The MOBA Accelerator is a unique financing instrument for and by MOBA’s novel community-led housing cooperatives in Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe (CSEE). It is set up to make their access to the finance required for housing projects more easy, cost-effective and responsive to their specific needs. This is a major feat considering the lack of financing partners in the SCEE region.
These community-led housing developers seek to provide viable and affordable housing in adequacy with household income and savings, labour mobility, the need for integrating work and home, and the increasing diversity of household structures and changing demographics.
What does the Accelerator enable?
The Accelerator provides short-term bridge loans to bring pilot projects through their challenging starting period: the acquisition and construction or reconstruction phase, as well as the period required to get their cash-flow up & running. In providing this, the Accelerator fills the lack of available or affordable long-term project financing that currently blocks the successful initiation of pioneering cooperative projects in the Central, South-Eastern and Eastern European region.
Apart from providing a substantial part of the initial capital needed to get these projects going, it also helps to boost the confidence of other investors so they can come on board with co-financing – for instance, through crowd-investment or other forms of financial participation.
As the Accelerator provides short-term bridge loans (projects will get refinanced when they are sustainable), the capital will fairly quickly flow back to MOBA. This high turnover guarantees that further projects will benefit from this finance pool. Having a portfolio of credible and successful projects strengthens the capacity of MOBA to raise more capital towards their financing in the long run.
Towards what can Accelerator loans be used?
The MOBA Accelerator loans are used by housing initiatives to acquire buildings or construction land and construct or renovate these premises. The Accelerator does not cover costs of staff, studies, plans or consultancy alone – it focuses on the ‘hardware’ of housing projects.
Who can access an Accelerator loan?
The MOBA Accelerator is only accessible to MOBA full members. It takes the form of a business-to-business loan from MOBA Housing SCE (the European Cooperative Society that incorporated MOBA, registered in Croatia) to these members. This guarantees that the capital will benefit those projects that share the MOBA values (non-profit, affordable, community-led and community-owned housing projects). At the same time, their embedding in the MOBA ecosystem makes it much easier to validate project proposals and loan requests. Before a loan is disbursed, the viability of the loan request is thoroughly assessed (business plan, cash-flow plan).
The pilot project – student housing in Budapest, Hungary
MOBA is currently looking for partners to establish the initial €1,000,000 capital pool (out of a future €15,000,000 pool). This initial capital pool is generated from donations, as it provides the most sustainable and robust condition for a novel financing instrument – both for MOBA and the housing projects depending on it.
The MOBA Accelerator’s first pilot project will support a pioneering redevelopment and retrofit initiative aimed at transforming a former industrial site in Budapest into a vibrant, multifunctional community. The site will feature affordable housing for students alongside collaborative work and community spaces. This project is being developed through a partnership between MOBA member ACRED (Alliance for Collaborative Real-Estate Development) and students from the College for Advanced Studies in Social Theory (Társadalomelméleti Kollégium, TEK).
Once completed, it will provide:
· 40 dormitory spaces for students
· Workspaces and community areas
With a total investment of €2,000,000, this is more than just a building—it represents a bold step in urban revitalisation, driven by collective ownership, community resilience, and a strong commitment to creating affordable, inclusive spaces for all.
Once MOBA secures the €1,000,000 capital pool, the Accelerator will provide the remaining financing needed to complete the student housing, playing a crucial role in bringing this flagship project to life. After its completion and the repayment of the Accelerator loan, the capital will be reinvested to support additional cooperative and affordable housing projects within the MOBA network. The success of this student housing project will mark a major milestone in the scaling and operationalisation of the cooperative housing model in the CSEE region.
We aim to reach the 1 million euro goal by mid 2025. If you want to be part of this groundbreaking endeavour, get in touch (accelerator@moba.coop)!