A woman and her son own a Vancouver condo downtown.

It’s only the mother who lives in the apartment, and she now has other plans.

“She just wants to go back to Hong Kong,” the woman’s realtor Cass Lao told the Straight in a phone interview.

On March 7 this year, Lao listed the woman’s share in the two-bedroom and two-bath condo on the market.

Her client is asking $280,000 for what Lao described as half of the property.

The Vancouver real estate at 1608-63 Keefer Place is part of Europa, the highrise and townhouse complex that represents the residential component of the International Village mall.

Lao’s listing is straightforward.

It states that the “seller sells her share which is 50% of the interest”.

The listing urges potential buyers to “please ask for independent legal advise for the purchase”.

On the phone, Lao said that a buyer would need to enter into “some sort of agreement” with the woman’s son.

It’s what lawyer Ron Usher calls as a co-ownership agreement.

Usher is the general counsel of the Society of Notaries Public of B.C.

He explained that a co-ownership agreement lays down the obligations of all parties in the agreement.

“You really got to get clear on things,” Usher told the Straight in a phone interview.

He explained that these responsibilities include, among other things, share in the mortgage, maintenance of the property, and an understanding about what happens when one or all of the parties want to end the agreement.

These things are “not just good ideas but legal obligations”.

“It just becomes much more important to get it in writing,” Usher said.

Usher noted that one advantage of entering into a co-ownership agreement is that it provides a way to get into the real estate market.

Pooling resources make it more affordable for households to own a home.

Usher said that the provincial government of Ontario has prepared a good guide about co-ownership agreements.

In addition to affordability, the document notes that this type of ownership arrangement also makes more efficient use of the housing stock.

This means that “smaller households can maximize the space available in larger houses and heritage properties by co-owning them with others”.

Co-ownership also “enables groups of people to voluntarily create a community environment with facilities, indoor and outdoor common spaces and services that meet their needs”

In the interview, Usher recalled an example involving two households that bought a detached home with separate entrances at 539 West 14^th Street in North Vancouver.

The families lived in the same property for eight years, and during that time, their relationship deteriorated to a point that one party in 2016 asked a court to dissolve their co-ownership agreement.

The property, which they purchased in 2008 at a price of $1,028,000, was eventually sold.

The said North Vancouver home has a 2022 assessment of $2,030,000.

“The market went up during the time they owned it, and even though it didn’t work out for them living together, in the end it was probably financially good,” Usher said.

Going back to Lao, the Sutton Group-West Coast Realty agent related that she has received a number of inquiries regarding 1608-63 Keefer Place.

“It is a very good price,” Lao said about the $280,000 tag for the this piece of Vancouver real estate.

Plus, Lao noted that a buyer can move into the property.

But first, interested parties have to consult a lawyer who can “create an agreement that might work”.

As of February 2022, a typical condo on the East Side of Vancouver costs $678,900.

On the West Side of the city, the benchmark price of a condo is $871,300.