THE number of homosexual couples buying homes together has rocketed in the past five years, figures released just two months before a Civil Partnerships Act (CPA) comes into force showed.

The financial safety offered by the CPA, along with a growing acceptance of gay and lesbian couples by the banking and legal sectors, meant that the number of couples “coming out” when buying property together had soared, according to experts.

More than half of solicitors reported a significant increase in the number of same-sex couples they had taken on as conveyancing clients, an independent study released yesterday by Zurich Professional, the UK’s biggest legal insurer, revealed. Gay and lesbian couples were the fastest growing group of homebuyers identified by the survey, outstripping the growth of married couples and singles buying houses.

Civil partnerships, allowing same-sex couples to enter into legally recognised relationships with the same rights and responsibilities as a married couple, were first mooted in early 2003. But Andrew Nickels, risk manager for Zurich Professional, said he expected the number of gay and lesbian couples buying homes to rise even further when the CPA comes into effect on December 5.

“Gay couples will definitely become more identifiable with the added protection the Civil Partnerships Act is likely to engender,” Mr Nickels said. “It’s not that they didn’t buy houses together before, but that they won’t be so reluctant to reveal to their lawyer that they’re a couple.”

Jackie Fernandes, director of Stonewall Housing Association, a supported housing service for the homosexual community, said that banks and mortgage providers were “much more proactive” in attracting gay and lesbian customers. “I’ve dealt with Royal Bank of Scotland and Abbey a couple of times and they were fine, as was our financial adviser and solicitor,” said Ms Fernandes who bought a property recently with her partner. “We may have just been lucky but we’ve had a really positive experience.”

Ms Fernandes said that many same-sex couples were still working out the impact of the CPA on their finances. Almost half of the solicitors surveyed also reported a marked increase in the number of investors and unmarried couples seeking conveyancing services. Friends or students buying properties in a group have also risen in popularity, Zurich said. Meanwhile, 76 per cent of legal practices had experienced a standstill or fall in the number of married couples as conveyancing clients over the past five years.

Mr Nickels said that the change was related to the huge increase in property prices over recent years. “People are having to buy in groups to get on the ladder,” he said. “People who wouldn’t necessarily have considered cohabitating are doing so in order to afford a property, particularly in urban areas.”

The change in the profile of homebuyers has caused a rise in the number of solicitors claiming on the conflict of interest element of their professional indemnity insurance, Mr Nickels said. When a buyer is not single or part of a married couple, a conveyancing solicitor should check that there are no conflicts of interest between the members of the buying group, such as one earning far more than the other people paying the mortgage.