Cooperative Housing Renovation

Building on the Austrian research project ZxB – Zinshaus x Baugruppe, we are preparing an international project on new cooperative approaches to the renovation and long-term management of existing rental housing.

The project aims to develop, test and validate organizational, legal and financial models that bring together building owners, residents, housing cooperatives and other relevant actors. The objective is to enable the renovation of existing housing while securing affordable housing and creating long-term, socially oriented ownership and management structures.

A particular focus will be on privately owned multi-apartment housing from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, we are also interested in comparable housing stocks and institutional settings in other European countries.

We are looking for research institutions, municipalities, housing cooperatives, housing providers, NGOs and companies interested in developing and testing such models in different national contexts. We are particularly interested in partners who can contribute case studies or pilot buildings, expertise in cooperative and affordable housing, housing policy, financing, legal frameworks, renovation or resident participation, or experience with innovative governance and ownership models.

Our ambition is to develop a transferable European model for combining decarbonisation, affordable housing and cooperative governance in the existing housing stock.

Please reach out to us if you are interested!