Housing cooperatives in Geneva: conditions, cost, registration and list
The search for housing in Geneva leads many tenants down the cooperative route, when the private market remains out of reach. The decision at stake is not whether to buy or to rent on the ordinary market: it is whether to register, or not, and with which cooperative.
This article covers the status of cooperative member and the conditions to meet, the cost of entry, rent levels, registration, the allocation of an apartment, the member’s obligations, what you recover on leaving and the canton’s cooperatives.
What is a housing cooperative?
A housing cooperative is a non-profit company that owns residential buildings and rents their apartments to its own members.
Swiss law classifies it among cooperative societies, defined in article 828 paragraph 1 of the Code of Obligations: a variable number of members, organised on a corporate basis to further their economic interests through joint action.
The cooperative member does not own their apartment. The Federal Supreme Court distinguishes two legal relationships: a corporate relationship arising from the acquisition of membership, and a residential lease governed by articles 253 et seq. of the Code of Obligations (ATF 136 III 65).
Each member holds one vote at the general meeting, whatever the number of shares held (art. 885 CO), but it is the lease that confers the right to live in the apartment. The cooperative share grants neither ownership nor any right to capital gains.
Who qualifies for a cooperative apartment in Geneva?
Anyone can in principle apply for a cooperative apartment in Geneva, but the cooperative share alone is not enough to obtain one.
Admission is governed by the articles of association: the Société coopérative d’habitation Genève (SCHG) only admits members once an apartment has been allocated. Five conditions then separate free-market cooperatives from those under cantonal control.
| Condition | Free-market cooperative | Cooperative under cantonal control |
|---|---|---|
| Membership | Cooperative share, before or after allocation (articles of association) | Cooperative share and an application file with a managing agency or the public-law real estate foundations (SFIDP) |
| Income | Articles of association of the cooperative | LGL entry scale (rent ÷ effort rate of 19 to 23%), exit at 1.75 times the entry level |
| Wealth | None | Not manifestly excessive |
| Residence | Articles of association | Taxed in Geneva and, as a rule, 4 years of continuous residence within the last 8 |
| Occupancy rate | Internal rules | Under-occupancy from a gap of 3 rooms relative to the number of occupants |
Cross-border commuters and newcomers remain outside the controlled stock, but keep access to free-market rents. The occupancy rate follows the household’s composition: a child moving out can tip the apartment into under-occupancy, in which case the applicable effort rate rises to 29%. Some articles of association go further: La Ciguë only houses people in education or training, with an annual income below 36,000 francs.
How much do cooperative shares cost?
Cooperative shares cost 5 to 10% of the value of the apartment, according to the cantonal statistical office.
Each cooperative nonetheless sets its own scale, and they diverge: 5,000 to 6,000 francs per room at Codha, 4,500 francs for a four-room apartment at the SCHG.
Entry involves four distinct amounts, with no common measure between membership and the shares tied to the apartment.
- Membership share: 100 francs at Codha, paid to establish seniority.
- Registration fee: 100 francs at Coprolo, counted from receipt of payment.
- Annual subscription: from 140 to 320 francs at Codha depending on the household.
- Shares tied to the apartment: paid when the lease is signed, sometimes in instalments.
Two routes finance these shares. The second pillar can be used to acquire the shares of a housing cooperative (OEPL art. 3), without the 20,000-franc minimum prescribed elsewhere (OEPL art. 5). The withdrawal is taxed separately from income, at one fifth of the ordinary rate (LPP art. 83a, LIFD art. 38).
The Canton of Geneva lends to members whose shares weigh too heavily on their income and wealth, with interest, against a pledge of the shares, over five years at most (LGL art. 39E).
This capital remains locked in until departure.
How large is the rent gap with the open market?
The rent gap with the open market averages 36% to 42% in favour of Geneva cooperative rents, according to the cantonal statistical office, based on rents recorded in May 2025.
A four-room apartment rents for 1,010 francs in a cooperative against 1,639 francs at free-market rates, a monthly difference of 629 francs. This free-market rent is that of current leases: the same apartment re-let within the year reaches 2,006 francs.
The chart below places these two rents side by side for four-, five- and six-room apartments, with the monthly gap widening at each size.
Cooperative rent is calculated on the building’s costs, not on the market. The office describes members’ rents as “set on the basis of costs, which […] tend to remain stable or even decrease”, whereas rents outside cooperatives are “set so as to allow the landlord to generate a return”.
Per square metre, the gap widens with the age of the building, from 3.1% after 2000 to 44.7% before 1960: free-market rents are raised at each change of tenant. The land, which the public authorities grant under a building right (droit de superficie), lightens these costs further.
How do you register with a Geneva cooperative?
Registering with a Geneva cooperative involves identifying the cooperatives, paying the membership share or registration fee, filing the application and applying for open projects, in six steps.
- Identify the cooperatives in the directory of the Groupement des coopératives d’habitation genevoises, which keeps no waiting list.
- Check each cooperative’s admission route and the status of its registrations: the SCHG processes the housing file before membership, Codha the other way round, and the SCHG’s registrations are suspended.
- Pay the membership share or the registration fee, the date of payment establishing seniority.
- Submit the signed form with the requested documents: identity, residence permit, income, current lease and debt enforcement record.
- Renew the registration before it expires, two years at Coprolo and one year at the SCHG, failing which the application lapses.
- Apply for open projects within the announced deadline, around three to four weeks at Codha.
The diagram below sets out these six steps in order and separates the four that build the application file from the two that keep it alive.
