41150 – Co-buying & Fractional Ownership

Co-buying and fractional ownership are two different ways of sharing the cost of a property with other people. Co-buying means purchasing a property directly with one or more other buyers — family, friends, or another chosen party — with everyone named as a registered owner on the title. Each co-owner contributes to the deposit and ongoing costs and holds a legal interest in the actual property, governed by the ownership structure chosen at settlement and, ideally, a written co-ownership agreement.

Fractional ownership, by contrast, means buying a share in a property indirectly through a platform or investment structure, typically a managed fund or unit trust, rather than being named on the property’s title yourself. The platform (not the individual investor) holds the underlying asset, and investors hold units or a similar interest representing their proportional stake.

Both approaches exist for the same underlying reason: they lower the entry cost of accessing residential property, either by splitting a full purchase between named co-owners or by allowing a much smaller financial stake in a property held on an investor’s behalf. They carry materially different legal, financial and practical implications, which the three entries in this section address in turn.