Homebuyers turn to shared ownership in expensive Wollongong market
It's morning tea time at Gem Romuld's Gwynneville home in Wollongong and there are plenty of hands to help wrangle two toddlers, clean up dishes and prepare the food.
That's because Gem lives not only with her partner Dinah Too and their two young children Thea and Marlowe, but also with her friends Lexi Dickson and Renata Field and their nine-year-old son Finnley.
This isn't a university share house — the adults purchased the property together in 2021 and have a co-living arrangement, meaning they co-own and live on the property.
Shopping and food is shared between all seven members of the household. (ABC Illawarra: Justin Hunstdale)
"We never wanted to go into a nuclear family style of living, we wanted to be with other families, with our friends," Gem said.
"Having babies that don't sleep or toddlers is really hard, and I can see how so many other parents feel isolated, but there was just no chance of that happening for us."
A glance around the home reveals a long grocery list on the fridge with details of a shared monthly shop and a chore wheel to designate household jobs.
It was a decision also made for financial reasons.
Morning tea involves plenty of hands to make food and look after children. (ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale)
"We look after each other's kids, we look after each other and of course, it ultimately just meant it was possible to buy a home,"Renata said.
Cotality data shows the Wollongong subregion has the highest median house price in regional New South Wales at $1.3 million — a price that has climbed by 50 per cent in the past five years.
"We'd be in a tiny apartment or just wouldn't have been able to purchase a house at all if we were just on our own," Renata said.
The group shares shopping, cooking and chores. (ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale)
With combined finances, the friends have bought and created their dream home; a main house with a granny flat separated by a vegetable garden.
A signed agreement lays out the terms for exit and a shared ethos of community and participation keeps things running smoothly.
"We're really committed to each other and to living together in a shared and equal way," Renata said.
Shared retirement
Just a few suburbs over in Berkeley, another co-living group is preparing to share a different life stage — retirement.
Susy Lee is planning to retire to a large Berkeley home with four other couples. (ABC Illawarra: Sarah Moss)
Susy Lee and her husband Brian have joined four other couples to buy a large, rambling house on a hill, where they're currently spending weekends testing out the new living model.
"Our plan is that all 10 of us will live here full-time during retirement in the next two years," she said.
"That's what we're working towards — we're calling it a crazy experiment."
Susy Lee (second from left) says living with friends will reduce loneliness. (ABC Illawarra: Sarah Moss)
They're in the process of renovating the home to create five suites with contained bathrooms.
A household constitution sets out an agreement for divesting from the property, and Susy jokes her Masters of Peace and Conflict Studies comes in handy when negotiating big-ticket decisions.
Susy Lee says friendship and support will be a benefit of the shared home. (ABC Illawarra: Sarah Moss)
"We're doing it for a variety of reasons I suppose, but the main ones would be to combat loneliness and the financial problems of retirement," Susy said.
"Some of us have lost parents in the last year and a half and we've helped each other through that — it's been a real support."
Barriers to uptake
Cohousing Australia chair Jason Hilder said collective housing models, which included co-living, co-housing — where multiple dwellings were built on a shared property — and co-ops remained unusual in Australia.
"In Australia it's less than 1 per cent," Dr Hilder said.
In some European countries it is much more common — in Sweden more than 20 per cent of housing stock is cooperative housing.
Jason Hilder says a lack of affordable housing is driving alternative living. (ABC Goulburn-Murray: Phillipe Perez)
The Australian Bureau of Statistics predicts group households — which include any living arrangement with two or more non-related and uncoupled adults — will make up 5 per cent of all households in Australia by 2046.
Dr Hilder said interest in collective models was growing due to the lack of affordable and available housing, but legislation and lending restrictions had created barriers.
"State by state, the term 'co-housing' isn't in the legislation," he said.
"There is a code for retirement villages, for boarding houses, even for social housing, but if we were to talk about co-housing or multiple families under one roof, the legislation doesn't cater for that."
NSW planning legislation defines co-living as a rental accommodation overseen by a property manager, with no mention of the shared ownership models used by the Wollongong households.
Renata Field says more co-living arrangements could help the housing crisis. (ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale)
While some major banks have introduced multi-party loans to cater for shared ownership, those considering a collective arrangement still find finance difficult to secure.
Renata and Gem spent two years trying to find a suitable lender, and the Berkeley couples had to set up a business collective to borrow the money they needed.
Property share is a flexible and practical option for anyone looking to split the cost of a home while maintaining financial independence.
Renata said more people should think outside the box when it came to housing.
"I think this great Australian dream of having a house with two-and-a-half kids on a quarter-acre block, it just can't work for everyone,"she said.
"There's not enough resources and there's not enough housing.
"This is not for everyone, but I would encourage people to have conversations with people they love about whether they could imagine it."