ABSTRACT
Addressing social injustice and degrowth requires attention to housing as developed in the neoliberal real estate market. This chapter considers the situation in Germany to highlight collectively owned houses on the model of the Mietshäuser Syndikat (literally translated as a ‘syndicate of tenements’). This model for financing and organising housing is an alternative to the mainstream market and state provision of housing. Although ‘degrowth’ as a concept and movement is not central to the Mietshäuser Syndikat, commonalities are identified and related questions discussed. Both are anti-capitalist and try to show how we can live secure, modest and fulfilling lives without aspiring to be individual property owners with expanding wealth. The chapter outlines key characteristics of life as a German tenant today and analyses the concept and practices of the Mietshäuser Syndikat based on housing justice in an otherwise inequitable commercial sector. Compatible with degrowth principles, the Mietshäuser Syndikat eschews profit, which implicitly drives growth, and encourages conviviality and the sharing of resources, skills and responsibilities for collectively managed housing. As such, the Mietshäuser Syndikat has a place in a suite of degrowth measures.
