COOPERATIVE HOUSING RESEARCH ETH ZURICH
COOPERATIVE HOUSING RESEARCH ETH ZURICH
YEAR
2017
LOCATION
Athens & Zurich
TYPE
Research
AREA
-
Published at ETH Research Collection:
https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/handle/20.500.11850/237131
Research thesis performed during Master of Advanced Studies at ETH in Zurich. Title: “Will Millennials as pionneers in cooperative housing define the new, affordable and adequate way of living? The case of Athens, Greece.”
Abstract: This research thesis is aimed to examine a new housing problem of the younger generation in Greece. They find themselves in a difficult position of earning insufficient incomes, or being unemployed and therefore not being able to have access to housing. Home ownership is not an option for them, due to heavy taxation that accompanies it and rental prices are still unaffordable for a big part of the population. In fact the ratio of income to housing rental price is almost the same. On top of that, examining the housing stock of Greece we observe that in the centers of many big cities such as Thesaloniki, or Kalamata unused buildings exist, being left unrented or unsold, due to lack of collaboration between their owners. 96% of them are situated in Athens city center and therefore it is used as a case study of this research.
Potentials need to be found for reusing the empty stock and motivating the owners, starting from the smaller scale and moving towards the greater image. In this point, the European successful idea of cooperative housing is proposed as an alternative affordable and sustainable solution for the millennial’s housing problem in Athens. It could solve the abandoned buildings issue, provide job opportunities for the residents, revitalize local neighborhoods in the city center and offer adequate housing in lower prices than the current real estate market. Bottom – up initiatives and group synergies from the citizens will act as the beginning of this process and cooperation will the authorities will be necessary at the point of a new legal framework needed to support the cooperative. The research gap that has been found, of studying cooperative housing in Athens for the millennials is empirical and new as only practical efforts are being performed at the moment. Definitely, this is a study directed to solve the problems of an initial target group, but if the pilot model becomes a success other proposals might come up for different target groups.