For a subsidised cooperative apartment, the application is filed with the Secrétariat des fondations immobilières de droit public (SFIDP). The Groupement points out that joining a cooperative does not guarantee an apartment in the short term.
How is an apartment allocated?
An apartment is allocated through a call for applications, among only those members who apply within the deadline.
Whether a waiting list is kept, and therefore any ranking, depends on the cooperative: Équilibre places no one in a queue, Codha lists surplus applications, and cantonal law imposes a waiting list on cooperatives building on land owned by the cantonal foundation (LGL art. 13B let. d).
Équilibre’s allocation rules rank three criteria, then apply tie-breakers.
- Seniority: the earliest cohorts of members come first.
- Occupancy rate: the densest household prevails, the permitted gap between the number of rooms and the number of occupants being two at most.
- Effort rate: at equal occupancy, the household whose rent weighs most heavily on its income comes first.
- Tie-breakers: diversity of the group, commitment to the project, urgency of need.
Codha quotes around 3 to 7 years from registration, which it links to the length of its list and to building permits becoming final.
Joining several cooperatives early and targeting projects under construction shorten the wait.
What obligations does a cooperative member bear?
Two families of obligations rest on a cooperative member, those of the member and those of the occupant.
Federal law lays down the duty to safeguard the cooperative’s interests in good faith (art. 866 CO); the articles of association govern the rest, here those of the SCHG.
- Member: defend the interests of the company, comply with the articles of association and the decisions of its governing bodies, take part in its activities, pay up the shares no later than the signing of the lease.
- Occupant: live in the apartment personally as a principal residence, allow no one else to benefit from it without the management’s prior consent, keep to the permitted occupancy rate.
The board of directors may expel, by a two-thirds majority and after written warning, a member who no longer lives in the apartment as a principal residence or refuses acceptable rehousing in a case of under-occupancy. Expulsion entails termination of the lease; the expelled member may appeal to the general meeting within thirty days, without suspensive effect.
What do you recover when leaving a cooperative?
The departing member recovers at most their cooperative shares at nominal value, and cannot claim any capital gain.
Federal law leaves it to the articles of association to define these rights and, failing such provisions, recognises no claim on the cooperative’s assets (art. 864 and 865 CO).
The SCHG’s articles of association provide for reimbursement three years after the effective departure; early reimbursement, granted case by case, carries a discount (disagio) of 2.5% per year calculated pro rata temporis. Shares financed through occupational pension funds are repaid to the pension institution.
On death, the spouse or registered partner who shared the deceased member’s household becomes a member by operation of law, but the heirs do not. On divorce, the shares are transferred to whichever spouse keeps the apartment.
Which housing cooperatives operate in the canton of Geneva?
The canton of Geneva counts 133 housing cooperatives, owning 12,540 apartments, or 7.1% of the cantonal rental stock, as at 31 March 2025 according to the census by the Fondation pour la promotion du logement bon marché et de l’habitat coopératif.
At this foundation’s first census, in 2021, there were 128 of them with close to 12,000 apartments. More than half of the stock is held by eight cooperatives.
Four cooperatives cover the main applicant profiles.
- Société coopérative d’habitation Genève: generalist, founded in 1919, close to 2,000 apartments.
- Codha: participatory housing founded in 1994, 870 apartments and 8,126 members as at 31 December 2025.
- La Ciguë: reserved for people in education or training.
- Les Ailes: born in 1955 among Swissair employees, 545 apartments, headquartered in Cointrin.
66% of Geneva’s cooperative stock lies on the right bank, 21% in the Rhône-Arve sector, 13% on the left bank.
The chart below summarises the size of Geneva’s cooperative stock and its distribution across the canton’s three sectors.
Part of this stock falls under the subsidised regime, a land arrangement explains the level of cooperative rents, and founding your own cooperative remains possible.
How does it differ from subsidised housing?
The difference from subsidised housing lies first in the basis of the rent: the cooperative owns its building and sets the rent on its cost price, whereas for State-aided buildings the State approves the rent roll (état locatif), meaning all the rents of the building taken together.
A subsidised apartment falls under this second regime, framed by the general housing law (LGL) and its income scales.
| Criterion | Housing cooperative | Subsidised housing |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | the cooperative, whose residents are members | an owner aided by the State |
| Basis of the rent | cost price | approved rent roll (LGL art. 42) |
| Income | set by the cooperative, except for its apartments under cantonal control | controlled by the State, exit scale at 1.75 times the entry scale (LGL art. 30, al. 5) |
Some cooperatives hold public-utility apartments classified as habitations bon marché (HBM, low-cost housing), overlaying the two regimes within a single building.
Why do cooperatives build under a building right?
Cooperatives build under a building right, without buying the land, to take the price of land out of their investment: the public authority keeps the land, known as the fonds, and grants them the use of the ground in return for a rent.
This arrangement, the building right, lowers the cost price on which the rent is based. In Geneva, the State and the municipalities award these plots to non-profit organisations; when the State grants such a right over its own land, it puts the operation out to competition from 50 public-utility apartments upwards (RUP art. 16).
The law caps the duration of this right at one hundred years when it is recorded in the land register as a distinct right (CC art. 779l), the actual duration being set in the deed; at its term, the buildings revert to the owner of the land in return for compensation.
Can you create your own housing cooperative?
Yes, a group of residents can create their own housing cooperative.
Swiss law requires at least seven members for the deed of incorporation, executed as a public deed, followed by registration in the commercial register (CO art. 830, 831 and 835).
In Geneva, the cantonal housing promotion foundation advises on these ventures. This route replaces waiting on a list with a project to put together, which the Groupement des coopératives d’habitation genevoises describes as long.