Ander Zabala Gomez, Sostre Civic, Catalonia, Spain Coop Conversations

Sostre Civic is a cooperative in Catalonia, Spain that promotes and develops housing cooperatives under the right of use model. This housing model consists of collective ownership of a building or a number of buildings by the housing co-op. Members of the co-op have the right to occupy a particular apartment by mutual agreement but do not hold exclusive ownership. Sostre Civic also makes use of a pre-emption right mechanism that exists in Catalonia whereby civil society has the first option to buy abandoned properties.