Housing markets in Central and (South) Eastern Europe (CEE) are characterised by a particularly high proportion of homeownership and low renovation rates as well as a shortage of affordable rental and social housing. Younger generations suffer most from these tight housing market conditions. In response, new cooperative housing initiatives have been emerging over the past 15 years. One transnational example is MOBA SCE, a young network of cooperative pioneers from Serbia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, and Croatia. The objective of MOBA SCE is to join forces to implement my new housing cooperatives and to develop transnational financing instruments for new cooperative housing providers in CEE. LiM Living in Metropolises SCE is a second recently founded European housing cooperative that aims to strengthen the idea and practice of the cooperative legal form, which is part of UNESCO’s intangible world heritage, and to implement it with forward-looking projects. For almost 150 years, housing cooperatives have stood for self-help, self-determination and self-responsibility and became pioneers in the field of housing reform. 

The main objective of this workshop is to kick-off new networks and collaborations to support the institutional build-up of MOBA SCE and LiM SCE as well as other emerging housing cooperatives in CEE. In order to do so, the event will give insights on current tendencies of housing cooperatives, and together with representatives of housing cooperatives, foundations, NGOs, practitioners related to housing and real-estate, municipalities, ministries, EU-entities, among others, we will identify financing models and partnerships to support young housing cooperatives in the region. In particular, we will build on cooperation experiences between Germany and CEE. In the long run we would wish to sensitise for a European idea of housing cooperatives.

Wednesday 06.12.23

Arrival in Berlin

From 19:00: Welcome Get Together Drinks and Snacks - Restaurant Goldberg (optional)

Thursday 07.12.23

08:30-09:00: Arrival/Opening/Coffee

Morning program: CEE initiatives and challenges + international experiences / ideas for supporting emerging coops

13:00-14:00: Lunch on-site

Afternoon program: Elements of a mature and enabling ecosystem for housing coops

18:30 Networking Dinner - Restaurant Papà Pane

Friday 08.12.23

09:00-09:15: Start/Coffee

Scaling up LiM, MOBA and other new Housing Cooperatives in CEE - discussion of cooperation opportunities, knowledge transfer

Ukraine: What role could Housing Cooperatives play for Recovery 

13:00 Lunch - Restaurant Co Chu (optional)