While the idea of co-buying has gained popularity in the past five years, there continues to be some trepidation about taking the leap to co-purchase property. This is because our existing systems are not structured to accommodate the model.

Given the housing crisis in Toronto, its surrounding cities, and in some places across the country, we need to consider fundamentally changing how we trade single-family homes.

There is no shortage of articles on Toronto’s housing crisis. Indeed, this catch-all term seems to encompass the lack of affordable rental housing, to the steadily increasing rates of homelessness, to the sky-rocketing price of property in the GTA. There is reason for all the discussion: as of October 2021, the average cost of a single-family home in Toronto is up to $1.16 million, a whopping 19.3 per cent more than it was in 2020, a rate of increase approximately four times that of the average income. Despite a promising national housing strategy that purports to incentivize first time home buyers and increase the stock of affordable rentals, one wonders how we — and other cities struggling to keep up with the demand for housing – can adapt current legal infrastructure to allow more people to access home ownership. Continue reading “Housing affordability: rethinking single-family homes”