Eight people have bought a home together, combining four mortgages to buy one house and property.

OPINION: Four Wellington couples bought a house together and shared their property co-ownership agreement online.

It makes for remarkable, and sobering reading.

The people in the four couples are all 30-something lawyers, educators and managers. In any normal property market, these four couples should each be able to afford homes of their own.

ROSA WOODS/STUFF Eight people have bought a home together, combining 4 mortgages to buy one house and property.

But they can't, and as they love each other, they have embarked on a bold human experiment.

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In cities the world over communal living is undergoing a resurgence, and is being interpreted as both a return to past human forms of co-habitation, as well as a reaction to grossly mismanaged housing markets.

While house co-ownership in New Zealand usually involves a moneyed parent taking a stake in a place so their adult children can get on the property ladder, or people clubbing together to buy a rental, or own a bach, these four couples plan on co-ownership as co-inhabitants.

Multi-family households however are not common. Most couples who can afford to, do no live with others. Just 3 per cent or so of households in 2013 were two, three or more family households.

Buying together means an affordable home with insurance and maintenance bills shared, but the more people involved, the more scope there is for individual circumstances to disrupt ownership.

This is why a co-ownership agreement is needed.

The four couple's agreement is a contract of love and realism.

All agree to act "reasonably", and as the house is purchased with debt, and life is fraught with mishaps, they have agreed to establish a hardship fund into which each couple will put an equal amount of money to help pay the mortgage should any hit financial trouble.

ROSA WOODS/STUFF When this many people buy together a legal contract is needed to ensure everyone knows what will happen if something goes awry.

There are clauses in the contract about who the couples can sell, or transfer, their share to, should they need to cash up.

RUPERT SNOOK Four couples, buying a home together, makes the deal much more affordable.

The other couples must be offered the chance to buy them out first, and can veto any external buyer they don't want.

Failure to come to an agreement can trigger a sale of the house, and everyone cashing out.

The contract says a couple that breaks up must exit the home, unless they can agree to either stay in the home amicably, or have one sell their share to the other.

If they both agree to stay amicably, they must get relationship counselling, and will be on a three-month trial to see if it works.

Agreement is needed to bring anyone new into the house (babies included), and compensation (if any) needs to be agreed for the other couples. Immediate notification of pregnancy, or even planning to have a baby, is required.

And as people can't always manage to be reasonable, the contract stipulates mediation, if agreement can't be reached on an issue.

I wish the couples success in their venture, but perhaps because age has jaded me, and because people and relationships are complex, I doubt their's a long-term sustainable living arrangement, and that's what buying a home is all about.

I do hope I'm wrong though.

GOLDEN RULES:

* Enter all deals with your eyes open

* Keep your eyes on the long-term picture

* Develop a 'plan B' if it all falls apart