The social housing co-operative Fair Ground Brussels announces its merger with LivingStones.
On Thursday 12 December, the members of both organisations voted to merge Fair Ground Brussels and LivingStones.
Surrounded by the founding structures, cooperators and members of the Organisation Administratrive, we celebrated this major milestone at the Palais project. This building is highly symbolic of our commitments, as Palais is a day-care centre for women and a housing project for people on the margins of society, in collaboration with Ilot asbl.
With this merger, Fair Ground Brussels has doubled in size, with 67 housing units under management and 9 spaces dedicated to associations. It happens barely four years after its creation. The consolidated entity is thus strengthening its balance sheet, increasing its impact and becoming a key player in social housing in Brussels.
‘We are delighted to see that the innovation of our approaches and our efficiency in creating housing will enable us to continue to grow and become a major player in this field in the Brussels-Capital Region,’ says Esther Jakober, chair of the cooperative’s board of directors. ‘Our two organisations work in the same sector, with a shared ambition: to socialise property. So it was an obvious choice to work together. We also share the same vision of efficient energy renovation, limiting CO2 emissions and costs for the tenants who benefit.’
By the end of the year, following the merger, Fair Ground Brussels will manage 67 housing units. And that’s without counting the projects currently under development, which should take the number of homes to 90. This major growth for the cooperative will enable it to generate economies of scale by developing the number of property projects, so as to create leverage to absorb new assets, establish the model, finance human resource requirements and influence regional housing policies.
Want to keep up to date with Fair Ground Brussels news? Subscribe to our quarterly newsletter