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.