Equity Housing Co-operatives

Equity co-ops offer their members the chance to hold an equity interest. As with non-profit housing co-ops, members are still shareholders, still have voting rights and security of tenure, and still do not directly own real estate. However, members can sell their shares at market prices and may see capital gains (or losses) over time.

Shares for this kind of co-op are far more expensive than those for non-profit rental co-ops, but are likely to be less expensive than strata units. Rather than cost a few thousand dollars, shares may cost a couple of orders of magnitude more.

This is a rare form of tenure currently. Some of BC’s equity co-ops have been constructed for seniors, who are more likely, perhaps from downsizing, to have the capital needed to purchase shares. Loans through banks are difficult to arrange for share purchases.

A variation on this model is the limited equity co-op. These still give shareholders an equity interest, but there are limits on potential share appreciation. Co-ops might split with the member any increase in share value, or there may be specified (percentage) limits to the maximum share value increases. These measures help maintain the affordability of co-op units for new members over time, since prices for housing do not increase as rapidly as for units fully exposed to market conditions.

• Non-profit rental housing co-ops
• Equity co-ops
• Apartment corporations