Rentvesting with friends and family

Buying with someone else is one way people make rentvesting possible sooner. Two incomes, two sets of savings, shared costs. It’s increasingly common among siblings, friends and parents helping adult children. It also adds a layer of risk that a solo purchase doesn’t have: the other person. This page explains how co-buying an investment generally works, as at 6 November 2026.

General information only. It doesn’t take your circumstances into account.

Why people rentvest together

• Pooling savings to cover stamp duty and costs sooner.
• Combining income for a lender’s serviceability assessment.
• Sharing costs and risk of vacancies and repairs.
• Each keeps renting where they live. The co-owners don’t live together.

How co-ownership works

Joint tenants or tenants in common

	Joint tenants	Tenants in common
Ownership	Together, as a whole	Separate defined shares
Shares	Equal	Can be unequal, such as 60/40
If an owner dies	Passes to surviving owners	Passes under their will
Common for	Couples	Friends, siblings, unequal contributions

A conveyancer or solicitor can explain which fits your arrangement.

The loan

With a joint loan, lenders can generally hold each borrower responsible for the whole debt, not just their share. If one person stops paying, the lender can pursue the others. A private agreement between co-owners doesn’t change that.

Tax

Rental income and deductions are generally split according to each person’s legal ownership share, not who paid what (ATO residential rental properties). That affects the tax outcome for each person, especially if their marginal rates differ.

The co-ownership agreement

Most people buying together use a written agreement prepared by a solicitor. Common topics:

• Who contributed what, and how that’s recorded
• Ownership shares
• How costs, repairs and shortfalls are split
• What happens if one person can’t pay
• How and when the property can be sold
• What happens if one person wants out, and how they’re bought out
• What happens on death, separation or bankruptcy
• How disputes are resolved

What co-buyers commonly consider

• Trust and communication. Money disagreements end friendships.
• Different timelines. One person may want to sell or buy a home sooner.
• Different incomes and tax rates. This affects how the tax works out for each.
• First home buyer benefits. Each co-owner is generally treated as having owned property. That can affect grants, stamp duty concessions and the 5% Deposit Scheme for each of them, possibly for up to 10 years. See what you give up.
• New or established. Since 2026, this affects the tax treatment.

The example property at a $110,000 salary

The calculator above uses an example salary of $110,000, chosen for illustration. For co-buyers, each person’s share of the result depends on their ownership share and their own marginal rate.

At $110,000 the 2026-27 marginal rate is 30% plus 2% Medicare (ATO). The calculator shows:

• Best case: the example property tenanted every week.
• Worst case: vacant every week, with any rental guarantee from the property management company paying the guaranteed rent for its term, typically three years.

Results are estimates after rent and estimated tax effects, for one owner, excluding changes in value.

The 2026 tax changes in brief

• Established dwellings bought after 7:30pm AEST 12 May 2026: net losses quarantined from 1 July 2027.
• New residential dwellings remain eligible for negative gearing, subject to legislation before Parliament.
• Held before Budget night: grandfathered.

Sources: Pitcher Partners, Baker McKenzie.

The risks

• Joint liability. Each borrower can be liable for the whole loan.
• Relationship risk. Fallouts, separations and changed plans.
• Forced sale. If one person needs their money out, the property may have to be sold at a bad time.
• Values can fall. National values were 6.7% below the March 2026 peak in October 2026 (Cotality).
• Vacancy. National vacancy at a five-year high of 2.4%.
• Rental guarantees end. Where offered, provided by the property management company for a fixed term, dependent on that company paying.

Questions to take to a solicitor, tax agent and lender

Solicitor or conveyancer

• Joint tenants or tenants in common for us?
• What would our co-ownership agreement need to cover?

Registered tax agent

• How will income and losses be split, and how does each of us come out at our own rates?
• How would the 2026 changes apply, new versus established?

Lender or broker

• How do you assess co-borrowers who aren’t a couple?
• What happens if one of us wants to leave the loan?
• Would we be assessed for 100% of the purchase price plus LMI? (Through licensed lending partners including Empower Money, ACL 561207, subject to eligibility and credit assessment.)

Join a webinar

Co-buyers often attend together. To see how rentvesting works with an example, join a free WPF GO webinar with Peter Khoury. General information only, not personal advice.