OP, you understand that when posters suggest “getting a place” they mean renting, not buying right?
And, if your family’s debt load from buying the investment property is too heavy to leave room to help with rent, will they have the ability to co-sign a loan for school A?
The fact that your brother would only be your flatmate for one year is entirely irrelevant. There is a whole world of student rentals out there- joining a share house near school B, for example.