Cohousing is an experience that creates places for community life. This is common practice in the north of Europe, and it is now possible in Catalonia as an option with many advantages.
Cohousing, a change of model
An alternative to the current housing model
In order to face the housing emergency, Barcelona City Council is not only working to help people through grants and specific services, but also by increasing the Public Housing Stock. Along these lines, the City Council has opted for an alternative to the current model: the assigned-for-use housing co-operative, or cohousing.
Cohousing is a way of getting access to housing which allows a community of people to live in a building without being the owners or tenants at below-market prices, for a long period of time, between 50 and 100 years.
The objectives of supporting this model are as follows:
- To guarantee access to decent, affordable housing.
- To maintain public ownership of the land, which is offered as leasehold.
- To prevent housing speculation.
- To guarantee stability over time for the users.
- To foster the community management of property.
The model consists of the City Council or a private owner assigning a property or abandoned site to a co-operative for building on. The co-operative members pay a deposit and monthly instalments for the use of their dwelling. Community life is promoted and self-organisation of the people forming the cooperatives is encouraged. With this model, housing is considered an asset for use and not as an investment.
The projects must use strict environmental criteria, provide a significant number of areas that promote communal life, the shared use of basic infrastructures and the coresponsibility of users in its management. The projects must anticipate strict environmental criteria, a significant number of spaces that promote community life, shared use of the basic infrastructure, and co-responsibility of the users in the management. The transfer to the cooperative of the surface rights is for 75 years, which can be extended to 90, and it is the cooperative that builds/renovates and manages the housing. At the end of this period, the property that has been built becomes municipal property.
The model aims to persuade a private owner or a city council to assign a property or an abandoned site to a co-operative for building on. The aim of the model is for a private owner or a town council to transfer an unused property or site on which the cooperative can build. To access this housing, which is classified as subsidised housing, cooperative members must be entered in the register of housing applicants. Therefore, they must meet the register requirements; in other words, be registered as residents in Barcelona with limited economic resources, who do not have any other property, and who have difficulties to access the housing market.
Highlights
Related links
- Residents move into the cooperative building La Xarxaire!
- Cohousing is gaining followers and interest among Barcelona's citizens
- Sant Andreu to get the largest and most inclusive cooperative housing project in Spain
- Exhibitions on cohousing and industrialised construction underway in Barcelona
- The fight for the right to housing marks the start of the Barcelona Cooperative Housing Forum
More information
Do you want to know what actions Barcelona City Council has promoted to foster cohousing?
You will find various actions promoted by Barcelona City Council to facilitate and guarantee the promotion and diffusion of a new housing model in the city: cohousing.
Creation of a co-operative housing committee
To promote cohousing, Barcelona City Council has created the cooperative housing committee, a working group within the Barcelona Social Housing Board to promote or launch new ownership programmes. This committee comprises representatives from the housing cooperatives and ethical financing world and is jointly driven by the Councillor’s Office for Housing and the Commissioner’s Office for Cooperative and Social Economy.
The main objective is the co-production of the cooperative housing model in Barcelona.
Public tender for municipal sites allocated to cohousing
One of the tools of Barcelona City Council to promote co-housing is the cooperative housing committee, a working group within the Barcelona Social Housing Council to promote or launch new ownership programmes. This committee comprises representatives from the housing cooperatives and ethical financing world and is jointly driven by the Councillor’s Office for Housing and the Commissioner’s Office for Cooperative and Social Economy.
The main objective is the co-production of the cooperative housing model in Barcelona.
In 2015 the first two pilot projects were signed, where the neighbors already live: Princesa, 49 and La Borda. In November 2016, the first tender was published in which four sites offered in the districts of Ciutat Vella, Sants-Montjuïc, Nou Barris and Sant Martí were awarded. In July 2020, three more sites in the districts of Sants-Montjuïc, Sant Andreu and Nou Barris were awarded in a second tender. These actions have made it possible to increase the public park to 250 homes and have made Barcelona the first city in Spain with cohousing projects under way. In 2024, a total of ten developments are in progress: three are located in the Sants-Montjuïc district; three more in Sarrià-Sant Gervasi; one in Sant Martí; two in Sant Andreu; and one in Gràcia.
Among all these developments, there are six where residents already live: Princesa49, La Borda, La Balma, La Chalmeta, La Chalmeta, Cirerers and La Xarxaire. In total, there are 125 flats.
In addition, within the framework of the cooperative housing table, the City Council has promoted an agreement with non-profit organizations to build a thousand affordable houses in the city.
Map of existing developments
Sants-Montjuïc: 1. La Domèstika | 2. La Chalmeta | 3. La Borda | 4. Sotrac | 5. Empriu | 6. Gessamí, 11-13
Ciutat Vella: 7. La Xarxaire | 8. Princesa49
Nou Barris: 9. Cirerers
Sarrià - Sant Gervasi: 10. Torrent Viu | 11. Can 70 | 12. Vida Cooperativa
Sant Martí: 13. La Balma | 14. Abril Poblenou
Sant Andreu: 15. Cohabitem Sant Andreu | 16. La Regadora
Gràcia: 17. Ruderal
Legend: Land reserve (Red) | In project (Orange) | Under construction (Lilac) | Completed (Green)
Map of the new public-housing promotions in Barcelona
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Type
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Persons affected by urban planning
Type of housing promoted by the IMHAB targeting those people or households affected by urban redevelopments or reorganisation in the city. The properties tend to have a surface area of 65 to 85 square metres and can be acquired on a rental or purchase basis at the same prices as social housing properties.
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Renting
Refers to all properties being rented, promoted by the IMHAB, that target those people or households that need to be adjudicated a home which satisfies their housing needs. To access any of these adjudications, applicants must be registered with the Barcelona Register of Applicants for Social Housing.
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Leasehold
As part of this category, the successful applicant acquires the property for a period of 75 years at a value that is well beneath the market price. On average, these types of property measure 60 square metres and are built in compliance with sustainability criteria. To access any of these adjudications, applicants must be registered with the Barcelona Register of Applicants for Social Housing.
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Co-housing
This involves plots of public land allocated to a specific type of cooperative, housing cooperatives, where a group of people organise themselves to promote housing on a plot of land handed over to them by the City Council at an affordable price and by public competition, although it will always remain under public ownership.
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Social developers and cooperatives
These are plots of public land allocated to foundations and non-profit organisations that rent out dwellings at affordable prices. They are a collaborative mechanism, but with the novelty that the plots of land will now be awarded through public competition.
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Aprop housing
The Provisional Local Housing programme (APROP) is a new model of quick and sustainable housing construction, which offers a temporary response to residents that are excluded or at risk of exclusion, in areas close to their original neighbourhoods. They are prefabricated mobile modules that guarantee quality standards, are distributed throughout the city and take into account diverse resident profiles.
State
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Land reserved
The City Council is allocating a plot of land for housing in a process now underway for holding the project’s relevant invitations to tender, awarding and construction.
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In process
From when the plot of land is put out to public tender, for choosing the companies and professionals that will be commissioned with the project and its building work, to when the successful tenderers are announced and the building project can then go ahead.
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Under construction
This includes both the implementation of the project through the work and building process and the relevant dwelling award process.
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Completed
The dwellings have been built and handed over to the successful applicants.