Share The Housing Pain

- Effie Zahos

The world’s first co-ownership platform, Kohab, was launched last month amid claims it could be the answer to Australia’s home loan affordability issue. It’s a big call given people have always been able to buy property jointly. One could argue that it’s more of a marketing initiative – a very clever one at that – than a solution to home unaffordability.

Even Darren Clark, co-founder of Kohab, told 9Finance in March that “Kohab facilitates something that has existed for a while but there hasn’t been a public forum, a process, an education that makes sure you’re doing the right thing”.

Essentially Kohab is an online marketplace that matches people who want to co-own a property, either to live in or rent out as an investment, or for lifestyle reasons, where two or more parties may want to share a holiday home or a second home. In addition to matching buyers, the platform provides property listings, legal documents and access to mortgage options.

Kohab operates through a tenants-in-common arrangement, rather than the more popular joint tenancy. Under tenants in common each party holds an individual interest in the property. It can be equal or unequal. If one person dies the deceased’s share becomes part of their estate, whereas with joint tenancy their share is transferred to the other owners.