Collective Ownership Society is excited to announce that an offer has been accepted on a 7-bedroom maisonette in Peckham, which will house members of Raft Housing Cooperative — one of our member coops. We are looking for £225,000 of investment to help secure the property.
Raft was formed in April 2025 by seven people living and working in London: organisers, political educators, and a nurse, all active in social movements and community projects. After a year of building trust and shared purpose, they came together with a clear goal — to create long-term, secure, and affordable homes where members can live in community, managed democratically and removed from the speculative rental market. As Pascale, a future resident explains
“Collective Ownership means that we will be able to actually set up a home which we can all collectively control. Without CO, their investment and their ability to collectively pool money I don’t think we would be able to do this without stupid amounts of savings. It feels really exciting that this model will maybe help us get there”.
This property is a strong starting point. As well as providing bedrooms for Raft’s members, it includes communal space for study and creative work, and a large garden with potential for food growing. Many of the group are already rooted in the local area through living nearby for several years as well as through work, friendships, and community organising. It is a ‘Right to Buy’ property – so with COS securing the purchase it would be mutualised back into a collectively owned asset. Raft want to be engaged in developing collective ownership, with another future residents explaining that they became involve because of a desire to:
“Not only create secure housing for ourselves but ensuring that properties are taken out of the market and there for future generations. We are not just setting this up for for ourselves as an individual co-operative but it’s really excited to be contributing to this bigger project which hopefully will be able to expand and start to be a real alternative to other models”
