We are pleased to announce that Australia’s Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals (BCCM) is the newest addition to CHI’s membership.

Melina Morrison, BCCM’s CEO, shared the following after receiving the membership news, “We look forward to engaging with CHI and active participation in the movement for growing the cooperative housing sector across the globe.”

Like many countries, Australia is facing a growing housing affordability crisis. The housing cooperative sector primarily consists of government-funded rental cooperatives housing 5,750 people in 3,000 coops, as well as a small full equity and limited equity sector. The rental housing coops are mostly organised into the Australian Co-operative Housing Alliance (ACHA) with the BCCM providing secretariat support. BCCM is also assisting these organisations to engage with government and is lobbying for improved housing policy. Moreover, ACHA has partnered with three universities and secured funding for research into the unique benefits of housing cooperatives with the findings due to be released this year. BCCM is assisting the sector to use the findings from this research to press for an expansion of cooperatives.

The BCCM is also organizing the full equity housing cooperative sector to work together with the rental housing coop sector to increase mixed equity and limited equity models.The BCCM also has members who are finance cooperatives and are exploring models to enable these members to partner with housing cooperatives to grow the sector.

Housing Blueprint
As the Australian government is increasing its interest in solving housing issues in Australia the BCCM wants to ensure that housing cooperatives are a significant part of that solution. Furthermore, the BCCM is calling on all political parties to work with the sector to develop equity and share equity models of coop housing that can give more Australians access to secure and affordable housing. Read the BCCM’s Housing Blueprint here.

For more information on housing cooperatives in Australia, you can read this overview of and discussion about housing cooperatives in Australia and the implications for the present debates about affordable housing in Australia.

We are also pleased to welcome BCCM’s Linda Seaborn, Senior Policy Advisor, to our upcoming Member Forum on May 17, 2023. You can read all the details here.

CHI is delighted to welcome the BCCM’s contributions to our sectoral organization. It’s exciting to see the expansion of knowledge and experience around the table.