Case 5 from Germany Amaryllis Co-operative Society ... - ICA Housing

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• Adopt an ecologically reasonable life-style, e.g. limiting the number of
cars and parking lots, encouraging car-sharing,
• No individual ownership of flats but rather common ownership together
with a generation contract reaching beyond the present generation. Members
of the original association had formed a co-operative society which
becomes the owner of the three houses.
Members have to contribute € 400 per m 2 of space, i.e. for a flat of 50 m 2 a total
of € 20,000. This contribution covers only one fifth of the construction cost. Better
off members of the co-operative established a social fund to help those unable
to pay the required share contribution. Some flats are promoted by government
as ‘social housing’ with prices of € 4.80 per m 2 – cold rent – as compared
to € 8.20 per m 2 in case of privately financed flats.
It turned out to be difficult to raise the necessary capital from financial service
providers, because:
• The co-operative society has a variable share capital with partly voluntary
share contributions,
• no personal liability of the members for the debts of the co-operative society,
• difficulties anticipated in case of selling the assets of the co-operative society
in case of liquidation.
IV. Best Practice in applying co-operative principles
Limits of open membership
Where persons with different interests and priorities and of different age live
closely together in multi-generation dwellings, there has to be a strong common
denominator in terms of shared goals and shared organisation culture, to keep
such a group together. The case of Amaryllis co-operative society shows how
such strong group of members can be formed in a long selection process during
membership in the Amaryllis association before it was converted into the Amaryllis
co-operative society. It also illustrates that the closer the group relations
are the narrower are the limits of open membership.
Combining self-interest and group interest
The multi-generation project is based on many individual interests supplementing
each other. It allows for instance old couples who have no children of their
own to live with children, while working mothers or parents receive help from
the elderly by offering child care. E.g. once a week there is a “grandmother day”,
where the child spends an afternoon with its new “grandparents”. Such solution
benefits both and keeps people in good contact as neighbours.