VrijCoop

VrijCoop and the Syndikat model

A house is not a commodity, but a place to live
Housing markets all over Europe today are facing pressure due to real estate speculation and a lack of affordable housing. In the Netherlands and Amsterdam in particular, the social rental sector is shrinking with stricter rules, leaving middle-class renters struggling in a housing market overruled by speculative prices.
Cooperative action is the key to combating this situation, as due to its collective ownership and non-profit status, co-operative housing remains insulated from the whims of speculative real estate markets. Instead of seeing houses as profitable commodities, cooperative practice transforms the home into a matter of community - a resource for the common good.
While housing co-ops contribute to an affordable long-term housing stock, the possibilities of the house being resold or the group disintegrating hover in the air, threatening to undermine the conquests of collective action. Faced with this possibility, members of the squatting scene in 1980s Freiburg came up with a new concept of collective ownership, recently introduced to the Netherlands by VrijCoop. How does this model differ from traditional cooperative housing? What is its added value, and why is it being replicated in the Netherlands and around the world?

The birth of an idea: the Mietshäuser Syndikat
In 1989, a group of squatters in Freiburg’s Grether Project decided to formulate the core idea of the “Mietshäuser Syndikat'' to support the creation and growth of self-organised housing projects all over Germany. Today, this is a solid network of over 167 autonomous housing projects, operating under the umbrella of the Syndikat. But what is the point of connecting a large number of autonomous and differing housing projects, some of which are hundreds of miles apart?
Common to all members of this organisation is the desire for a house where it is possible to live a self-determined and collectivist lifestyle, free from the threat of property sale or conversion of the living space into profit-driven functions. The history of self-organised housing projects offers various examples of such conversion to profit and money – despite the best intentions and determinations of co-op founding members. Sometimes a simple majority can decide on the sale or privatisation of a collective space, thereby re-commodifying it.

Through a one-entity one-vote rule, it ensures that a change in the property ownership model is nearly impossible.

In order to prevent such developments, all projects in the Syndikat exhibit a unique feature: the title of ownership to the respective property is not held by the housing association but by a limited liability company (LLC). This LLC stands as a partnership between the autonomous project and the Mietshäuser Syndikat, thus acting as a controlling and monitoring mechanism. Through a one-entity one-vote rule, it ensures that a change in the property ownership model is nearly impossible. This is because neither the house association nor the Syndikat can be outvoted, effectively safeguarding the status quo.
This control mechanism is intended to fight possible reprivatisation while, nevertheless, ensuring the tenants’ right of self-determination and collective ownership of their housing association.

Beyond the neutralisation of property: solidary and knowledge
The essence of the Syndikat model goes beyond the neutralisation of property. With the threat of re-privatisation out of the way, it also facilitates a network of solidarity through the transfer of funds and knowledge, therefore empowering the co-op movement as a whole.
It is not necessary to have an established property to join a project like the Syndikat: Established projects offer support to newcomers – those groups of people looking to establish a housing collective under the Syndikat’s model – by placing their know-how and political support at their disposal. Dedicated volunteers provide project counseling to new initiatives, detailing the financial, organisational, and practical aspects of creating a housing association. This way, new groups can learn from more experienced associations, while the latter’s participation in new housing initiatives brings a new flow of dynamism into older projects.
Established projects can also support new initiatives through a collective fund managed by the Syndikat members. This is a means of transferring their financial surpluses to new projects rather than using their capital to improve their own living standard or reduce the rent. In this way, projects under the Syndikat umbrella ensure the transfer of resources that expands the organisation by creating new living possibilities outside the housing market.
Funding remains, nevertheless, the main challenge for new housing co-operatives. In this, they rely on the support of both Syndikat members and external backers. Following the motto “better have a thousand friends on your back than one bank breathing down your neck”, individuals and groups aligned with the Syndikat’s ideals can directly lend money to housing projects, often at very low interest rates or even without any return at all. It’s solidarity in action.

In 2015, a group of people involved in housing projects came together to set up a Dutch variant of the Mietshäuser Syndikat known as ‘VrijCoop’

VrijCoop: living for people, not for profit
In 2015, a group of people involved in housing projects came together to set up a Dutch variant of the Mietshäuser Syndikat known as ‘VrijCoop’. As an association of housing cooperatives committed to ensuring affordable housing for everyone, VrijCoop ensures that real estate is redeemed from the market, following the Syndikat model. By making re-privatisation impossible, VrijCoop’s legal structure guarantees that properties, including houses and workspaces, remain self-organised and affordable in the long term. Much like the Syndikat, individual associations are responsible for managing their own buildings, while also participating in decision-making processes regarding the acquisition and inclusion of new projects.
Furthermore, VrijCoop cooperates with decision-makers and other cooperatives in the Netherlands. On the local level, discussions are taking place with the municipality of Amsterdam about leasehold conditions for housing cooperatives. Nationally, VrijCoop is working with other cooperative interest groups to make rules for housing cooperatives more favourable, in terms of financial support and availability of new properties.
From Amsterdam, De Groene Gemeenschap and Bajesdorp have been involved in the project from the start, along with other associations from across the Netherlands: Meer dan Wonen (Utrecht), Stad in de Maak (Rotterdam) and Ecodorp Boekel. Some housing projects are still in the preparatory phase, while others already acquired or started building their own housing spaces. Ecodorp Boekel, for instance, is composed of around 30 ecological homes (some of which are still under construction), while Bajesdorp is completing 20 homes and artist studios on the former Bijlmerbajes site.
With a much more recent history compared to the Syndikat, VrijCoop is still an early-stage project, yet showing great potential for the Dutch cooperative movement in its fight against the housing crisis.

An international movement: from Austria to Catalunya
The Netherlands is not the only country to which the Syndikat model has expanded; it is now present in over 5 different countries and continues to expand through its international solidarity network.
In France, Le Clip, an association created in 2006, is instituting a collective ownership scheme based on the Syndikat model. Now composed of 8 collective housing and artistic projects all over France, it brings together over 300 residents and permanent users. In Austria, HabiTAT was founded in 2014 and serves as an umbrella organisation for housing projects, cultural and social centres, with currently seven members located both in urban and rural areas. In Czechia, Sdílené domy is a promising emerging initiative with dozens of individual members living in communal houses and actively pursuing to expand its model throughout the country. In Catalunya, La Dinamo is an umbrella foundation that aims to promote cooperative housing in the region, providing technical support and an extensive solidarity network spanning over 30 different projects in various stages of development.

Towards solidary and fair housing
As our right to housing is evermore under threat, cooperation and solidarity projects like the Syndikat and VrijCoop are just one of the many possible solutions to safeguard our homes from the speculation and the unfair mechanisms of the so-called “free” housing market. Solidarity, support, and cooperation show us the way towards a shared and more equitable future, for the right to living!