Mortgage Mates is more than just a website, we are a social enterprise that is looking to change the concept of affordable housing. For us a house is more than just bricks and mortar, and the security of home ownership is more than just the prestige of owning your own home. We know that unstable housing causes further challenges for families and is a direct contribution and outcome of the poverty cycle.
When we think of affordable (and unaffordable housing) we make assumptions on who that may impact, or why it may impact them. But evidence shows us that anyone can be impacted by unaffordable housing and that the issues can be long lasted and confronting.
Did you know for example, that over 6.5 million young people are unable to own their own home- leaving them precariously housed in an expensive and unstable rental market and that older adults are the fastest demographic entering homelessness? This means women (and men) who are the same age as your mum/dad/gran and grandad enter their retirement with no security of where they will live in the future.
This knowledge was important for us to consider when we developed Mortgage Mates, as we wanted a universal platform that supported any individual to co-own a home together.
Version one was developed with younger adults in mind, but in the future we plan to launch specific information/webpages and platforms that provide advice for different cohorts on how to co-own, co-live and co-invest together.
One exiting element of 2020 was the launch of our co-ownership manual, the first resource of its kind in the Australian housing market (the manual can be found here: https://www.mortgagemates.com.au/co-ownership-manual.pdf) applicable to all buyers looking to find some one to own a home together with.
We have learnt over the last 12 months that housing and the ability to sustain accommodation will be more important than ever in a post Covid-19 world and we hope Mortgage Mates can be part of the continuum of solutions being developed across the country. Not only does co-living and co-owning impact the affordability space for housing, it also helps create communities within homes, minimising the the impact social isolation is having on the already one in four of us who feel socially isolated and alone where they live.