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We support people making homes together through Cohousing, Community Land Trusts, and Housing Co-operatives

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Collective Ownership seeks investment for first projects

Spurred by the disempowerment felt by private renters, the Collective Ownership Society is gearing up to secure its first projects with supportive investment.

Designed to fundamentally reshape the UK housing landscape, Collective Ownership introduces a scalable, not-for-profit alternative that removes properties from the speculative private market and places day-to-day control directly in the hands of residents.

With private renters spending a higher proportion of their income on housing while facing insecure conditions and limited control, community-led alternatives have struggled to scale due to financial and development barriers

The aim is not just to create stable and affordable homes that people control — but to build a social purpose and not-for-profit alternative to the private sector.”

Collective Ownership solves this by introducing a two-tier structure that separates day-to-day housing management from property acquisition and asset management:

  • The Collective Ownership Society (COS): a professionally run, not-for-profit secondary housing co-operative and investment vehicle. COS raises finance, acquires freeholds, manages property assets, and ensures long-term affordability through a “cost-rent” model independent of market speculation.
  • Member Co-ops: are formed by resident tenant-members, who lease properties from COS, democratically manage their homes, and maintain day-to-day control.

To bring the initial demonstrator projects to life and acquire 2-5 properties for member co-ops, Collective Ownership is seeking to raise between £450,000 and £2.9 million in fixed-term loans.

There is growing interest across London, Birmingham, and beyond, and a series of active acquisitions for member co-ops have offers in place and need funding immediately:

  • A unique shared property with a former dry cleaners identified by Rode Housing Co-op, who hope to transform it into an art studio and residential home.
  • A converted pub & music studio facing private sale, securing the Rising Sun Co-op as an LGBTQ+ inclusive cultural collective in Peckham.
  • Shared 6-bed homes with Moon Housing Co-op or Raft Housing Co-op in South London.

Supportive investors in Collective Ownership are also growing. Recent investor, Sophie has shared her personal investment story.

Collective Ownership set out the details, partnerships and expertise to deliver this scalable, resident-controlled new ‘tenure’, on their website: www.collectiveownership.co.uk.

 

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Planning submitted for Cohousing Exeter

A new neighbourhood where community is built alongside homes is one step closer, with planning submission for Cohousing Exeter.

Cohousing Exeter is the first project to put our Build Belonging service into practice. Working in partnership with AspenHof, we’re supporting a growing group of prospective residents to come together long before construction completes. Together, they’ve been building relationships, developing shared values, and exploring how they make decisions as a community, both around aspects of the development and how they will run the scheme in the long term.

Unlike traditional approaches to cohousing, where a group forms first and has to find land and lead the development process, Cohousing Exeter started with a developer and a site. This has enabled future residents to focus on creating the social foundations of their community and inputting their aspirations while experienced professionals manage the planning and development process.

Submitting the planning application is an important achievement and reflects months of collaboration between the Cohousing Exeter group, Aspen Retirement, Pollard Thomas Edwards, the design team and the Community Led Homes team.

If planning permission is granted, Cohousing Exeter will become the first completed example of our Build Belonging approach. We hope to inspire developers by creating neighbourhoods where people don’t just live side by side but truly belong, while also securing reservations and sales prior to construction, smoothing the planning process, and resolving long term liabilities.

Throughout this journey we’ve been developing, testing and refining our approach to supporting communities alongside developers. Every workshop, conversation and challenge has helped shape our methodology that we hope can be adapted to many different kinds of housing development in the future, including family housing, intergenerational and mixed-tenure neighbourhoods and urban blocks.

 

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E16 CLT opens community garden as first project

E16 CLT opened their new community garden to the public last weekend, joined by Mayor Forhad Hussain, James Asser MP, local Councillors, project partners and many local residents.

Derelict for over 10 years, the garden at 26 Fords Park Road is the CLT’s first project. The CLT and residents have worked with the People’s Empowerment Alliance of Custom House over 18 months to bring the garden back to life. Spaces like this are becoming harder to find and increasingly unaffordable and the CLT and PEACH’s vision is to transform the Fords Park Road building into a thriving community facility for all ages – starting with the garden!

The garden is also host to the Young Minds Garden, originally created for the Chelsea Flower Show 2026, where it won a Silver-Gilt medal. It will provide a space where young people can connect with nature, learn new skills and spend time with others.

The garden will be open regularly throughout the summer. More information can be found on @e16_clt instagram

 

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Co-operation or Delegation?

The Housing 2026 conference played host to a debate on our Interim findings from the Cooperation in Social Housing Commission.

We are working on a replicable model of collaborative decision-making for social landlords and tenants as an alternative to devolved or delegated tenant management, as part of the Commission.

At the heart of the approach is a commitment to change at cultural and structural levels within the sector – embedding relational practice and creating mechanisms for residents to lead on decisions important to them. This is about sharing power, embracing conflict and building a model that benefits landlords and tenants alike.

Panellists Tom Bremner, Rowan Mackay, Kai Jackson, Gemma Bell and Laura Werlemann gave valuable insights and ideas for scaling this approach. Our interim findings from the Commission Pilot Programme identify key lessons on skills, knowledge sharing, recruitment, conflict, representation and risk, and will inform the Commission’s outputs later this year.

 

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£1.25m investment for Collective Ownership

CDS Co-operatives recently agreed a ‘cornerstone investment’ of £1.25m in the Collective Ownership Society.

This new capital will be used to finance the first property acquisitions for its members, attract further investment and kick start the development of a new co-operative housing solution to intervene in the private rented sector with a fairer alternative that works in the interests of both immediate and future residents, and addresses the wider UK housing crisis.

Collective Ownership is a carefully crafted, innovative and scalable form of ‘tenure’ that provides stable, secure and affordable housing, controlled by residents. It is delivered through a high impact, efficient, not-for-profit investment vehicle: The Collective Ownership Society.

“CDS is proud to support Collective Ownership in bringing resident control to the private rented sector at scale” said Tom Bremner, chief executive at CDS Co-operatives. “We believe this innovative approach grows from our history and purpose and will also provide a better return than keeping our reserves in a savings accounts. This is something others in the sector should consider.”

As a specialist Housing Association managing around 3000 properties across London and the South East, CDS Co-operatives has a track record of establishing and supporting housing co-ops over the past 50 years. CDS also provides in-kind support to set up the Collective Ownership Society.

“This investment is a testament to the immense potential of our model, and the vision of CDS in bringing it forth” says Gauthier Guerin, of Collective Ownership. “We’ll use this to increase the equity we can bring to initial acquisitions, acting as an enabler for groups of residents. The impact of investment goes beyond funding one-off purchases, as assets and surpluses are reused to continuously grow the number of homes in Collective Ownership. Investment terms are flexible and open to organisations, individuals and residents.”

The Collective Ownership Society is an FCA-registered secondary housing co-operative (a “co-op of co-ops”) with seven housing co-op members, and more looking to join. It is based on mutualising property assets and rental income to build economic power, whilst ensuring residents have day-to-day control over their homes and communities. The Collective Ownership Society acts as a professionally run ‘property fund’ collectively owned by housing groups. It provides diverse investment opportunities, reduces risk and enables efficient asset transfer, tax treatment and use of funds.

The CDS investment is complemented by a further £100,000 investment from a supportive member of the public.

Collective Ownership is open for further bond-style social investment pledges from a wide range of organisations and individuals here: www.collectiveownership.co.uk/invest

 

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