The housing crisis in our region is context-specific and structural. So is our response.
After the mass privatisations of the 1990s, housing in Central and South-Eastern Europe was largely abandoned to the market. Cooperative traditions were forgotten. Debt was encouraged.
MOBA is is reimagining cooperative housing in the region and creating previously unimaginable possibilities by developing, financing and promoting a non-profit, rental-based cooperative housing model that is:
• Collectively owned – homes belong to the cooperative, not individuals
• Permanently affordable – rents are cost-based, not market-driven
• Non-speculative – homes cannot be sold for profit
• Democratically governed – one member, one vote
• Scalable – adaptable across cities and countries
We are part of the wider community-led housing movement and inspired by recent cooperative housing developments in other localities and regions. While the model is new to Central and South-Eastern Europe, it is already being tested, lived in, and expanded through MOBA’s pilot communities.