Belarus

Belarus's cooperative-housing tradition (жилищно-строительный кооператив — ЖСК) was substantial in the late socialist period and continues at meaningful scale into the contemporary period. The Belarusian housing-cooperative form — closer to the historic Soviet building-cooperative model than to the contemporary Western European cooperative-housing forms — operates principally as an alternative cooperative-financed construction channel alongside the state-directed and individual-ownership channels.

Contemporary new cooperative-housing initiatives in Belarus beyond the existing ЖСК model — toward cost-rental, housing-rights-of-occupancy or other contemporary cooperative-housing forms — remain at very early stage given the broader political and economic context. The Belorusskaya respublikanskaya assotsiatsia potrebitelskikh kooperativov (Belarusian Republican Association of Consumer Cooperatives) provides limited cooperative-sector coordination but has limited contemporary housing-cooperative scope.

The continued operation of the substantial Belarusian housing-cooperative (ЖСК) sector provides the institutional legacy on which a contemporary cooperative-housing revival could be built in a more open political context. The Minsk historic-centre preservation programme and the broader regional-centre heritage-restoration provide the contemporary urban-regeneration model within the state-directed framework.

The contemporary Belarusian cooperative-housing pioneers — small in scale, operating within the constrained political context, with substantial diaspora components in the post-2020 emigration destinations — provide the early experimental basis for a different housing model. Together with the longer-term institutional reform that a more open political context would enable, these projects provide the institutional foundation on which a comprehensive contemporary cooperative-housing tier could be built.