Buying a home together: cohabitation, marriage and ownership shares (2026)

A home bought during cohabitation divides according to who owns what, not automatically in half. This is the heart of the whole thing: if you pay 70% and your partner 30% but the deed records half to each, you have in effect gifted away part of your money. The protection is simple when you do it at the moment of purchase: record the ownership shares as fractions in the deed to match your contributions, and make a written cohabitation agreement.

For married couples the situation is different. In marriage each spouse has, by default, a marital right to half of the combined net assets, and it only materialises in the distribution of property on separation or death. You can rule it out only with a prenuptial agreement.

Cohabitation and marriage: what really differs

The differences decide how many agreements you need, and when.

	Cohabitation	Marriage
Division of property on separation	Each keeps their own, the home divides by ownership share	Marital right to half of the net assets in the distribution
Protective agreement	Cohabitation agreement + fractions in the deed	Prenuptial agreement, if you want to depart from a 50/50 split
Registering the agreement	Informal, each keeps a copy	Prenuptial agreement is registered with the DVV
Compensation without an agreement	Only a limited statutory compensation	Half by default, unless there is a prenuptial agreement

Cohabitation has no automatic split of property in half. If you contributed more to the home and have not recorded it anywhere, you may receive only a limited compensation, not automatically your own share back. That is why the papers are worth sorting out the moment you make the deal.

Record the ownership shares in the deed

This is the single most important step. When you make an offer and reach a deal, the purchase deed records what fraction each of you owns, for example 1/2 and 1/2 or 7/10 and 3/10.

The principle: the ownership share should match what each of you actually contributes, when you add together the earnest-money deposit, your own savings and your own portion of the loan. Example:

	Anna	Mikko	Total
Own savings into the deal	60,000 e	20,000 e	80,000 e
Portion of the loan	120,000 e	120,000 e	240,000 e
Total contribution	180,000 e	140,000 e	320,000 e
Ownership share	56%	44%	100%

If this couple recorded 50/50 in the deed, Anna would in effect have given Mikko part of her savings. As fractions this would be roughly 9/16 and 7/16, which you can round to a cleaner ratio, as long as it stays close to the real contributions.

Note also that loan liability is a separate matter. Whoever signs the loan note is responsible for the loan to the bank, regardless of the ownership share recorded in the deed. If you have both signed, you are usually jointly and severally liable for the whole loan, even if the ownership shares are unequal. This means the bank can collect the entire remaining share of the loan from either of you. Agree between yourselves how the repayments are split, and record that in the cohabitation agreement too.

The cohabitation agreement: what to record

A cohabitation agreement is an informal written agreement that spells out what belongs to each of you. A good agreement covers at least:

• The ownership shares and their basis (who paid what)
• How the monthly housing costs and loan repayment are split
• How renovation contributions are taken into account, if one of you pays more
• What happens on separation: the right to buy out, sale, the principle for dividing
• Death: a cohabiting partner has no right of inheritance without a will

The last point surprises many people. A cohabiting partner does not inherit from the other without a will. If you want your partner to be able to stay in the home after death, you need a will. You can take care of this at the same time as you make the other papers.

Married: do you need a prenuptial agreement

If you are married and do nothing, the marital right leads on separation to a 50/50 split by default, regardless of who paid more for the home. A prenuptial agreement rules out the marital right either entirely or in part, for example only for a particular home.

A prenuptial agreement must be registered with the Digital and Population Data Services Agency (DVV) to be valid. A signed but unregistered prenuptial agreement does not bind on separation. You can make a prenuptial agreement before the wedding or during the marriage.

A prenuptial agreement is worth considering especially if one of you brings clearly more wealth into the marriage, an inheritance is expected, or the home is bought mainly with one person’s money. A prenuptial agreement is a way to settle things in advance, calmly.

Practical checklist at the moment of purchase

1. Work out each person’s real contribution: savings plus your own portion of the loan.
2. Record the ownership shares as fractions in the deed to match the contributions.
3. Make a cohabitation agreement if you are not married, or a prenuptial agreement and register it with the DVV if you want to depart from a 50/50 split.
4. Agree in writing how the loan and costs are split each month.
5. Make wills if you are cohabiting and do not want your partner left without protection.

The biggest mistake is putting it off. Once the home is bought and the shares are recorded wrongly, fixing it afterwards is expensive and clumsy. At the moment of purchase the same thing is handled in a few lines in the deed and one agreement.

When you are viewing a property and weighing an offer, paste the listing into Heimer, and Heimer goes through the price, the housing company and the risks for you, before you make an offer together.