Pricing & fairness
How is the price for buying or selling equity decided?+
It moves up and down with the average prices in your area, recalibrated regularly using an independent property index (e.g. CoreLogic). It’s an objective rule, applied identically whether you’re buying more or selling some back — no negotiation, no one setting the number by hand.
See the register engine → How is the partnership (occupancy) fee calculated?+
It’s based on the market rent for the property, applied only to the share you don’t own — so if you own 40%, the fee is roughly 60% of a rent-based figure. The costs you now cover directly (rates, insurance, maintenance) come off the top, which is why it lands below market rent.
Work it through in the fee calculator → What are the risks to the Passive Owner?+
Their share is essentially a cash-generating asset that tracks house prices, so their main exposure is to the market itself — the value moves with the index, up and down. If the Resident Owner stops paying, the Passive Owner can ultimately recover their equity through a sale (they are paid first, similar to a first mortgage), and the Resident Owner’s substantial equity absorbs losses before theirs. It’s a genuine commercial proposition, not a favour, which is what makes it durable.
See how a sale is split → Why are the fees so low?+
There’s no bank margin and no typical landlord compliance cost in the model, and the administrator is a non-profit that only recovers its costs. Co-ownership also removes most of what a property manager does — no tenancy, no vacancies, no inspections — so there’s simply far less to charge for.
More on how we keep the fees so low → If things go wrong
What if property prices go down?+
Both shares fall in line with the average. The good news: you can’t go into negative equity from a market fall, because you don’t have a mortgage. And you can buy more of your home at the lower price.
What if the Resident Owner trashes the house — beyond their share?+
Most tenants don’t damage a home over a few weeks’ bond. A Resident Owner with tens of thousands of dollars of their own equity at stake is far less likely to — and that equity (typically 10–50× a rental bond) is the buffer that protects the Passive Owner.
Why this makes default risk far lower → What about disputes?+
Incentives are far better aligned than in a landlord/tenant setup, which prevents most disputes to begin with. For the rest, the agreement has a clear staged process: good-faith negotiation, then mediation, then binding arbitration — a fair, low-cost alternative to court.
How it compares
Why hasn’t this been done before?+
Mostly because the existing players have no incentive to — they make plenty of money from bank fees, property management fees and the like, which this model removes. Partial ownership has been around for a long time, but the novel thing is how this is structured: one party makes all the decisions and bears the costs, and the other is completely passive with an index-linked return.
Isn’t this more complicated than a mortgage or a tenancy?+
Have you read a full mortgage or tenancy agreement? This is no more complex — just different. The basic shape is simple: you own a share, you pay a fee on what you don’t own, and you can buy more or sell some at any time at index-linked prices.
See how it compares to other methods → Why is this less intrusive than a mortgage?+
Because there’s no bank that needs to be made whole if the market falls or your income changes — the Passive Owner’s value moves with the market either way. So the deposit can be much lower and the checks far less invasive.
Why does this make home ownership possible for people on an income that may not qualify for a mortgage?+
There are much lower costs (no bank fees or profit), there’s no requirement to own all of the home, and there’s no risk of negative equity or of your costs spiking when interest rates rise. Normal home ownership is a massive financial bet that needs a large income to cover all the risks. By removing those risks — and the costs that come with them — we make home ownership more affordable, so you don’t need as large an income.
See why default is far less likely → Can I still get a mortgage later, or buy the other share out?+
Yes. You can keep topping up your share at your own pace and/or refinance into a standard mortgage any time you like. Partial ownership can be a stepping stone to a mortgage and owning it all — or you can permanently own whatever portion of your home suits you and invest your money elsewhere.
You don’t have to own it all → There must be some downsides to this?+
Yes. If you can get a mortgage and the market rises faster than your interest rate, you can own 100% of your home faster than with a Passive Partnership. But taking that bet opens you to real downside risk too. A Passive Partnership removes the downside risks — but it also removes the possibility of massive gains on a property upswing (you still go up, just not by as much).
See how PP removes the downside risks →