The buying part is where it gets complicated, and the complications are rarely about money. They are about structure. Do you buy two homes or one? Whose names go on the title, and in what proportions? What happens when one household wants to move and the other does not? Those questions have good answers, and the families who ask them before they sign are the ones still speaking easily to each other five years later.
This guide works through each decision in turn. Where a rule comes from a statute or from the Canada Revenue Agency we name it and link it. Where something is a matter of judgement, we say that too, and tell you what we would do.
The short version
- In most cases two households are better off buying two separate homes in the same building than co-owning one home, because each family keeps its own mortgage, its own title and its own exit.
- If you do share one title, British Columbia's Property Law Act treats co-owners as tenants in common unless the transfer says otherwise, which means each share can be sold or left by will separately.
- Joint tenancy is the other option, registered under section 177 of the Land Title Act. On the death of one joint tenant the survivor takes the whole interest, which is powerful and easy to choose by accident.
- Every borrower on one mortgage is responsible for the entire loan, not for their share of it.
- First-time buyer relief is assessed per person and per purchase. One co-buyer who has owned a home before can remove the whole benefit, so check before you decide whose name goes where.
The first decision: two homes or one
Nearly every family we speak to starts by assuming they will buy one thing together. In a multiplex there is usually a better option, because the building is already divided into separate homes with separate titles.
Buying two homes in the same building means each household has its own title, its own mortgage, its own property tax bill and its own front door. If one family later wants to move, they sell their home the way anybody sells a home. Nobody needs anybody's permission and nothing has to be renegotiated.
Buying one home together means one title with two or more names on it, one mortgage that everybody is liable for, and a set of decisions that now require agreement. It is the right answer when the households genuinely want to share a single home, or when only one home in the building suits and neither family can buy it alone.
In our view the two-home route is the default and the shared-title route is the exception that needs a reason. The families who run into difficulty are almost always the ones who shared a title when they did not have to.
| Two separate homes | One home, shared title | |
|---|---|---|
| Titles | One each | One, with both names on it |
| Mortgages | One each, assessed separately | One, with everyone liable for all of it |
| Selling | Either family can sell independently | Needs agreement, or a court application |
| Property tax and strata fees | Billed separately to each home | One bill to split between you |
| If one household's finances change | Contained to that household | Affects both |
| Best for | Two households who want to live near each other | Households who want to share one home |
Why the building matters as much as the paperwork
The legal structure decides what happens if things go wrong. The building decides what daily life is like, and that is the part families underestimate.
Two homes stacked one above the other is a different experience from two homes side by side. Stacked homes share a floor and a ceiling, which is where sound travels between households. Side by side homes share a wall, and each usually has its own ground level entry and its own piece of outdoor space. If one household includes someone who does not manage stairs well, the ground floor home is not a preference, it is the whole decision.
Look also at what is shared and what is not. Parking, storage, the garden, the bin area, the path to the front door. In a four home building these are shared spaces governed by the strata, and the arrangement is set out in documents you can read before you buy.
Money that is easier to raise together, and rules that are assessed apart
The reason families pool resources is straightforward. Two households can usually reach a home that neither could reach alone, and in this market that difference decides which neighbourhoods are open to you.
What surprises people is that the tax and savings rules do not pool. The Canada Revenue Agency assesses the Home Buyers' Plan and the First Home Savings Account per individual, with a Home Buyers' Plan withdrawal limit of $60,000 per person, and both can be used toward the same qualifying home when each person meets the conditions at the time of each withdrawal.
The same individual logic applies to the reliefs that matter most. British Columbia's first time home buyers' property transfer tax exemption requires that you have never owned a principal residence anywhere in the world. The Canada Revenue Agency's first-time home buyers' GST rebate requires that you have not lived in a home you or your spouse owned as a primary residence in the calendar year or the previous four calendar years. A parent who has owned a home fails both tests, and if that parent is on the title, the purchase can lose relief the children would have had on their own.
This is not a reason to leave anybody off a title. It is a reason to work out the consequences with your lawyer and your accountant before you decide, rather than discovering them on the statement of adjustments.
The conversation to have before you look at any homes
Families tend to start with listings and work backwards to the hard questions. We would do it the other way around, because the answers change which homes are even worth viewing.
Three questions do most of the work. What is each household actually able to contribute, in cash today rather than in principle? What happens if one household needs to move in three years? And who needs to be on the ground floor? The third question sounds small next to the first two and it is the one that most often decides which building suits you, because a four home multiplex has exactly one home with step-free access from the street.
Answer them separately, in writing, then compare. Where the answers line up, you have a plan. Where they do not, you have found the disagreement while it is still theoretical, which is the cheapest time to find it.
The reason we push this so hard is that a family purchase has two failure modes. One is financial, and it looks like a mortgage nobody can carry. The other is relational, and it looks like two households who no longer enjoy living near each other. The financial one gets all the attention and the relational one does more damage.
What good looks like five years in
The families we see doing well have three things in common, and none of them are about money.
They have separate front doors and they use them. Living in the same building works because each household can close a door and be private, and the arrangements that fail are usually the ones where privacy was treated as optional. They have written down the boring things, so nobody is relying on a memory of a conversation from before completion. And they have a way of raising a problem that does not require anyone to be brave, usually a standing point in the year when the arrangement gets reviewed whether or not anything is wrong.
The things that go wrong are ordinary. Somebody parks where they said they would not. One household spends more on the shared garden than the other wanted. Grandchildren are noisy at the wrong hour. None of these are serious in themselves, and all of them become serious if there is no ordinary way to mention them.
Everything in this guide
Each page below answers one question in full. Read them in order or jump to the one you need.
How to structure it
The decisions that are hard to change later.
Paying for it
Mortgages with several names on them, and family money.
Living with it
The day to day arrangements that keep two households comfortable.
Questions buyers ask
Also worth reading
- Buying a multiplex with your familyThe shorter overview of how a family co-purchase works in BC
- Multi-generational livingWhat living in the same building as your parents or children is actually like
- Browse multiplex homesCurrent buildings in Vancouver, Burnaby and the rest of Greater Vancouver
- Affordability calculatorWhat each household can carry on its own
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page comes from the body that issues it. Rules and rates change, so each entry says when we checked it.
- Property Law Act, RSBC 1996, c. 377, section 11 (Tenancy in common). BC Laws, Queen's Printer for British Columbia. Accessed 29 August 2026.
- Land Title Act, RSBC 1996, c. 250, section 177 (Registration of joint tenants). BC Laws, Queen's Printer for British Columbia. Accessed 29 August 2026.
- The Home Buyers' Plan. Canada Revenue Agency. Accessed 29 August 2026.
- First Home Savings Account (FHSA). Canada Revenue Agency. Accessed 29 August 2026.
- First Time Home Buyers' Program. Province of British Columbia. Thresholds effective 1 April 2024, accessed 29 August 2026.
- Who can apply: first-time home buyers' GST/HST rebate. Canada Revenue Agency. Accessed 29 August 2026.
Not sure where your family fits?
Tell us who is buying, roughly what you can spend, and which areas you are looking at. We will send back the homes that actually match, and say plainly when nothing does.