During your search you’ll find a renovated flat in a handsome Edwardian, in exactly the right neighborhood, at a price that seems too good. Then you read the words “tenancy in common,” or the acronym T-I-C, and wonder what it means. Congratulations — you’ve discovered a San Francisco treat. A TIC may look like a condo and feel like a condo. It is not a condo, and the difference moves the price.
This intersection of housing policy, law, and real estate is ever-changing, and the City’s departments have applied it inconsistently over the years. Treat everything below as an orientation, not a current legal opinion. Before you rely on any eligibility rule, fee, or timeline, confirm it with a San Francisco condo-conversion attorney and the Department of Public Works.
When you buy a house or a condo, you get a bundle of ownership rights symbolized by a title deed, and the parcel has its own assessor’s number and legal description. A condo is a subdivided, three-dimensional space; its rights and restrictions live in recorded CC&Rs that carry the force of property law and run with the land.
A TIC building has a single assessor’s parcel number and one title deed for the whole property. What you buy is an undivided interest in that parcel. The arrangement that says you get Unit 1 and your neighbor gets Unit 3 is a TIC Agreement — a private contract, not recorded with the City, governed by contract law (which means it’s interpreted differently and is easier to change than recorded CC&Rs).
| Single-Family House | Condominium | TIC Unit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deeds | One | One per unit | One for the entire building |
| Governing docs | Maybe (Notice of Restrictions, ADU) | CC&Rs (recorded) + bylaws | TIC Agreement (not recorded) + house rules |
| Available lenders | Almost all | Almost all (a bit more restrictive) | Just a handful |
| Rent / eviction control | Maybe (in-law rented, or pre-1979 eviction control) | Largely exempt if post-June 1979 | Yes — the Rent Ordinance applies |
Why do most lenders shy away from TICs? A conventional, conforming loan (backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac) has to follow nationwide guidelines that simply don’t accommodate a fractional interest where the lender expressly gives up the right to foreclose on the whole building. That risk is too much for most underwriters and the investors who buy their loans — which narrows the field from thousands of lenders to a handful.
The good news is that the market innovated. Old-style group loans (everyone on the hook for everyone) are largely gone, replaced by fractional loans where each owner finances their own share. And as of recent years, lenders now extend 30-year fixed fractional TIC loans at rates sometimes within about half a point of conventional — a real change from the adjustable-only days.
Verify before relying on this list, Kevin: the institutions and their terms shift over time — this reflects your source materials and should be refreshed against who’s actively quoting fractional TIC loans today before we publish names. The people who do these loans tend to stay consistent even when the bank names change.
Both a condo and a TIC building typically run through an HOA with monthly dues, voting, and budgets. The difference is the source of authority. A condo’s recorded CC&Rs run with the land and are hard to change; a TIC’s rules live in that private agreement, usually drafted by one of a small set of specialist firms, with a lot of standard machinery (HOA setup, voting, expense allocation, rental policy) and only subtle variation building to building.
The non-negotiable rule of TIC ownership: everyone must sign the TIC Agreement — and every sale needs an Assumption and Release. If an owner is on title but never signs, they may have what looks like the right to occupy any part of the property, and the sheriff is powerless to intervene at first. A comprehensive, fully signed agreement is what makes “Unit 2A” actually mean your unit.
Part of any property’s value is how many ready, willing, and able buyers exist for it. Because only a few lenders touch TICs, the buyer pool is smaller, demand is softer, and the price is generally lower than the same space would fetch as a condo — unless something special (a view, location, finishes, or conversion-readiness) lifts it.
The MLS bears this out. Across 1,628 closed San Francisco TIC sales since late 2020, the discount and the recovery both show up clearly:
In other words, in 2025 the typical TIC closed about $160,000 below the typical condo — roughly the same money a successful condo conversion tends to add back. The yearly track shows the post-2022 repricing and the climb since:
| Year (Close Date) | Closed TIC Sales | Median Price |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 395 | $1,050,000 |
| 2022 | 296 | $1,075,000 |
| 2023 | 255 | $900,000 |
| 2024 | 232 | $980,000 |
| 2025 | 297 | $1,000,100 |
| 2026 (through mid-June) | 125 | $1,210,000 |
The volume tells you where TICs actually live: District 5 — Noe, the Castro, the Haight, Twin Peaks — led with 423 closings at a $1.11M median, the heart of the Victorian and Edwardian TIC belt. By size, one-bedrooms cleared a $720K median, two-bedrooms $975K, and three-bedrooms $1.4M.
That discount is also the opportunity. A TIC that can convert is really a pre-condo with value waiting to be unlocked: converting can raise market value by roughly 10–20%, depending on circumstances, location, and finish level — which, against a ~14% starting discount, is most or all of the gap back. The trade is straightforward:
One note on income: while rent and eviction control apply, you can set the initial rent at any number you like — just be happy with it, because you never know how long a tenant stays. When they leave, you reset for the next one.
When you buy a multi-unit building together, you don’t get individual deeds. The group buys an undivided interest in the whole property and holds it as tenants in common, governed by a private contract — the TIC Agreement, which is something like a pre-nup. It spells out which unit is whose, how common expenses and property taxes are split, and the rules on pets, noise, renting, and remodeling.
Everyone must sign — this is not a formality. If someone is on title but never signs the agreement, they may hold what looks like super-rights: the ability to access and use any part of the property, with no one (not even the sheriff) able to stop them at first. A comprehensive, fully signed TIC Agreement is what makes “Unit 2” mean Unit 2.
TICs cluster where the buildings are older and the locations are coveted — one reason an old building can’t be torn down is that it’s historic. Many TIC buildings began as early-20th-century apartment houses: Victorian, Edwardian, with some Art Deco for good measure, in the dense urban cores everyone wants. Think Noe Valley, the Mission, Hayes Valley, Duboce, and Telegraph Hill. There’s also a whole swath of mid-century TICs around Upper Market, Diamond Heights, and Twin Peaks.
Want the leading TIC attorneys? Your source materials name a few specialist firms in this space — rather than print names that may have shifted, we’ll share current referrals directly. Just ask and we’ll connect you.
The right answer depends on the specific building — its agreement, its lenders, and whether conversion is realistic. Send us the listing and we’ll read it with you, candidly and without the hard sell.
Ask us about a buildingKevin Ho is a licensed California real estate agent (DRE 01875957) and attorney with Vanguard Properties. This guide is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice. San Francisco condo-conversion eligibility, the Subdivision Code, the Rent Ordinance, and City fees and timelines are detailed and change with little notice — consult a qualified condo-conversion attorney, the Department of Public Works, and your CPA and lender before proceeding.
© Team K.Ho. Smarter Selling, Better Buying.