Over 30% of Canadians don’t own their home, many because of housing unaffordability in Canada’s top markets, but Husmates, a co-ownership matchmaking app, will change that.
-The housing crisis is here, and Husmates has the solution. Humates is the new platform for matching home buyers to co-own property. Co-ownership makes property ownership possible for an estimated 1 million non-owners in the Great Toronto Area (GTA), but to participate, you need a partner or group to co-own with - this is where Husmates comes in.
“We’re using technology and community to solve one of the greatest global challenges, the housing security crisis,” says Parimal Gosai, Co-founder of Husmates. “We soft-launched in the GTA in January 2022 and already have over 150 prospective co-owners on the platform.”
Globally, middle-class living standards are going down due to the deterioration of global housing affordability1. In Toronto, Canada’s largest city, this can be keenly felt. In the last ten years, housing prices have increased by 85% and wages only 10%, putting homeownership out of reach for most people not already in the market.
Enter, Husmates. A digital matchmaking platform for anyone interested in meeting a person or group to buy property together through co-ownership. Its mission is to help create households (Hus) of fellow sharers (Mates) who, when cooperating in purchasing property, can help disrupt the housing security crisis.
Living in co-ownership arrangements provides many benefits, including entering the housing market, building personal wealth through real estate, sharing expenses, creating an intentional community, or building an alternative small-scale retirement community. The first step to co-ownership is finding the right co-owner or group of co-owners. Husmates makes co-ownership available to everyone, especially those who don’t already have an individual or group to buy with.
“Currently, Husmates allows users to join for free, match, chat, and browse housing listings together.” says Gosai, “all important parts of forming a strong co-ownership group and buying a home together.”
Through their real estate business, GoCo Solutions, co-founders Parimal Gosai and Lesli Gaynor are the GTA’s co-ownership leaders, with 18+ years of combined experience in co-ownership matchmaking and buying and selling co-ownership real estate. Husmates was the next logical step in creating co-ownership solutions.
“We had hundreds of requests from our existing and prospective clients to meet co-owners,” said co-founder Lesli Gaynor. “It only made sense for us to build a new tech business that would meet the needs of our client's needs and the millions of people nationally who can’t afford to purchase a property.”
Motivated by the desire to create real systemic change for one of the basic human needs, housing. Husmates makes co-ownership accessible. Whether for a group of golden agers, who want to free up income and share in-home care services, or the parents of youth entering university who would rather spend a college fund on building their wealth and securing their housing, Husmates opens the door to co-ownership by matching interested owners together and guiding them through the process of becoming homeowners. Since launching matchmaking, Husmates has successfully matched two groups of strangers into co-ownership buying teams, and one of them has already purchased their first property.
“This platform is for everyone, even if homeownership is only a dream”, says Gosai, “We have sold co-ownership properties where one co-owner doesn’t have a downpayment but can pay the mortgage, and the other co-owner can provide a downpayment. There are a plethora of ways that you can buy a property through the Husmates ecosystem. So join us to make secure housing available to everyone.”
Husmates is a digital matchmaking platform for anyone interested in meeting a person or group to buy property in co-ownership. We are on a mission to help create households (Hus) of fellow sharers (Mates).
Co-ownership experts Lesli Gaynor and Parimal Gosai created Husmates. With 18+ years of combined experience in co-ownership-based real estate, Lesli and Parimal Gosai have dedicated their real estate careers at GoCo Solutions to facilitating co-ownership real estate arrangements. Motivated by the desire to create some real systemic change within the real estate industry and make homeownership more accessible, they have helped dozens of people co-purchase homes. They are currently working with even more people to make their co-ownership dreams a reality.
Living in co-ownership arrangements provides many benefits, whether to build personal wealth through real estate, share expenses, create an intentional community or build an alternative small-scale retirement community. The first step to co-ownership is finding the right co-owner or group of owners. Husmates strives to make co-ownership available to everyone, especially those who don’t already have an individual or group to buy with.
Signup and create a free Husmates profile to start matching with potential co-owners today!
1 Demographia International Housing Affordability Study 2021