Toronto is growing every day — not just in terms of people, but prices, too. Buying a home, especially, seems like a pipe dream in today’s housing market.
But one group in Bloordale Village believes where there’s a will, there’s a way, thanks to its unique co-ownership solution.
Co-ownership is when two or more people buy a property together to pool resources and access the housing market.
“Co-ownership helps the housing crisis in a few ways,” says Lesli Gaynor who along with Parimal Gosai started Husmates, a real estate platform that teaches Torontonians about co-ownership. “We’re looking for gentle density and now that we can build four units, by right, on most properties in the City of Toronto, there will be an expansion of the units. But now, we need to find the owners.”
“So, co-ownership allows for people to combine their resources, and buy those properties or develop those properties.”
The Husmates app helps you find the kind of residence you want, figure out finances and match users with other potential co-owners, according to Gaynor.
Craig Ruttan, 36, along with his partner and two friends who are a couple used Husmates to buy a detached house in February 2020. It had two floors that could be used as two units, as well as a garage that they turned into a laneway house, giving them a third unit.
“We didn’t need a 2,000-square-foot house and we didn’t want a 500-square-foot condo. So this opened up options in between, getting to live in a neighbourhood and getting to live in a place about the same size or a little bigger than our current apartment,” he says.
“When our friends approached us with this idea and they wanted to do it, it felt like it was the right match and the right time for us to take the leap.”
With co-ownership, each person has a legal share in the property, which can be divided up.
Another approach to shared housing is co-housing, which is more community-oriented and involves the sharing of common areas, such as the washroom and kitchen.
“Co-ownership usually means you’re all in the same title, so you’re owning a share or a fractional piece of an existing property,” explains Kristopher Stevens, executive director of Cohousing Options Canada.
“Co-housing usually means…you own your own private unit, but then you share the commons. And the commons are designed to be much more user-friendly, co-carrying, co-connected.”
The Canadian Real Estate Association says the median price of a detached house in Toronto a decade ago was under $600,000. Today, that’s doubled to over $1.2 million.
Although prices keep rising, Torontonians still have a shot at buying a home through options like co-ownership and co-housing.
