It’s never been harder for first home buyers to get onto the property ladder – so now it’s becoming a family affair.

Sibling mortgages are the latest solution to the housing affordability crisis that’s locking an increasing proportion of young Australians out of the property market.

Property experts say teaming up with a brother or sister can give buyers the financial boost they need to muster a deposit, secure a mortgage and afford repayments.

Neill Rose-Innes, general manager of Mortgage Choice, said people were starting to get creative, but that came with its own issues.

"They are starting to look for more creative ways like going in with friends, other family, using guarantors, and that becomes more complex," he said.

"Once you become a shared owner in a property there are issues."

Dr Andrew Wilson, chief economist for Domain, believes first home buyers need to think outside the box to afford property in Australia’s main capital cities.

“The numbers aren’t looking good for the future of the great Australian dream, which is really becoming a nightmare now in Sydney,” he said.

“We had the lowest number of first home buyer loans approved in New South Wales in the [data] series. All the data is very sobering and it’s likely to continue, certainly not got better.

“There have to be new mechanisms to get first home buyers back into the market place and I guess it’s about sharing existing equity, whether it be parents or siblings.”

Analysis by CommBank reveals a growing number of people are splitting the cost of buying a home and sharing mortgage repayments by teaming up with a friend or sibling.

A total of 67 percent of its applications for mortgages involved two or more people last year, compared to 64 per cent in 2014. Meanwhile, the number of single applicant mortgages is falling.

Angela O’Brien, who works for the Commonwealth Bank, and her sister Jacinta teamed up on a mortgage to buy a property together in Sydenham in Sydney’s inner-west.