Housing Cooperatives

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HOUSING COOPERATIVES (ZhSK). A form of participation in the construction of private apartments. Workers' rental dormitories (functioned in 1921-37) became the prototypes for housing cooperatives. Mass construction of cooperative housing started in 1962, after a resolution taken by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Council of Ministers of the USSR, "On Individual and Cooperative Construction". A minimum of 60 members were required to establish a housing cooperative in Leningrad. The functions of the housing cooperative were determined by regulations worked out on the basis of The Exemplary Regulations of a Housing Cooperative, adopted by the Council of Ministers of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1965. Any citizen of full legal age (over 18) who needed accommodation could become a member of a housing cooperative. Members elected a board (of 3 people) and an inspection committee (of 3 people). Housing cooperatives were regulated by the Housing Cooperative Administration of the Leningrad Soviet Executive Committee (5 Antonenko Lane). Construction was launched after 40% of the necessary funds were transferred to a bank account and authorization to start construction was received. A housing cooperative could take a loan from a construction bank (up to 60% of the total cost of construction). Upon receiving a new flat, the member of a housing cooperative had to return the previous flat he or she lived in to the state. Upon entering a housing cooperative, a new member paid initial shares equal to 30-40% of the flat value. A deferred payment was allowed over a period of 15 to 25 years. Large-scale cooperative construction was carried out in Leningrad in 1966-70 (7.6% of the total housing area under construction). Youth Housing Cooperatives (MZhKs) for young families (future owners who built their apartments on their own) were introduced in the 1970s. In the 1980s - beginning of the 1990s, the scale of cooperative housing construction was reduced (by 1993, it amounted to 1.6% of the total housing construction), and in the mid-1990s it ceased altogether. In 1991-98, all cooperative apartments underwent a procedure of secondary privatization and registration with the City Registration Bureau. In the late 1990s, housing cooperatives reappeared in a new form, established directly by the construction organizations. The initial shares paid by members of a housing cooperative were used to complete the construction. The initial share amount was estimated depending on the market price of the apartment. Instalments were paid over a period of no more than 10 years. The mortgage system also functions effectively (one’s old apartment serves as the down payment). Story i Zhivi, the first interregional housing cooperative in St. Petersburg, was established in 2001 (the central office is located at 29a Bolshoy Avenue of the Petrogradskaya Side).

Reference: Пудиков Д. С.Жилищно-строительный кооператив: Справ. М., 1976; Жилищное и социально-культурное строительство в Российской Федерации. М., 1994.

Y. N. Kruzhnov. Bubyr Alexey Fedorovich
Yakovlev Ivan Ivanovich
Zazersky Alexey Ivanovich
13th Line of Vasilievsky Island/Saint Petersburg, city, house 30
Bolshoy Ave of Petrograskaya Storona/Saint Petersburg, city, house 29, litera А
Kamennoostrovsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 73-75
Kamennoostrovsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 14
Nekrasova St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 56-58
Пудиков Д. С. Жилищно-строительный кооператив: Справ. М., 1976
Жилищное и социально-культурное строительство в Российской Федерации. М., 1994
Утехин И.В. Очерки коммунального быта. М., 2001