Belgrade

Cooperative housing in Belgrade carries the Yugoslav stambena zadruga legacy in modified form — the post-1991 privatisation transferred most member apartments while preserving cooperative-association structure for building governance. The contemporary cooperative-housing-revival movement is the most-ambitious post-Yugoslav cooperative-housing-policy innovation south of Slovenia. Ko Gradi Grad (Who Builds the City) — founded 2010 in response to corrupt + mismanaged privatisation of public resources + clientalistic government behaviour — became one of the leading citizen-led housing-initiatives organisations in Serbia. The organisation initiated Pametnija Zgrada (Smarter Building) — incorporated 2019 as the first housing cooperative established in Belgrade in twenty years.

Organisation in focus

Ko Gradi Grad (Who Builds the City)

Ko Gradi Grad (“Who Builds the City”) is a Belgrade-based civic and research-oriented association that focuses on urban development, housing, and public participation in decisions about the city.[2] It was launched in 2010 as an informal platform and became a registered citizens’ association in January 2016.[1][2] Its core mission is to create space for dialogue on how cities are shaped, especially in response to urban development patterns marked by privatization, weak public oversight, and limited citizen participation.[2] The organisation presents itself as a platform for open discussions on issues important to city development, and its work combines advocacy, facilitation, and collaborative research.[2] A major part of its housing-related activity has been the development of the “Pametnija Zgrada” (“Smarter Building”) model, which began in 2012 and was later organized as a housing cooperative in 2019.[3] According to the organisation, this line of work addresses housing through legal advocacy and direct action.[3] Ko Gradi Grad’s geographic scope is primarily local, centered on Belgrade and the Serbian context, although its collaborations and projects connect it to broader regional and European housing discussions.[2][4][8] The organisation has been linked to the European cooperative housing ecosystem through MOBA Housing and related cross-border work.[4][7] In relation to affordable and sustainable housing, Ko Gradi Grad is notable for treating housing not only as a market issue but as a collective urban and social question.[3][4] Its cooperative housing work is aimed at creating non-speculative, community-oriented housing models, which is relevant to affordable housing approaches and to more sustainable forms of urban living.[3][4]

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Organisation in focus

Pametnija Zgrada (Smarter Building)

Pametnija Zgrada (“Smarter Building”) is a housing initiative from Belgrade, Serbia that develops a cooperative housing model designed to make homes more affordable and less dependent on speculative market prices. The organisation’s core idea is that residents collectively develop, finance, own, maintain, and operate a multi-apartment building through a housing cooperative, rather than each household shouldering the full risk alone.[2][4] The project is explicitly aimed at addressing housing access in a context where many people in Belgrade cannot secure an apartment except through inheritance or risky borrowing, while housing prices remain high.[2] Its model seeks to keep costs stable over the long term: residents pay an entry deposit and then monthly contributions covering loan repayment and running costs, including utilities.[2] According to the organisation, these costs are intended to reach about two-thirds of market average levels, with the cooperative retaining ownership so that apartments cannot be resold for private profit.[2] Pametnija Zgrada presents itself as part of a broader effort to revive and adapt housing cooperative traditions in Serbia.[2][4] The model has been developed since December 2012 within the platform Ko Gradi Grad (Who Builds the City), and in 2019 the Housing Cooperative Pametnija Zgrada was incorporated in Belgrade, described by the organisation as the first housing cooperative established there in nearly twenty years.[3][4] The project has also been presented as a prototype for wider use and has been connected to research on legal and tax barriers to housing cooperatives.[3][6] Its geographic scope is primarily Belgrade and Serbia, though the organisation frames its work as relevant to cooperative housing discussions more broadly in Europe.[2][4]

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What makes Pametnija Zgrada distinctive in the Serbian + broader post-Yugoslav context: principles of mutual homeownership + taking housing off the market, affordable (at approximately 60% of current market rent) + remarkably energy-efficient — designed to keep living costs low in the long term. The cooperative collectively develops, builds, finances, maintains and operates a multi-apartment building. The post-2020 MOBA Housing SCE network (headquartered in Zagreb) brings Belgrade into the broader European cooperative-housing-policy table through its member-cooperative network — Pametnija Zgrada is a founding MOBA member, alongside cooperatives from Berlin, Ljubljana, Zagreb and Barcelona. The Heinrich Böll Stiftung Belgrade — the German political-foundation office covering Serbia + Montenegro + Kosovo — funds + publishes research on cooperative-housing-policy reform, anchoring the post-2014 Serbian cooperative-housing-policy research conversation.

