Unlocking the ‘Missing Middle’: Lessons from Europe’s housing co-ops

01 June 2024

In April 2024, Europe played host to a delegation from Australia’s Business Council of Cooperatives and Mutuals (BCCM), taking a fact-finding tour ​​of co-operative housing models in Copenhagen, Vienna and Zurich.

Their goal was to uncover innovative solutions to Australia’s housing affordability crisis, because, says BCCM CEO Melina Morrison, “affordable housing is a bedrock for sustainable, healthy and happy communities”.

“What we saw [in Europe] was astounding but not out of reach,” she adds. “Instead of thinking only about private ownership, housing policy in Denmark, Switzerland and Austria is led by the idea of affordability.”

Read the full article, Unlocking the ‘Missing Middle’: Lessons from Europe’s housing co-ops, in Co-operative News, 31 May 2024