cent say that they co-own a home with another person but they do not cohabitate.
 
“Some Canadians are using co-ownership as a way of boosting their borrowing capacity or lowering their monthly mortgage costs, helping them achieve their goal of home ownership,” Karen Yolevski, chief operating officer of Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd, said in the news release.
 
“The decision to live together, including co-owning a home, is a decision increasingly made for financial reasons.”
 
Survey methodology: The survey by Royal LePage was conducted by Leger. The findings are a result of an online survey of 501 Canadians 18+, who co-own their home with someone other than their spouse, was completed between August 10, 2023, and August 21, 2023, using Leger’s online panel.

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