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Learn about MERRI COHOUSING "at a glance", and its
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| NEWS |
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| SITE POSSIBILITIES |
Read about our process for choosing a site, and a list
of possible sites
| SITE OF PREFERENCE |
Area diagrams and possibilities for the site
beside CERES
| EVENTS |
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| GETTING INVOLVED |
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| MEMBERS |
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| LINKS to RESOURCES |
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| CONTACT US |
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and the various liaison people and working groups.
info@MerriCohousing.org
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MERRI COHOUSING &
ECO-VILLAGE INC.
Welcome to the MERRI COHOUSING website.
This site will keep you up to date on our activities.
Merri Cohousing News,
February 2008
Property boom holds back Merri Cohousing
Merri Cohousing is in a holding pattern whilst the property boom continues to cause our potential sites to be sold at prices significantly higher than their valuation (this is called land speculation). Property prices increased twenty five percent in Melbourne in 2007, rewarding property speculators and discouraging projects with a long term perspective.
In general terms, the Merri Cohousing group's financial model is that its own members would collectively contribute enough cash for the group to buy a piece of land big enough to build a cohousing for ourselves, ie. twenty four dwellings. Owning land outright, our entity is then able to borrow the amount of the building costs, using the land as the collateral for the construction loan. This familiar model has been used over generations to establish the family home; ''buy some land and borrow the money to build a house'' in simple terms the Merri Cohousing model just scales up this idea from one home to twenty four homes.
However, a lender for a construction loan will only lend against the value of the equity held by the borrower (which in our case is the value of the land we have bought) not against the price that was paid for the land. In contrast to a for-profit property developer, who may be able to justify gambling more than (say) ten percent of the value of their project against the possibility that they make an extra twenty five percent profit from a short-term windfall capital gain, Merri Cohousing is both unable to afford an extra such ten percent, and most members are unwilling to take a speculative risk on such large amount of their own money.
A good property developer does not rely on a capital gain to make a profit, but in the present booming property market, even poorly run property developments have often been able to make large undeserved profits, a phenomenon which perpetuates the
irrational exuberance
of further speculative activity. Governments and economists worry about the deep instability of this situation, its precarious nature being illustrated by the failure of numerous companies undertaking what has now become normal development practice. Triggered by a minor perturbation in the property or financial markets, in a domino effect, ingenious financial structures can collapse like a house of cards. In 2007, three multi-billion dollar Australian property trusts have going broke.
The members of Merri Cohousing, no matter how skilled and cautious we act as developers of our own housing, are at the present time unable and unwilling to enter such a treacherous market with such a precious dream as is our cohousing project.
The Next
COHOUSING INFORMATION SEMINARS:
Merri Cohousing members are part of the Sustainable Living Foundation's
Intentional Communities (SLIC) group. We have conducted three cohousing information forums with SLIC in the last six months.
See http://www.slf.org.au/communities/
VISION STATEMENT
Merri Cohousing and Eco-Village will be
- A functional, supportive, sharing community made up of individuals of
all ages
- An inspiring model of an environmentally sustainable, affordable urban
village
- A beautiful, well-designed space containing homes, gardens and shared
facilities
- A sense of place, a manifestation of the principles and aesthetics
of the residents
Merri Cohousing members came up with this vision through a facilitated process
up to 24 May 2000. Paula Jorgensen "pulled together" this wording.
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