Why a Co-Ownership Agreement Is the Safeguard Most Co-Buyers Skip

Buying your first home with someone else? You are in good company. More and more Australians are teaming up with a partner, a sibling, a parent or a mate to get a foot on the property ladder. But there is one document that protects everyone if life gets complicated, and it is the one most co-buyers never sign: a co-ownership agreement.

Here is the honest version. Everyone plans for the happy path – keys in hand, a place to call your own. Almost nobody plans for the day someone wants out, loses their job, moves overseas, or has a relationship break down. That is exactly when a written co-ownership agreement earns its keep.

What a co-ownership agreement actually is

A co-ownership agreement is a written agreement between the people buying a property together. It sets out who owns what, who pays for what, and what happens if things change. Think of it less as legal red tape and more as a shared understanding, written down while everyone is still on the same page and nobody is upset.

It is separate from the title itself, and separate from your mortgage. Your name on the title says you own a share. Your co-ownership agreement says how that ownership works in real life – the money, the decisions, and the what-ifs.

You might also hear it called a property co-ownership agreement, or in some cases a tenants in common agreement, depending on how you hold the title. The label matters less than the substance. What matters is that the people buying together have agreed, in writing, on how the arrangement runs.

You are not the only ones co-buying

If teaming up to buy feels like a big, unusual step, it is worth knowing how common it has become.

CommBank has reported that around 60% of first home buyers now buy with someone else. That is a broad figure and it includes couples, so read it as a signal rather than a headline. But the direction is clear: buying solo is no longer the default.

The friends-and-family end of that trend is growing fast too. NAB reported joint home loans between friends and family rose by around 33% in the 12 months to July 2025, with even sharper rises in some states (Victoria up around 47%, South Australia up around 37% and New South Wales up around 34%).

Attitudes are shifting as well. In Buxton’s “State of Living Index”, around 70% of Victorians and 80% of under-35s said they were open to co-ownership. That is a smaller, Victoria-only, agency-commissioned survey measuring attitude rather than action, so treat it as a mood reading, not a national fact. Still, the mood is telling.

We talk about all of this in more detail in our episode on buying property with family, produced through NAPP (Not Another Property Podcast), which Titlespace is a founding partner of.

The safeguard most people skip

So co-buying is normal. Why do so few people put an agreement in place?

Usually it is because the relationship feels rock solid at the start. When you are buying a house with a friend or family member you trust, sitting down to write out “what happens if we fall out” can feel awkward, even a little pessimistic. Nobody wants to be the person who raises it.

The research backs that up. In a Compare the Market survey of 1,005 Australians, 61.3% said fear of damaging the relationship was a concern when co-buying, and around 33% of those who had co-bought reported some level of conflict. In other words, the very worry that stops people having the conversation is the worry a written agreement is designed to settle.

The irony is that a clear agreement protects the relationship, not just the money. When everyone has agreed the rules up front, there is far less room for resentment, assumptions or “but I thought we said” later on.

First, decide how you hold the title

Before you get to the agreement, there is a related decision: how you legally hold the property together. In Australia that usually comes down to a choice between joint tenants and tenants in common, and it affects things like whether ownership passes automatically to the other owner if someone dies, and whether you each own a defined share.

That title decision and your co-ownership agreement work together. The title sets the legal structure; the agreement fills in the practical detail the title alone does not cover. It is worth understanding both before you sign anything.

Do tenants in common need a written agreement?

Strictly speaking, no law forces you to. If you hold the property as tenants in common, each of you owns a defined share and nothing legally requires a separate written agreement to sit alongside the title. But “not required” is not the same as “not worth having”.

The title records the size of each share. It does not record who pays which bills, what happens if one owner wants to sell early, or how you settle up if someone contributes more over time. That practical detail is exactly what a written agreement captures, which is why a tenants in common arrangement is one of the most common reasons people put one in place.

If you are still weighing up how to hold the title in the first place, our guide to joint tenants vs tenants in common walks through the difference. Once that is settled, the agreement is what turns your chosen structure into a clear, workable arrangement.

Questions to raise with your conveyancer or solicitor

Here is the part people find most useful. Rather than a template to fill in, think of the list below as a set of questions to talk through and decide with your own conveyancer or solicitor. Every co-buying situation is different, and a good agreement is one that is drafted properly for your circumstances, not copied off the internet.

Bring these to the table:

Ownership and money

• What share does each of us own, and how did we arrive at that split?
• Who is contributing what to the deposit, and is any of it a loan rather than a gift?
• How are the ongoing costs divided – mortgage repayments, rates, insurance, strata, maintenance?
• What happens if one person pays more than their share for a while – is that tracked, and how is it settled later?

Living in and using the property

• Will everyone live there, or will some owners rent out their share?
• How do we make decisions about repairs, renovations or big spends?
• How are day-to-day repairs and larger maintenance costs split?

If someone wants out

• What happens if one person wants to sell or exit the arrangement?
• Do the remaining owners get first right to buy that person out, and how is the price worked out?
• Is there a minimum period before anyone can force a sale?

If life gets complicated

• What if someone loses their job or cannot make their repayments for a time?
• What if a co-owner separates from a partner, or their circumstances change?
• What happens if one of us dies – who inherits that share, and how does that sit with how we hold the title?

You do not need every answer today. The point is to have the conversation, and then have a professional turn those decisions into an agreement that actually holds up.

Where Titlespace fits

At Titlespace we are an incorporated legal practice, and we help people buy property together every day. That means we can talk you through both parts of the picture: how you hold the title, and the co-ownership agreement that sits alongside it. Fixed fee, no hidden costs, and plain-English advice from someone who does this for a living.

If you are thinking about co-buying, the best time to sort the agreement is before you are emotionally attached to a property and racing to a settlement date. A short conversation early can save a great deal of stress later.

Key takeaways

• Co-buying is now common in Australia, but the co-ownership agreement that protects everyone is the step most people skip.
• A co-ownership agreement records who owns what, who pays for what, and what happens if circumstances change.
• The fear of damaging a relationship is the main reason people avoid the conversation – yet a clear agreement is exactly what protects the relationship.
• Decide how you hold the title and put an agreement in place together, with proper advice.
• Treat the checklist above as questions to raise with your conveyancer or solicitor, not a DIY template.

Next steps

Thinking about buying with a friend, partner or family member? Talk to Titlespace before you sign anything. We will help you decide how to hold the title and get a co-ownership agreement in place that protects you all. Get a free quote or book a chat with our team.

Reviewed by the Titlespace legal team.

This article is general information only and does not take your personal circumstances into account. It is not legal advice. For advice about your own situation, please speak with a qualified conveyancer or solicitor – the team at Titlespace is happy to help.

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