About Co-operative Housing

Co-operative housing is clustering a group of properties to enhance the feeling of connectedness with your neighbours. The physical design encourages both privacy and social contact. Residents feel like they are living as part of a neighbourhood.

Developing cohousing from existing houses may start with a few existing homes on a block, and then find innovative ways to adapt the houses, alleys, backyards and courtyards to make them more pedestrian-friendly and community-oriented.

Cohousing succeeds where there are lots of common facilities such as picnic areas, children’s playgrounds, common lounge, kitchen or a guests room. Residents also eat together once or more a week, and may have informal socializing such as sports or book groups. Residents typically own their own homes, which usually face a car-free walkway or courtyard.

Larger cohousing developments such as Earthsong in Waitakari have a common house that has a common dining room, kitchen, guests room, kids room and laundry. It serves a meal several times a week.

By nature, every cohousing neighbourhood is unique. They can be as small as 6 or as large as 32 residences.       

Imagine living in a neighborhood where you can:

» Get to know your neighbors and share cups of sugar

» Walk to see friends – and leave your car at home

» Let your children run free and schedule fewer play dates

» Spend less time in the kitchen and eat healthier meals

» Shrink the size of your footprint on the planet

» Watch less TV and live life more fully

Finding a Sense of Belonging

Some people consider these resident-created co-operatives a return to the best parts of their hapū, village or neighbourhood, like when they were kids. Others describe cohousing as a new response to this century’s social, economic and environmental challenges.

Cohousing communities combine the autonomy of private dwellings with the advantages of shared resources and more sustainable living where people know and interact with each other. The need for community members to take care of common property builds a sense of working together, trust and support.

In cohousing, you know who lives several houses down because you eat weekly meals with them, and gratefully accept a ride from them when your car’s in the garage. You begin to trust them enough to leave your 4-year-old with them. Children develop new cousins and have a large safe space to play in.

People living in cohousing share no ideology other than they want to know their neighbours well. Yet cohousing offers an ideal balance of privacy and community, with members choosing to participate in neighborhood activities at the level they wish to.

Cohousing offers an end to the isolation of the single-family suburban home. Balancing community and personal privacy, cohousing is a chance to create a modern village in an urban or rural setting. Residents own their own homes can gather in common areas to share meals and socialize.

An increasingly popular form of housing in both Europe and North America, cohousing addresses and alleviates many of the demands and pressures of modern life - everything from daycare to aging at home is easier with the help of your neighbours.