Affordable housing for students on the Ganz site
A new chapter in community-led housing
Our project was born from a partnership between ACRED (Alliance for Collaborative Real-Estate Development) and the College for Studies in Social Theory student organisation's (Társadalomelméleti Kollégium, TEK) students. The Ganz81 project is a unique retrofit project combining innovative student housing with collaborative work spaces and community spaces. Together we aim to create a more secure future for TEK, a grassroots college that has been providing training in critical thinking and activism for 44 years. This college has enabled the creation of numerous grassroots organizations in Hungary, all of which are fighting for an equal and just world. The goal of the joint project is to provide community housing for college students, which has two objectives: to create long-term, affordable, community-based housing for the college and its members, and to develop a model that can be used by other student communities. In our search for a new building, we are focusing on the utilization of vacant buildings, energy efficiency and sustainability, and the community-based implementation of the project. In the future home, we will also provide community spaces and offices for other organizations. This setup supports the mission of the college by helping it connect with these activist groups and providing a stable base for partner organizations.
In its past life, the three-story Ganz81 buildings 2nd floor will be refurbished during the summer of 2026, and offer 48 dormitory spaces for students and community areas. Ganz81 will be more than a building – it is a bold new chapter in urban revitalisation, powered by collective ownership, community resilience, and an unwavering commitment to affordable, inclusive spaces for all.
The Ganz81 project is a value-generating non-profit investment, both in terms of its commitment to social and environmental values. However, we also believe that its significance goes beyond its direct impact: it contributes to the establishment of non-profit real estate development in Hungary and serves as an example for the socially aware reuse of urban brownfield sites and industrial heritage, which are underutilised across the country.
Why the Ganz site?
Since the creation of Kazán Community House, ACRED has been paying particular attention to properties located on the Ganz site of Budapest’s 8th district. After the end of the state socialist regime in Hungary, the area was privatised, and the industrial production on the site has mostly stopped, and has been replaced by trade and storage functions. Therefore the Ganz site is not strongly integrated into the everyday life of the city, and is somewhat of an independent ecosystem. Because of the unusual ownership structure, the development of the area is neglected by both public figures and the municipality.
A valuable feature of alternative, non-profit real estate development is its flexible adaptability to the specific characteristics of certain areas, compared to conventional profit-based models. The Ganz site is situated in a dynamically developing area of Budapest and the operation of Kazán Community House has shown that the site can be a perfect environment for solidarity-based initiatives.
Financing the first student housing cooperative project in Hungary
In the CSEE region community-led housing project face a common challenge: there is no instituitional funding to create affordable, alternative solutions to the deepening housing crisis. Therefore our project is realised by the involvement of the community in financing the first community-led housing project created for students in the CSEE region. Besides organising TEK's alumni network to support the continuation of the important work to provide affordable housing and critical courses for students, we also also benefitted from the first solidarity fund in our region, which offers short-term bridge loans to novel housing projects in their beginning.
The MOBA Accelerator was initiated by MOBA Housing SCE, a network of pioneering housing initiatives in the CSEE region. It is a community-owned, revolving fund that starts by channelling liberated private wealth into cooperative housing. Instead of relying on banks or state subsidies, it aims to build its own ecosystem of solidarity-based finance—democratic, transparent, and regenerative. Rather than funding a single building, the Accelerator is designed as a shared infrastructure: once capital returns, it is redeployed to support the next community. What enters at a decisive moment does not end with one project — it becomes regenerative capacity, circulating across the region. See below for more information about MOBA Housing SCE.
New European Bauhaus Prize winning project
The project plan submitted by the name of „Cooperative Ownership for Communities ” was awarded with a New European Bauhaus Prize by the European Commission. The prize aims to honour projects or project ideas that combine the values of inclusivity, sustainability and beauty.
More information about the Ganz81 project is available here.