Welcome to Joel’s Jambalaya! No major project news this week. Sophie and I are actually on vacation, so this issue will be some thinking out loud on a topic I’ve been fascinated by lately: Housing cooperatives. We’ll look at what they are and how they work, and how the model might be extended to solve some of the issues we see in real estate today.
WOW. Tremendous piece, Joel. And well written. This is the sort of thinking we need to start addressing the true root of the perverse incentives problem we have in cities.
Another issue with co-ops that we were told during a mini conference I attended on the subject was that there’s often a lack of expertise among the residents to properly manage the finances and upkeep of common elements. We have co-ops here that are forced to sell parts of their property to fund capital repair projects. It’s a shame because with better management they could have potentially avoided that. But they seem to die and get liquidated by a thousand cuts, and so this leaves me to think that there needs to be extra supports available to help co-ops with property management. Maybe a special tent organization that provides help, advice, resources and even financing that is suitable for the asset.
A third thing to consider: it is hard to find a group of people who are organized enough to get a project like this off the ground. Do we create processes that allow developers to kickstart them? Do we create a place for ppl to meet and find potential partners? I know DAOs have elements that potentially addresses part of the coordination issues but the messy human bits and dysfunctional real estate context still require addressing.
WOW. Tremendous piece, Joel. And well written. This is the sort of thinking we need to start addressing the true root of the perverse incentives problem we have in cities.
Another issue with co-ops that we were told during a mini conference I attended on the subject was that there’s often a lack of expertise among the residents to properly manage the finances and upkeep of common elements. We have co-ops here that are forced to sell parts of their property to fund capital repair projects. It’s a shame because with better management they could have potentially avoided that. But they seem to die and get liquidated by a thousand cuts, and so this leaves me to think that there needs to be extra supports available to help co-ops with property management. Maybe a special tent organization that provides help, advice, resources and even financing that is suitable for the asset.
A third thing to consider: it is hard to find a group of people who are organized enough to get a project like this off the ground. Do we create processes that allow developers to kickstart them? Do we create a place for ppl to meet and find potential partners? I know DAOs have elements that potentially addresses part of the coordination issues but the messy human bits and dysfunctional real estate context still require addressing.
Anyhow, something to also think about. :)