It can genuinely work, and in this market it is how a fair number of people get in. What decides whether it works is the agreement you write before you offer, not the house you pick.
Two people on a mortgage are normally jointly and severally liable. Learn that phrase: you are each responsible for the whole loan, not half of it. If the other person stops paying, the lender chases the payment from whoever can make it.
The second consequence catches people later. When either of you next applies to borrow, a lender will generally count the full housing payment against you, not your share — so co-buying can park each person’s borrowing capacity for as long as it lasts. Have a mortgage broker walk you both through that before the offer. What pre-approval involves →
Two structures, and the difference matters far more between friends than spouses:
If your contributions are unequal, record that in the shares on title, not in a private understanding. Memories diverge; the register does not.
Have a lawyer draft a co-ownership agreement before you write an offer. At minimum it should settle who pays what each month, what happens when one of you wants out and on what notice, how a buyout price is set, what happens if one cannot pay, whether a partner can move in, and what forces a sale.
Write the exit while you still like each other. Every co-purchase we have watched go badly went badly at the exit.
The failures are almost never about the property. They are about two people who assumed goodwill would cover what they did not put in writing. One practical note: choose something that resells easily — a co-purchase is likelier than most to sell on someone else’s timeline.