Fostering Improved Housing Solutions via Collaboration with the European Community Land Trust Network
The housing sector is faced with profound challenges as governments navigate environmental concerns and social crises while attempting to meet housing demands. Cities are expanding faster than ever, leading advocates to push for quota systems to keep up. Yet, this growth has allowed only investors to profit, resulting in inferior housing and escalating costs. Household incomes have stagnated, forcing difficult choices between necessities like heat and food.
The housing crisis calls for revolutionary change, and the European Community Land Trust Network (ECLTN) aims to answer the call. The Network unites hundreds of Community Land Trusts (CLTs) across Europe, transforming land use and housing into something equitable, affordable, and sustainable.
CLTs break traditional property ownership models by distinguishing the home from the land. Homes remain with the residents, while the land is collectively owned and held in trust, ensuring it never returns to the market and maintaining affordability. CLTs put communities at the forefront, engaging them throughout developments and empowering them to govern their environments.
CLTs provide permanent and genuine affordability, unlike short-term solutions. For instance, in Brussels, residents with annual incomes below 14,700 Euros can access home ownership through CLTs, with sales prices in England often just 27% of market value! Economically, CLTs offer excellent returns and benefits: each pound sterling invested in community-led housing can return £3.10 over 30 years, thanks to advantages like better health, reduced welfare demands, and fairer income distribution.
Sustainable housing for future generations is another CLT mission. By permanently owning the land, CLTs invest in clean, eco-friendly properties. Research suggests that community-led houses in England and Wales outperform national and local standards on energy efficiency. For example, Barcelona's La Borda exemplifies CLT innovation with its low-cost, Passivhaus design, integrating shared spaces and timber construction.
CLTs foster stronger communities, promoting cohesion and vibrant neighborhoods. Most CLT homes are part of collective projects, where residents make decisions together and contribute to resilient communities. Residents engage in initiatives like teaching each other to ride bicycles, and CLTs often incorporate shared spaces open to the wider community, like women's houses, meeting rooms, and medical practices.
Europe's interest in CLTs has grown fiercely over the past few years, with initiatives spreading from North-West Europe to Southern and Eastern Europe, including Italy, Croatia, Sweden, Hungary, and Greece. Both the UN and EU recognize CLTs as best practices for affordable housing and cohesive neighborhoods. Cities like Paris and Barcelona are adopting CLTs to address their housing affordability issues.
The ECLTN is poised to make a powerful impact on how cities address housing challenges, providing an alternative to traditional practices, and championing equitable, eco-friendly, and sustainable cities. To stay connected and learn more, follow the ECLTN on LinkedIn, Twitter, or visit their website.
[1] Enrichment Data: CLTs prioritize affordability, sustainability, and community engagement, keeping land prices low, promoting sustainable practices, and involving residents in decision-making processes to create cohesive communities. By maintaining long-term affordability, fostering sustainability, and encouraging social cohesion, CLTs strive to revolutionize the housing sector.
- The European Community Land Trust Network (ECLTN) aims to revolutionize the housing sector by prioritizing affordability, sustainability, and community engagement, keeping land prices low, promoting sustainable practices, and involving residents in decision-making processes to create cohesive communities.
- CLTs in Europe, like those in Brussels and Barcelona, offer excellent financial returns by providing permanent and genuine affordability, with each pound sterling invested in community-led housing returning £3.10 over 30 years, thanks to advantages like better health, reduced welfare demands, and fairer income distribution.
