How can cooperative housing be part of the solution to social, affordability and environmental challenges? On August 28, professor Tine De Moor from the Rotterdam School of Management (Erasmus University) shares her insights during the ENHR Conference 2024.

Tine De Moor is invited as a speaker alongside Jardar Sørvoll, Research professor, University of Oslo, and guest editor of the forthcoming special issue on Housing Cooperatives in Housing Studies. The moderator of this plenary session is Darinka Czischke, Associate Professor Housing and Social Sustainability, TU Delft, and co-founder of the ENHR WG Collaborative Housing.

Cooperative housing is a long-standing provision model that has spread across the world aiming to achieve affordability, social and environmental sustainability aims. It is often seen as an alternative way to private homeownership and (social) rental housing. In many parts of Europe, cooperative housing constitutes an important part of the housing market, mostly for middle income groups, particularly in cities like Zurich, Vienna, or Copenhagen. In the last couple of decades, interest in cooperative housing models has re-emerged across Europe and beyond, driven by worsening housing affordability. Despite new supportive legislation and social movements in countries like France, Spain and the Netherlands, cooperative housing has been slow to gain traction as a mainstream housing provision form for larger groups of the population. This panel will explore, from a historical perspective, what the main opportunities and challenges are for cooperative housing models not only to emerge, but to scale-up to become part of the solution to the housing crisis in Europe.

The discussants in the panel are:

• Matthijs de Jong, Head of Knowledge Department, Directorate of Housing, Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, the Netherlands
• Maite Arrondo, Director of Housing, Government of Navarra, Spain, and founder of the NetCo project (Network of Cities for Collaborative Housing)
• Rosanna Zaccharia, President of Legacoop Abitanti, Italy, and member of Housing Europe (Cooperatives) (TBC)
• Representative of the Executive board, Cooplink – Dutch network of housing cooperatives (TBC)