Bath Street Collective Custom Build

shared/co-ownership

Bath Street Collective Custom Build in Edinburgh is a group of residents that have formed a small company in order to buy a piece of land, design their own homes on it, and commission architects and builders to build them. The result is a shared ownership model that works for people, planet and the local community.

Four families with a shared vision for new housing

Inspired by collective custom-build housing models common in countries like Chile and Germany, John Kinsley, resident and architect of the collective, brought together future residents to turn a small vacant site into housing. The group met via a local advert and, over six months, four families agreed a shared vision for the site.

Following a successful planning application, land purchase and local support, a modern and energy efficient and environmentally efficient tenement with four flats was built.

Realising shared ownership and stewardship

Getting legal and lender advice was essential in explaining the process and how the group should be constituted. On lender’s advice the group became a limited company, Bath Street Collective Custom Build, which would act as the client for the lender on behalf of the group of prospective residents. The group pooled their collective borrowing power into the company so that it could borrow to fund the construction. The group drew up a memorandum of association, articles of agreement and provided paperwork including payment schedules and contingency plans. The funds were repaid upon completion when each family bought their flat from the limited company, with some residents being offered residential mortgages from the lender for their individual flats. 

To help with future stewardship and decision-making, Bath Street Collective Custom Build created title deeds from scratch, formalising a set of common values. This includes a shared bank account for common repairs and commitments to sustainable living, ensuring the long-term stewardship and sustainability of the tenement.

Empowerment and a duty of care

By cutting out the developer and the developer’s profit, this model ensures that financially all costs go directly to the project. It also gives people participating agency to design homes to suit their individual needs. The size of the collective made it easier to assemble a group and shared vision for the land, which had sustainability at its core.

This model is novel in Scotland and delivers wider benefits over a conventional model of housing development. It empowers individuals and communities that would otherwise be reliant on private developers. When a building is procured and governed by the people that live in it creates a sense of pride and duty of care. The building is an asset and adds to the sense of place.

Sources:

• Interview John Kinsley
• https://www.ecology.co.uk/projects/bath-street-collective-breaking-new-build-norms/