NETCO unites over 20 European cities in a shared platform for collaborative housing, helping municipalities scale community-led solutions to affordability, inclusion, and urban resilience.
EUROPE'S HOUSING CRISIS NEEDS SHARED SOLUTIONS
Across Europe, cities are grappling with housing affordability, social exclusion, and speculative property markets. Many are experimenting with innovative approaches — housing cooperatives, Community Land Trusts, co-housing, and other resident-led models — but too often these efforts remain isolated. NETCO was created to change this. By building a transnational platform connecting municipalities from Amsterdam and Bologna to Zagreb, Brussels, and Thessaloniki, it helps cities learn from each other's real experience and turn collaborative housing from a niche experiment into a viable, scalable response to the housing crisis.
FROM ISOLATED PILOTS TO SYSTEMIC CHANGE
Now in its second phase, NETCO supports cities in moving beyond one-off experiments towards long-term, systemic change. Through European conferences, peer-to-peer sessions, thematic workshops, and shared practical tools, it strengthens local housing policies and helps municipalities design and implement affordable, inclusive, and non-speculative housing models. Aligned with both the European Affordable Housing Plan and the New European Bauhaus, NETCO bridges local innovation and European policy ambition, ensuring that what works in one city can be adapted and replicated across different national contexts.
HOUSING AS A COMMON GOOD, BUILT TOGETHER
NETCO's vision is straightforward but ambitious: housing as a common good, shaped by communities rather than markets. By connecting public authorities, civil society, and residents across more than 20 European cities, it builds the collective intelligence needed to make collaborative housing viable at scale. As housing pressures intensify across the continent, NETCO demonstrates that European cooperation is not just useful but necessary — turning fragmented local efforts into a coordinated movement for more affordable, inclusive, and resilient cities across Europe.
