Europe has witnessed the re-emergence of different self-organized forms of housing initiatives. One type of this self-organized form of housing, that is currently re-emerging in European cities, is the housing cooperative, e.g. housing co-op. Members of a housing co-op jointly own the building and are together responsible for the design, construction, and management of their own building. The housing co-op is the owner of the building and the leaseholder, and the members rent their homes from their own cooperative. Examples of housing co- ops from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Switzerland have shown a strong record of providing affordable, high-quality, and safe housing for middle and low-income groups. The recently developed and currently developing housing co-ops in Europe have been championing environmental sustainability and prioritizing sustainability in the design and management of their building. In Amsterdam, so far, even though many groups with active citizens have started a housing co-op, few housing co-ops have completed the whole process from idea to functioning organization and realized their own building.

Therefore, the purpose of this research was to investigate the potential of housing co-ops to contribute to sustainability in the housing sector, as well as what (additional) measures are needed to support housing co-ops. This is especially significant today in view of the dual challenge of providing adequate housing to all citizens while addressing urgent issues of urban sustainability, contributing to Europe’s fair and inclusive transition to sustainability. To investigate this, this research studied several cases in the city of Amsterdam by conducting semi- structured interviews with housing co-op members, relevant actors of the surrounding institutional dimension, and analyzing policy documents from the Amsterdam municipality.

The findings of this study suggest that housing co-ops have high sustainability ambitions and a high potential to contribute to sustainability in the housing sector. Though housing co-ops are still in their experimental and pioneering stages and initiatives are having difficulty realizing their vision. There are still numerous hindrances to this development in the current housing sector, especially regarding financial and institutional aspects. Amsterdam has made significant efforts to support these initiatives and stimulate the development of the housing co-op sector, as they aim to facilitate this in their city. The results appear promising, but there is still much work to be done. Several measures could be implemented on a municipal and national level to encourage the development of housing co-ops in the Netherlands. Other policy measures, however, are proposed to further stimulate development to make this niche the new (sustainable) form of housing.