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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