About Us

Cohousing Australia

Cohousing Australia promotes collective models of housing, housing diversity, and housing choice. Cohousing Australia’s mission is to create and expand the sector, network and conditions necessary to make cohousing an option for all interested.

Working with communities, government agencies, and industry, Cohousing Australia seeks to create the conditions for citizen-led housing collectives to engage in participatory processes through all phases of housing planning, design, delivery and operation, contrary to the dominant conception of housing as a speculative commodity. 

It is time to transition to housing that supports people, planet, and place.

Collaborative housing exists under many different names. We are passionate about cohousing because of the highly urban and suburban context of habitation in Australia 

Cohousing Australia wants to help you make it happen!

Aspirations

We believe there is the need and demand for housing alternatives in Australia. There is an opportunity to address a range of social, environmental and economic issues through the development of more diversity in the housing sector. We see cohousing as one important housing typology largely missing from the Australian urban experience.

Cohousing Australia promotes collective models of housing, housing diversity, and housing choice. This includes mainstreaming these “alternatives” in the Australian cultural psyche, making them an available option for all, and embedding them in the legal, planning, regulatory and financial systems.

Our Vision is for a cohousing community in every suburb and town.

Our Purpose is to position residents at the centre of housing provision; enabling citizens to collectively create housing which provides a place of safety and security, empowering human beings and communities to be better able to live in harmony with economic, environmental, and social contexts and enable more resilient and regenerative futures.

To this end, Cohousing Australia advocates for and supports the creation and delivery of cohousing in Australian urban areas in a way that recognises the variations in economic, environmental and social ambitions and capacities of groups and the differences in legislative and planning contexts across the nation.

Working with communities, government agencies, and industry, CoHousing Australia seeks to create the conditions for citizen-led housing collectives to engage in participatory processes through all phases of housing planning, design, delivery and operation, contrary to the dominant conception of housing as a speculative commodity.

Our Mission is to support the establishment and enhancement of the networks and conditions necessary to expand the Australian cohousing sector; making cohousing an option for all interested.

Our Values:

  • Cooperation
  • Stewardship
  • Sustainability
  • Inclusivity
  • Connectivity
  • Transparency
  • Participation

Who are we? 

We are a group of passionate individuals dedicated to systemic change in the Australian housing market. Advocating for greater diversity and accessibility to safe, secure, sustainable and convivial housing, communities and neighbourhoods.

Cohousing Australia is a volunteer organisation, we each do our best to contribute to the sector through our ‘day jobs’ and through our collaboration within Cohousing Australia.

Contact us via the Get Involved page