Realized projects

Collaborative real estate development > Community housing

The goal of ACRED is to create collaborative residential spaces based on the principles of rental housing cooperatives and collective ownership. This means that both the common areas and the personal spaces are owned by one legal entity, which could be an association or a cooperative, and of which all residents are members. Thus the residents own the property indirectly through their membership in the organization. The residents pay regular contributions to the legal entity owning the building for covering operational and financial costs. They collaboratively manage the chores around the house (e.g. maintenance, cleaning of common areas), as well as the financial and organizational affairs of the property.

The aim of a rental housing cooperative is to provide affordable and stable housing for those who are unable to obtain homeownership – either because they have little capital or no regular, predictable income to qualify for a mortgage.

The collective house is run by one of the founding organizations of ACRED, Zugló Collective House Association (ZCHA), which was established by the residents. Seven people inhabit the building which consists of 220 square meters of living space. The residents pay a regular contribution which is approximately 60% of market rents. This contribution is used to repay loans taken out for the purchase and renovation of the property; and the management and maintenance of the building.

The community took ownership of the building during the summer of 2018 and, after a short renovation, the founders moved in in January 2019. 55% of the purchase costs were covered by the founding members’ savings, and 45% by direct loans from a supporting community around the project. During the renovation, the building, which previously had three residential units, was reimagined by the members into a collective housing space. The plans for the renovation were drawn up by a member of the CoHousing Budapest Association, while the construction work was carried out by Gólya Builders and dozens of volunteers.

Collaborative management > Community spaces

Social organizations and solidarity economy enterprises often lack the needed capital to acquire their own property and may struggle to find suitable workspace, community space or workshops in other ways. That is why the mission of ACRED includes providing affordable and stable space for these initiatives. One possible way to do this is through the acquisition and reconstruction of under-utilized properties, which is preferred by ACRED based on both environmental and financial considerations.

By non-residential property management, we mean mixed-use properties that accommodate work- and community spaces thus providing public functions in the broad sense.

Kazan Community House is one of the first collectively-owned, grassroots community spaces in the country after the 2008 crisis. The project is located on a nearly 1000 m2 property at 46-48 Orczy Street, which is part of the so-called Ganz compound. The building was purchased in 2018 by Gólya Cooperative, one of the founding organizations of ACRED, and renovated through the work of the members and volunteers. The necessary resources for the project were raised through direct loans from the community around Gólya and from business partners, a smaller bank loan, and community donations.

The community center currently houses 9 organizations in addition to the three branches of Gólya Cooperative (i.e. Gólya Pub, Gólya Builders and Gólya Courier): Lahmacun Online Community Radio, Octopus Studios community workshops, the editorial office of Mérce, Gólyafészek Day Care, Solidarity Economy Center, Helyzet Műhely, Periféria Center, Deviszont Community Space, and our organization, the Alliance for Collaborative Real Estate Development. In addition, several organizations use the space occasionally. Kazán Community House has been owned and managed by ACRED since 2022, according to the principles collectively developed by the community.

Kazán Community House is also an energy community: the energy price savings made possible by the solar panels placed on the roof of the building are put into a collective fund. The fund can be used by the community to improve the building’s energy efficiency.