in my country this is the most common form of renting. the cooperatives benefit from legal protections which prevent for profits from entering the market. however it means there is no competition and prices are artificially high. also a huge amount of corruption scandals involving the higher-ups of housing cooperatives.
Interesting. Over here (Germany) the prices in housing cooperatives are actually ridiculously low, compared to the rest of the apartment market. As a student, I lived in a single-room apartment with separate kitchen and bath, 26 square meters total, for less than 200 euros (including utilities).
well here (netherlands) you have zoning. they are the only ones allowed to do anything in 'social housing' zones. the government asks higher prices (for land) in other zones. i needed to pay off the government for 30000 when i bought my place because it used to be in the social housing zone too. that 30k/unit needs to be factored in when comparing coops and others. i believe legally others are not even allowed to charge under 800.
But you kinda prove my point about artificially high prices. there is no reason for the prices here to be a lot higher than next door.
I lived in a similarly sized 1 person appartment for years. it cost me 480 euros/mo. and that was the best deal anyone could ever get here (because in my case too, it was from the student's coop). here the 200 euro/month would get you absolutely nothing (not even a room).