MOBA: Rethinking needs and financing for affordable rent and cooperative housing in Central and South-Eastern Europe

Resource context

This resource is a conversation piece titled “MOBA: Rethinking needs and financing for affordable rental and cooperative housing in Central and South-Eastern Europe”, published in the Radical Housing Journal and authored by Zsuzsanna Pósfai, Csaba Jelinek, Mara Ferreri, and Camila Cociña. It draws on MOBA’s work and a 2022 multi-country research project examining how catalytic capital could enable affordable rental and cooperative housing in Central and South-Eastern Europe (CSEE).

Research scope and purpose

The 2022 project was carried out by a consortium of seven partner organisations active in implementing new affordable housing models, connected through MOBA Housing SCE. The research covered eight CSEE countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia) and combined desk research with interviews with financial actors (in Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, and Slovenia) and international stakeholders. It also included representative surveys in four capitals—Belgrade, Budapest, Ljubljana, and Zagreb—to quantify potential demand for new affordable rental and cooperative options.

Housing conditions in “super” homeownership systems

The conversation characterises CSEE as “super” homeownership regimes, with owner-occupation expanding beyond 90% of the housing stock in most countries. Since the 1980s, the region has seen rising inequalities and a deepening housing crisis alongside a marginal, residualised public housing sector and small, under-regulated private rental markets. Policy support has largely prioritised homeownership through subsidies and subsidised mortgages, which the authors link to housing price bubbles and heightened vulnerability to market shocks.

Affordability, quality, and energy performance pressures

The text highlights that private rental options are often too expensive and insecure for large parts of the population, while entry into ownership is difficult for first-time entrants and households undergoing separation. It reports that between 20% and 30% of the population (including middle-income households) struggles with housing affordability, and that housing deprivation is high. Poor-quality and energy-inefficient housing stock is emphasised as a major challenge, contributing to high maintenance costs and energy poverty—especially affecting low-income households and, in many countries, rural areas.

Evidence on demand for affordable rental and cooperative housing

Survey results from May–June 2022 suggest substantial appetite for change: more than half of respondents in the four capitals would welcome a change in their housing situation. The share of households reporting that someone wanted to move within three years was 56% in Belgrade and 44% in Budapest (with 35% in Zagreb and 38% in Ljubljana). The study defines a “narrow demand group” of potential users—those both open to stable, secure, affordable rental/cooperative housing and able to afford it—at between 13% and 26% of the surveyed populations.

Financing barriers and the case for catalytic capital

The conversation argues that existing housing finance products in the region are dominated by individual mortgage lending and are not accessible to large segments of society, including many above-average-income groups. Lending to organisations is described as poorly suited to rental and cooperative projects because loan maturities are short and products are calibrated to for-profit developers building units for sale. Two obstacles to a nonprofit rental/cooperative sector are highlighted: short maturities for organisational loans and a “catch-22” in which inadequate tools prevent nonprofit providers from building capacity and scaling.

MOBA’s accelerator and a bottom-up revolving fund approach

To bridge missing long-term finance, the authors propose catalytic capital as complementary, patient financing that can cover a significant share of early investment needs and help unlock more conventional lending over time. Intermediary organisations are presented as crucial; MOBA aims to become a regional intermediary, alongside local actors. MOBA’s planned “Accelerator” is described as a transnational revolving quasi-fund issuing high-volume, short-term bridge loans to early-stage projects so they can reach proof-of-concept and attract longer-term financing.

Cooperative principles, international networks, and enabling conditions

MOBA (registered in 2020 as a European Cooperative Society) brings together seven full members from five countries (Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Serbia, Slovenia) plus associate partners. The model emphasises anti-speculative, collectively owned housing (often cooperative), democratic governance, and participation, with replication supported through peer learning and policy advocacy. The conversation concludes that scaling community-led, not-for-profit housing in CSEE depends on three linked conditions: access to adequate financing, supportive regulatory frameworks (including legal recognition of nonprofit affordable housing providers), and strengthened organisational capacity.