Buying a property in Amsterdam together with your friends by setting up a housing cooperative is a possible housing solution for the housing crisis and to realize affordable rent. And it is the dream of Anne-Marie, Johan, Jhor, Tatiana and Marta. They live together in a residential group in Amsterdam and see their future as a housing cooperative also in a shared form of living. This housing solution ensures efficient use of living space and has many social aspects. But how easy is it to become your own landlord? They will soon be forced to leave their current building, so the idea arises to start a housing cooperative, an association, together as a housing solution and thus buy an existing building and realize affordable living space in the form of a residential group. Everyone with their own bedroom, a large shared living space and preferably a garden or terrace. And within the Ring of Amsterdam. With these preferences they go looking. If you start a housing cooperative with a group of people (not to be confused with a housing corporation), this means that you are starting an association. The association becomes the owner of the building and each resident pays rent to the association, you are your own landlord, so to speak. This housing solution allows the rent to remain affordable because it only covers costs and no profit needs to be made. The housing group is at the beginning of their plan to start a housing cooperative. They have a number of properties in mind that may be interesting, but it turns out to be difficult to get a viewing. After many calls, they manage to view a property in Amsterdam Noord that actually meets their requirements as a housing solution; There is room for 8 bedrooms and the asking price is one million euros, well within the expected budget of the group. But they are not the only ones who are interested and other bidders are already announcing themselves. Many housing corporations opt for new construction, a well-known example of this is housing cooperative De Warren, which recently won the Amsterdam New Construction Award 2024. The housing cooperatives that build themselves buy a plot of land from the municipality where you can build yourself. But this process often takes 3 to 4 years, and is also a complicated and time-consuming group process. A faster option as a housing solution is in theory to buy an existing property, but the disadvantage of this is that you have to bid against other private individuals (investors) on the already overheated housing market. Clemens Mol of the !WOON foundation is an expert in the field of housing cooperatives and advises the group on the various options. He emphasizes that it takes time to get the financial picture right. As a housing cooperative, you have to take out a business mortgage, and currently there are only 2 banks that offer this for housing cooperatives. The bank determines how much you can borrow based on the sum of all rent that will be collected. This mortgage amounts to 65 to 70 percent of the purchase price, the rest for this housing solution you have to finance with your own contribution. This is often done through crowdfunding (bonds), other loans and subsidies. In terms of location, Clemens advises to keep a broad view and also consider places that may not be your first preference. Subscribe and stay up to date with all episodes of Kassa (BNNVARA) and discover everything you need to know about housing cooperatives, housing solutions and much more! ― Kassa is the consumer platform of BNNVARA. Problems with insurance companies and banks, but also issues such as laughing gas, fillers, phishing and ransomware are discussed. We handle individual complaints in the Belbus and we regularly test various products & services. Kassa has been around since 1989 and is presented by Amber Kortzorg and Mai Verbij. Every Saturday at 19:15 on NPO 2. Or every Thursday at 16:00 on this channel! The latest consumer news, help articles and the consumer forum Questions & Answers can be found on our website: https://kassa.nl. Also follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram & TikTok: / bnnvarakassa / kassa_bnnvara / bnnvarakassa / bnnvarakassa