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VANCOUVER — If you can't afford a house in high-priced Vancouver, you can always split one down the middle.
James Tansey and Patrick Lewis and their spouses did just that. Dr. Tansey and Mr. Lewis, who both work at the University of British Columbia, bought a 5,000-square-foot arts and crafts house in upscale Kerrisdale and physically divided it from top to bottom.
Both say they are getting a better deal by dividing a big house than if they had purchased individual homes in the same area.
"The thing about getting a much bigger house is the cost per square foot goes down, because not many people want to take on a house that size," Dr. Tansey says.
In four years, the house that Graeme Price, top, bought with Eric Pasquier has doubled in value. (Laura Leyshon for The Globe and Mail)
The two couples share the title and the mortgage, and the two units are not defined legally as separate dwellings. And while their main entrances are on opposite sides of the house, there is a pair of internal communicating doors that are kept locked - unless the families are sharing a babysitter or co-hosting a party.
"We took out part of the ceiling space and put in soundproofing to take out some of the noise," Dr. Tansey says. "It's no worse than living in a townhouse or duplex. You hear footsteps and sometimes voices, but because the building is solidly built, it's fine."
The real-estate crunch is pushing people to become more resourceful, says Spice Lucks, a real-estate agent in the expensive west side of Vancouver.
"It's people wanting to adapt to a marketplace that has strained their resources, so you get creative out-of-the-box ideas floating around about how to enter in," she says.
A big part of the appeal of co-ownership is lifestyle. For people who work in the west side, sharing a house can be less inconvenient than having a long commute.
Julian Dierkes, who is from Germany, says that co-housing is more common in Europe. He and his family live in Kitsilano in a house they bought with another family three years ago for $700,000. To make it work, they had to install a kitchen upstairs, reinforce the foundation and close in a space under the back stairs to allow for an additional bedroom.
"On my single salary, there's no way I could carry a mortgage," says Dr. Dierkes, who is an assistant professor at UBC's Centre for Japanese Research. "And the mortgage was really easy, to my surprise. We went to TD Bank and they were quite eager to give us a mortgage, because for them they had two full-time salaries. They said, 'Great. Looks secure.' "
Most parties who share property sign a legal agreement that outlines what would happen should one want to sell, or if someone defaults on the mortgage.
"It does require cordial relations for sure," Dr. Dierkes says. It requires the ability to deal with each other in a business-like fashion."
For the Tansey and Lewis families, common goals informed their decision to share. Dr. Tansey is the founder of a non-profit carbon-offsetting program and is an assistant professor at UBC's W. Maurice Young Centre for Applied Ethics, where Mr. Lewis is managing director.
"The four of us have decided that when it comes time, we'll give serious consideration to using geothermal heating, that type of thing," Mr. Lewis says.
Money lenders are also gearing their services to the niche. Vancity credit union offers a Mixer Mortgage designed for friends and family who want to co-invest; it will also arrange a legal co-ownership agreement.
"We often see parents and children, and friends who buy together," says mortgage broker Rob Regan-Pollock. "In doing so, these people are able to build home equity faster by combining resources and sharing in the profits of higher-priced real estate."
The arrangement works for friends Sherryl Yeager and Tony Wyman, who had never owned real estate before they bought and divided a house with a $100,000 renovation.
"For the price of a condo, we each got a good-sized space and we own the building and we own the land," says Mr. Wyman, a boom operator for the film industry. "I never wanted to live in a condo."
In 2005, they paid $580,000 for the house, which gives them 1,100 square feet of space each.
"The price per square foot for a house when we bought was around $200, says Ms. Yeager, an adjudicator for the Workers' Compensation Appeal Tribunal. "And the price per square foot for a new condo was getting up to $400."
For Graeme Price, 43, the decision to escape his condo lifestyle and buy a house with his friend Eric Pasquier, 44, was a no-brainer.
The condo life, they say, felt confining. "You can't have your car in the driveway and all the things that guys want," says Mr. Price, a transportation co-ordinator for the television show Stargate Atlantis. "... There was also at the time the pressure of getting into the market and getting a piece of land.
"I grew up here and I have lots of friends 35 to 45 who will probably never own a place," he adds. "They never had jobs to allow them to buy places when they were under 30, and now the market is out of their reach."
For $220,000 each, the friends got 1,200 square feet of living space in a boxy house in the style known as a Vancouver Special, which is easily divided. After a renovation by Mr. Pasquier, who is a builder, the house now has two updated kitchens and separate front entrances. In four years, it has doubled in value.
Mr. Pasquier says it works best if you have lived with your co-investor beforehand. He and Mr. Price shared a rented apartment for six years before they purchased separate condos.
For Mr. Price and Mr. Pasquier, the social aspect is a bonus. They can go days without seeing each other, but they will often drop in for a Friday-night beer.
"It sounds stupid, but it's almost like the whole Friends experience on TV, where they are living in separate apartments - but they are always walking in on each other all the time," Mr. Price says.
Sharing the nest
Tips for co-ownership from
Vancity credit union:
Prepare an annual budget
for expenses such as property taxes, legal fees and insurance.
Decide how repairs and renovations will be handled - do both parties have to agree? What if there's an emergency repair job?
Agree to what areas of the home and garden will be shared.
Decide when and how the property will be sold - know what will happen if one party wants to sell. Putting it in writing will save each party costly legal fees.
Protect your share of the house with a life-insurance policy.
Make sure you have a process for dispute resolution.
Decide how household tasks such as watering the garden will be shared.
Talk about having pets in the home.
Document every decision you make together.
