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'THE REPORTS OF MY DEATH HAVE BEEN GREATLY EXAGGERATED'. CENTRAL-EASTERN EUROPE HOUSING COOPERATIVES: THE CASE OF POLAND
Sławomir PALICKI1, Marek NOWAK2, Lucyna BŁAŻEJCZYK-MAJKA3
Publication language: English
scientific paper
Guests Editors of the Issue Tomasz Herudziński, Wojciech Mincewicz
Transformations No. 4(127)2025, Publication date: 30 December 2025
Keywords: large-panel housing estate, housing, neighbourhood, apartment, economic transfor-mation, Central-Eastern Europe, Poland
Abstract Despite predictions of their collapse after the economic reforms of the 1990s, housing cooperatives in Poland have adapted to free market principles. The aim of this article is to show that housing cooperatives might also perform well in a market situation, as an alternative to the domination of the developer market. The data used were based on historical analyses of the legal state, public databases and reports, as well as data from a 2018 quantitative survey in the form of data mining. The article investigates the evolution of cooperatives in the context of the legal, financial and social framework and analyses their role in the management of large-scale, large-panel housing estates commonly associated with the socialist period. The conclusions show that, despite the challenges, housing cooperatives remain an appealing alternative to the commercial real estate market and contribute to the development of accessible housing. Therefore, an effective model of post-socialist cooperative ownership has taken shape in Poland. Its vitality stems from the coexist-ence of an effective form of governance, as well as urban, market and social factors (neighbourhood, housing conditions). The paper invites further comparative research on the potential of housing cooperatives in other post-socialist countries.
Department of Investment and Real Estate, Poznań Univer-sity of Economics and Business, Poland
ORCID: 0000-0003-3410-8039
E-mail: slawomir.palicki@ue.poznan.pl
Sociology Faculty, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland
ORCID: 0000-0003-1749-7669
E-mail: marek.nowak@amu.edu.pl
Faculty of History, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland
ORCID: 0000-0002-4439-8351
E-mail: lucyna.blazejczyk-majka@amu.edu.pl