Revival, Expansion, Innovation and Impact: The Housing Agency's Community-Led Housing Webinar Report

The Housing Agency, Ireland’s national state‑owned housing authority, produced a four‑part Community‑Led Housing Webinar Series report titled Revival, Expansion, Innovation and Impact: Lessons from Ireland and Europe on delivering community‑led housing. The report was authored by policy officers Haley Curran and Johanna Wiedermann and edited by senior staff including Roslyn Molloy. It synthesises the webinars held in 2025, drawing on international case studies from Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom, and reflects Ireland’s policy context under the Affordable Housing Act 2021.

The document is organised into five thematic chapters—Introduction, Revival, Expansion, Innovation and Impact—followed by an appendix with a UK case study. Each chapter summarises a specific webinar, lists presenters, participants, registration numbers and key discussion points, and provides data on attendance (e.g., 377 participants in the first webinar, 308 in the second, 356 in the third, and 315 in the fourth). The report also includes a comprehensive list of acknowledgements, references and a metadata section detailing processing state, public status and AI‑generated content.

• The Affordable Housing Act 2021 recognises community land trusts (CLTs) and housing co‑operatives as providers of affordable homes.
• Current Irish pilots include Cork Community Land Trust (inter‑regional Interreg project), Aque Cualann Housing and the nascent Cohousing Communities Ireland initiative.
• Survey data cited in the report show that 73 % of residential units in Cork are privately rented, with a vacancy rate of 5.5 % and 72 % of homes rated C or lower on energy performance.
• Over 3,500 households in Cork cannot afford mortgage or market rent, highlighting the affordability gap the webinars aim to address.

• Portugal’s revival of collaborative housing delivered 180,000 homes through 100 co‑operatives (1989‑2009), now representing 3 % of national stock.
• Barcelona’s co‑operative sector expanded from 33 homes (2014‑2015) to 217 new units (2016‑2019) and aims for 1,000 homes by 2031, supported by public land leases and subsidies.
• Hamburg has supported 200 co‑operatives (4,700 homes) since 1990 and plans an additional 4,000 homes by 2040, with co‑operatives accounting for roughly 4.5 % of German housing stock.
• The UK’s New Ground senior cohousing project provides 25 purpose‑built homes for women over 55, illustrating age‑friendly community‑led models.

The Innovation chapter details senior cohousing, highlighting New Ground (UK) and the emerging Irish senior cohousing network led by Anne Connolly. It notes that senior cohousing promotes independence, reduces loneliness and delivers energy‑efficient dwellings. The report cites research indicating that residents in such schemes often become mortgage‑free, freeing capital for pensions or family support, and that communal spaces foster social cohesion.

The Impact chapter analyses Hamburg’s “Baugemeinschaften” framework, which combines 99‑year public land leases, low‑interest 30‑year loans (≈1.3 % interest) and mandatory co‑operative ownership caps (≤20 % of total housing). The report argues that similar mechanisms—state‑funded hub services, bridging loans, and guaranteed land allocation—are crucial for scaling Irish community‑led projects. Panel discussions also identified the role of AHBs (Approved Housing Bodies) in providing social housing but not co‑operative models, underscoring the need for dedicated policy instruments for CLH.

Across all chapters the authors recommend:

1. Establishing dedicated “hub” agencies to guide groups through planning, financing and land acquisition.
2. Replicating successful public‑land‑lease schemes and low‑interest financing seen in Barcelona and Hamburg.
3. Strengthening legal frameworks to protect affordability in perpetuity (e.g., resale formulas linked to inflation).
4. Expanding data collection on CLH outcomes to inform policy, including occupancy rates, energy performance and social impact metrics. These findings provide a factual, data‑rich resource for pan‑European stakeholders seeking scalable, sustainable community‑led housing solutions.