The ad I’ve written goes like this: “WLTM solvent male or female, an interest in property essential, preferably house-trained. GSOH a bonus. Minimum commitment two years.”

I am single, 29, and I’m not looking for love (well, not in this instance). What I am is looking for someone to buy a home with. In 21st-century Britain, where house prices continue to head skyward, people trying to step on the first rung of the property ladder are becoming more and more inventive about how to do it — or should that be desperate? Welcome to the world of co-buying websites, where wannabe first-time buyers post their personal details online to try and find a “mortgage buddy”.

This year, four such websites have sprung up, and no wonder: a report released last month by the National Housing Federation predicted that average house prices in England could soar to nearly £300,000 in five years. If I don’t find a way to buy a place, fast, I — and thousands of others like me — could be priced out of the market. Forever.

I would be happy to buy in a more conventional fashion, and it is not as though I haven’t made an effort. I have scraped together a small deposit — £5,000 — and I can borrow about £120,000. This is enough for a one-bed flat in a Leeds suburb or a two-bed bungalow in Wales, but I live and work in London, where the average house price, according to the Land Registry’s latest survey, is £317,679 (the national average is £199,184). That is more than double what I can legitimately get anyone to lend me. Trust me, I’ve asked. I have every big lender on speed dial.

I am also a journalist which, last time I checked, doesn’t exactly make me a key worker, so shared ownership through a housing association is largely out of the question, and my singleton status means that I am yet to feel the warm inner glow created by a double income.

Buying with a friend would be fine — if I had any, so to speak. Most of my pals who aren’t yet in possession of a mortgage have jumped into bed together — literally. They are all cohabiting to save money, leaving me on the rental shelf at the mercy of landlords.

What do those same friends think of my decision to take the internet plunge? Gathered dutifully around the dry white wine, they express doubts about who I might end up meeting.

“Do they not have any friends of their own they can buy with? What’s wrong with them?” they ask. Er, how else I can afford to buy? They fall silent, then start to liven up my online profile.

It’s time to log on. The first site I try is www.sharedspaces.co.uk. It is the brainchild of Richard Cohn, 36, a former estate agent from north London, who launched it in February. Seeing more and more people in their twenties pooling their resources and buying together, he realised there was a niche in the market for introducing like-minded strangers; after all, if internet dating could take off, why not this? Cohn describes his site as a “co-buying network”, where, for £14.99 a month (though it is free until September), prospective buyers can browse for potential partners, and contact one of the 2,000 or so members already signed up in Britain.

As I log on, up pops a box: “The average first-time buyer in the UK today is 34 years old. Do you really want to be that average?” Gulp! The social failure of being mediocre or a headline statistic has never appealed. More to the point, will anyone else who has logged on appeal? Do they also want to buy a two-bed flat in a period building somewhere nice in north or west London? Will I like them? Will they like me? Will we have a future together — albeit strictly platonic? Scrolling through the profiles, first impressions do not inspire confidence.

I will not be e-mailing “Pheonix”, 50, who is “interested in spiritual development, meditation, yoga, and would prefer to share with other lesbians” and, even though I don’t want to move to Glasgow anyway, the idea of Claire1404 and her “2 adorable Rottweiler bitches that’d lick you to death”, has put me off even visiting that city. I don’t want to share the same room with her and the hounds, let alone a mortgage.

Far better to e-mail “Dante2222”, a 32-year-old male, who “enjoys washing up, always tidies up and never leaves the cap off the toothpaste”. He is a copywriter, he is single, and he is looking for a “considerate, warm and funny person who can take the mickey out of themselves as well as other people”.

Perfect. I don’t mind decamping to Brighton to invest with him, and promptly say so.

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