Sophie, a public works advisor at Land Information New Zealand, discusses her PhD in law, focusing on achieving housing affordability through collective housing, and cooperative housing in particular.

The conversation covers various aspects, including the lack of research and public awareness on collective housing in New Zealand, her personal experiences with different housing systems in Europe, and the role of local and central governments in addressing the housing crisis.

Sophie emphasizes the need for legal reforms to support cooperative housing structures and discusses her findings on the limitations of the unit title structure for collective housing and how finance and funding is blocked without the legislation for cooperative housing.

The discussion also touches on potential influences from European and Australian models, and the importance of incorporating the “right to housing” into domestic law. The interview ends with Sophie’s aspirations for housing in New Zealand and recommendations for further reading and resources on cooperative housing.

Links

Sophie’s research: https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/items/e546de2f-eddb-400c-8bc5-5bffb1c04651

Common Ground: https://commonground.net.nz

CoHoHui: https://www.cohohui.com/

The Housing Innovation Society: https://thehousinginnovationsociety.com/

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