Answers › Buying With a Family Member
Can siblings or friends buy a property together?
Answered by Rajiv Verma, Mortgage Broker · Reviewed 18 August 2026 · About a 3 minute read
The direct answer
Yes — and more buyers are considering it as prices stay difficult. Combining incomes and down payments makes ownership achievable. But it needs planning: a lawyer should prepare a co-ownership agreement covering who contributes what, how expenses are divided, what happens if someone misses a payment, and how one owner can leave. These conversations are far easier before buying than after a disagreement.
THE SHORT VERSION
- Yes, and it’s becoming more common
- Combined incomes and deposits genuinely widen what’s possible
- Everyone on the mortgage is liable for all of it, not their share
- A lawyer-drafted co-ownership agreement is the essential piece
- Sort the awkward questions while everyone still gets on
What makes it work
The lending side is usually the easy part. Lenders are accustomed to multiple applicants; incomes are combined, everyone is assessed, and the mortgage proceeds much as normal.
The hard part is everything the mortgage doesn’t cover — and that’s where the co-ownership agreement earns its cost many times over.
The thing to understand before anything else
You are each liable for the whole mortgage, not for your share of it. If your co-owner stops paying, the lender comes to you for the full payment — not half. And a missed payment appears on both credit reports. The lender is not a party to whatever you agreed between yourselves.
What the co-ownership agreement needs to cover
- Who contributed what — down payment, costs, and how that translates into ownership shares
- How ongoing expenses are split — mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities, repairs
- What happens if someone misses a payment — and how the other is compensated
- How major decisions get made — renovations, a tenant, refinancing
- How someone exits — the question that causes the most trouble
- What happens on death, marriage, separation or insolvency of either owner
Tenants in common versus joint tenancy matters here too, and it materially affects what happens if one owner dies. That’s a real estate lawyer’s question and it should be answered before closing, not after.
Practical things people forget
Unequal contributions need documenting. If one person puts in more deposit, that has to be recorded — memories diverge remarkably over five years.
Life changes. A partner moves in, someone relocates for work, someone marries. The agreement should anticipate that rather than assume nothing changes.
Each of you should get independent legal advice. One lawyer acting for both is fine until interests diverge, which is precisely when you need it not to be.
When it’s the wrong move
When it only works if both incomes hold. If one person losing their job breaks it, that’s a thin plan.
When nobody wants the awkward conversation. If you can’t discuss what happens when one of you wants out, you’re not ready to buy together.
When it’s really a loan dressed as a purchase. If one person is contributing money but doesn’t want ownership, a gift or a different structure may fit far better.
When the timelines don’t match. One planning to stay ten years and the other three is a disagreement waiting to happen — solvable, but only if it’s written down first.
What to do next
Tell me who’s buying, what everyone contributes and what each of you is planning. I’ll structure the mortgage side and tell you exactly what to take to the lawyer.
Get the agreement drafted before you make an offer, not during the closing rush.
Related questions
- What happens if one of us wants to sell later and the other doesn’t?
- What’s the difference between a co-signer and a co-borrower?
- We’re both on the mortgage but I moved out. Am I still on the hook?
Answered by Rajiv Verma, Mortgage Broker · Mortgage Architects — FSRA Brokerage Licence #12728 · Licensed in Ontario · Office 289.505.0631 · Direct 647.291.7116
General information about Ontario mortgages — not financial, legal or tax advice. Co-ownership agreements and the form of ownership must be prepared and advised on by a real estate lawyer. Every file is reviewed individually.