Belgrade's housing politics runs through municipal + federal channels + post-2014 EU-integration / EU-cohesion-fund / PNRR housing-finance frameworks. Political debate runs through Politika, Danas, Blic, RTS, N1, Insajder.

Belgrade's cooperative-housing-revival pipeline runs through three principal institutional anchors. Ko Gradi Grad (Who Builds the City) — citizen-led housing-initiatives organisation founded 2010 — coordinates the principal Belgrade cooperative-housing-organising infrastructure. Pametnija Zgrada (Smarter Building) — Belgrade's first housing cooperative in 20 years, incorporated 2019, founding MOBA Housing SCE member — anchors the contemporary cooperative-housing-policy innovation south of Slovenia. The Heinrich Böll Stiftung Belgrade — the German political-foundation office covering Serbia + Montenegro + Kosovo — funds + publishes the principal post-2014 Serbian cooperative-housing-policy research conversation through publications including the 2017 'Housing from Below: A Smarter Building Model for Affordable Housing in Serbia' and the 2019 'A novel model for affordable, cooperative housing in Serbia'.

Organisation in focus

Heinrich Böll Stiftung Belgrade

Heinrich Böll Stiftung Belgrade is the Belgrade office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, a German political foundation associated with the Green political tradition. Its regional mandate covers Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro, and its work is organized around democracy, human rights, environment and energy, political culture, dialogue, and related public debate.[2][4][5] The office’s activity profile is strongly policy-oriented. According to its own site, it supports democratic and constitutional reform processes, strengthens civil society, promotes women’s participation and political participation, and works on rule of law, human rights, and environmental policy.[3][5] Its methods include organizing events, conferences, forums, workshops, trainings, study visits and exchange programs, and publishing analyses, interviews and reports.[4][5] The content on the site shows a particular emphasis on environmental conflicts, climate policy, sustainable development, civic protest, and political change in the Western Balkans.[2][5] Geographically, the Belgrade office is a regional hub rather than a Serbia-only institution. It coordinates the foundation’s work across Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro, and forms part of Heinrich Böll Stiftung’s broader South-East Europe network.[3][5] The office is therefore relevant to affordable and sustainable housing mainly through its work on urban development, ecological transformation, shared resources, and public policy debates that affect cities and infrastructure.[3][5] The office in Belgrade dates back to 2006, when the foundation’s regional office for South-Eastern Europe moved there from Sarajevo; in 2010 it was restructured into the Belgrade regional office responsible for Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro.[5] The current office director listed on the site is Nino Lejava.[4]

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What the post-2010 Ko Gradi Grad organising + post-2019 Pametnija Zgrada cooperative + post-2014 Heinrich Böll Stiftung patient-capital + post-2020 MOBA Housing SCE cross-border policy table together demonstrate is that Belgrade now hosts the most-ambitious post-Yugoslav cooperative-housing-revival institutional infrastructure south of Slovenia — placing the city at the European cooperative-housing-policy table for the first time since the Yugoslav era.

Long-form catalog anchors for Belgrade: the EHC library carries deeper context across Social Innovations in the Urban Context (Springer International Publishing AG, 2016), Funding the Cooperative City: Community Finance and the Economy of Civic Spaces (Cooperative City Books, 2017), Accelerating decarbonisation of current and future affordable housing in Europe (Urban Land Institute, 2025), Housing Policies in the Service of Social and Spatial (In)Equality (Pravo na grad, 2021), and Property Index - Overview of European Residential Markets (Deloitte, 2025-08).

From our library

Social Innovations in the Urban Context

EU WILCO study maps 77 city innovations, revealing governance types shaping inclusive housing and welfare.

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From our library

Funding the Cooperative City: Community Finance and the Economy of Civic Spaces

Case studies of ethical banks, anti-speculation foundations, crowdfunding and CLTs securing long-term community-run civic spaces.

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