By Paarth Shah, REALTOR® · August 10, 2026 · San Francisco
In a tenancy in common, several buyers share title to one building as percentage owners. A written TIC agreement then assigns each owner the exclusive right to occupy a specific unit. You are not buying the unit the way you buy a condo. You are buying a share of the whole property plus a contract that says which part of it is yours to live in.
Financing is where TICs differ most. Older arrangements used a single blanket mortgage in every owner's name, with each owner responsible for a share of the payment. Most current sales instead use fractional loans, meaning one separate mortgage per owner and no shared liability for a neighbor's default. That safety costs something. SirkinLaw, the firm that wrote much of the standard TIC structure, puts fractional rates roughly one-half to one percentage point above condo rates, with no true 30-year fixed in the mainstream products. Inside San Francisco Real Estate reported fractional rates in the 6% to 7% range at 80% loan-to-value in mid-2025, mostly adjustable. The lender pool is small: NCB, Meriwest, Bank of Marin, Bank of San Francisco, Redwood Credit Union and Patelco were the names circulating that year.
On price, be careful with round numbers. Clean side-by-side data is thin. What exists: in the first half of 2025, 97 TICs in buildings of three or more units sold at a median of $935,000, while 813 condos in comparably sized buildings sold at a median of $1,025,000 (SF MLS data compiled by Inside San Francisco Real Estate). That is about a 9% gap on medians, not a matched-unit comparison. The gap on a specific property can be wider or narrower depending on the building.
Condo conversion is often the pitch, and it is usually the weakest part of it. Buildings with five or more residential units cannot convert. The annual lottery for 2 to 4 unit buildings has been suspended since Ordinance 117-13 in 2013, and no publicly confirmed restart date exists as of this writing. The one dependable path is the two-unit bypass: both units occupied for a full continuous year by separate, unmarried owners each holding at least 25%, with a clean eviction history. Outside that, treat conversion as a maybe, not a plan.
Resale is thinner but functioning. From January through May 2026, 120 TICs sold citywide at a median of $1.2 million, and the 93 in three-plus-unit buildings averaged 7.5% above list price. Fewer buyers can qualify, so pricing and timing matter more than they would for a condo.
A TIC tends to work for someone who wants a particular neighborhood at a price a condo will not meet, expects to hold five to ten years, can carry an adjustable loan, and will actually read the TIC agreement and reserve schedule. It works poorly for a short horizon or a buyer who needs a 30-year fixed. If you want a second read on a specific building, email paarth@brokerbela.com.
A TIC (tenancy in common) is shared title to a building where a written agreement gives each owner exclusive use of one unit. It can be worth it for a longer-hold buyer who wants a better location at a lower price and can accept fractional financing and a smaller resale pool.
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This is general market commentary, not financial, investment, or legal advice; figures are as of publication and can change. Verify specifics, including any school assignments, ratings, or boundaries, independently. Bela Realty & Investments is committed to Equal Housing Opportunity and does not steer clients toward or away from any neighborhood on the basis of a protected characteristic.