Resource context
This resource is an article published by The Guardian and written by Peter Apps. It reports from Zurich, Switzerland, using the Mehr als Wohnen housing cooperative as a concrete example to discuss how cooperative housing can address affordability and community needs in European cities.
What the Zurich example looks like
Mehr als Wohnen is described as a cooperative development made up of 13 apartment blocks. Unlike conventional market-led schemes, the buildings are owned by a cooperative that also developed them, and the cooperative is owned by residents who purchase a share. The model is presented as eliminating a landlord and speculative profit: residents pay to cover costs rather than market-rate rents, and the structure reduces pressure for evictions and price escalation.
Membership, cost rent, and who can live there
The article states that one in five Zurich residents lives in cooperative housing. To join, members buy a returnable share of between 7,000 and 25,000 Swiss francs (about £6,500 to £23,500), then pay a “cost rent” reflecting debt repayment and property maintenance. The Zurich context is presented as notable because the city is a global financial hub, yet cooperative access helps poorer and younger people, families, and students remain in central locations.
Services, design choices, and low-car living
Mehr als Wohnen is described as combining housing with shared and everyday infrastructure, including shops, workspaces, a restaurant, a children’s nursery, and a hotel. The development operates with a no-car policy supported by electric car and ebike rental systems. Inside some homes, the article describes clustered flat layouts (for example, multiple bedrooms opening onto shared communal space) intended to support neighbour interaction and communal meals.
Historical development of Swiss cooperatives
The article traces Swiss cooperative housing to late 19th-century workers’ movements pooling resources to secure housing against urban speculation. In Zurich, the first cooperative cited is Waidberg (1907). It also references Allgemeine Baugenossenschaft Zürich (ABZ), founded in 1916, which still exists and is reported to own 5,000 homes housing 12,000 people. Growth after the second world war is linked to supportive public policies such as favourable land leases and loans.
Public policy support and current pressures
A resurgence is linked to a 2011 citywide referendum setting a target for one-third of Zurich housing to be cooperative-owned by 2050. Since then, cooperatives are described as receiving priority access to land (leased or gifted), low-interest loans, and favourable zoning treatment, and working with architects associated with “architectural and ecological quality”. The city is also described as sometimes purchasing up to 20% of cooperative shares to secure housing that can be offered to homeless households at lower rents. At the same time, the article notes financial pressures: older buildings require upgrades that raise rents, and new-build costs and land scarcity have increased rents and slowed growth, prompting accusations that some cooperatives serve wealthier renters and contribute to gentrification. 🇪🇺 Transferability beyond Switzerland The article asks whether a similar cooperative model could work in the UK and elsewhere, noting an existing network of smaller cooperatives in the UK but arguing that council housing historically played a larger role. With social housing provision stalling and demand rising, the cooperative approach is presented as an option worth exploring within Europe’s wider housing-crisis context.