Housing Cooperatives and Sustainable Urban Development: A Systematic Review of Global Evidence and Implications for Nigeria.
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Abstract
Rapid urbanization and growing housing deficit have underscored the urgency to scale up sustainable and inclusive housing delivery models. Housing cooperatives are a popular, community-led mechanism to increase housing accessibility, boost social cohesion and foster sustainable urban development. However, evidence of the impact of housing cooperatives has been fragmented and context-specific, with limited insight into their effects in developing countries like Nigeria. This study performs a systematic review of the global evidence of housing cooperatives in sustainable urban development, adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA 2020) guidelines. The study systematically searched the Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, JSTOR and Google Scholar databases and retrieved 342 records, from which 41 papers published between 2000 and 2024 satisfied our inclusion criteria. Thematic synthesis generated five key themes: affordability of housing, environmental sustainability, social inclusion and participatory governance, economic sustainability through resource mobilization, and constraints to implementation. Our findings demonstrate that housing cooperatives contribute to improved access to affordable housing via co-ownership and collective finance; enable democratic participation and enhance social coherence; support environmentally friendly building practices; and build economic resilience. Nonetheless, policy deficiencies, insufficient finance, poor institutional capacity and governance challenges significantly limit their effectiveness, especially in developing country contexts. This review offers evidence of the potential of housing cooperatives in sustainable urbanization and recommends appropriate policy measures for incorporating cooperative housing into Nigeria's urbanization agenda...
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