Recently, a sold-out summit in Sydney asked how co-operative housing can move from niche to mainstream. NSW has a proven model and a sector ready to grow
Housing leaders, government representatives, financiers and co-op members filled the room for the a summit on co-operative housing by the Australian Co-operative Housing Alliance. Held at Parliament House in Sydney – the event sold out. That’s no small thing for a form of housing that makes up about 4 per cent of Australia’s community housing.
That level of interest is an opportunity for NSW to deliver more secure, affordable homes, run by the communities who live in them.
In NSW, community rental co-operative housing is run on co-operative principles, for households on very low to moderate incomes. Rents are tied to income, so tenants never pay more than 25 per cent of their income. It sits somewhere between social and affordable housing.
The real difference is who runs it. Every household is a member of the co-op, with a vote on decision making. Members elect a board, manage tenancies, look after their properties and make decisions together. They share housing delivery responsibilities with Common Equity NSW. the peak body for co-operative housing in NSW.
The model suits people who want more than a roof over their head. That might be a single parent who needs stability, an older person who wants to age in a place among neighbours they know, or someone who wants a say in their home and a chance to build skills. What members share is a willingness to take part.
Across NSW, 31 housing co-operatives work this way, and many have been running for more than 25 years. They give people a secure home, a say in how it’s run and a real connection to the people around them. In a housing crisis that is also a crisis of isolation and insecurity, that matters.
Why is co-operative housing still so small here? Australia has a little over 4200 co-op homes. Canada has around 92,000. In July, ACHA members travelled to Canada to find out what was different.
The main takeaway was how similar Canada’s sector is to ours. The major difference is investment. When federal funding was steady, co-ops made up about 8 per cent of new homes built in Canada. When it stopped, that share fell to less than 1 per cent. When $1.5 billion in federal funding arrived in 2022, the sector picked up again. More than 15,000 co-op homes are now in the pipeline.
NSW has its own version of this story.
The lesson for NSW is that the model works and grows when it is funded.
What is needed now?
So how can NSW turn the dial on this? We need co-operative housing named in housing policy and funding programs so it isn’t an afterthought. We need an enabling funding environment that allows project pipeline establishment for the longer-term and a government commitment that survives political cycles, so new co-ops can be planned and built with confidence. And we need to invest in the support system (governance, training and development capacity) that lets co-ops grow without losing what makes them work.
None of this is radical. Canada has shown what’s possible. NSW already has the model, the co-ops and the support system to build on.
And the timing could hardly be better. Governments are searching for ways to deliver more social and affordable homes, faster, and community housing providers are central to that effort. Co-operative housing belongs in that picture. It’s community housing run by its residents, and it brings community participation, shared effort, lived knowledge and self-determination.
For decades, co-operative housing has quietly delivered homes people can afford, stronger communities and residents with a stake in where they live. The question for NSW is how quickly we can help it grow.
