Economic Viability of Neighborhood Cooperatives for Active Aging. Malaga as a Case Study

Abstract

The progressive aging of the world population is a phenomenon that worries national and international institutions and organizations. Aging in the place is a trend desired by older people who have lived a long time in a community, however, it has four major problems in this sector of the population: loneliness, obsolescence of housing, lack of resources given the economic uncertainty of pensions, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article aims to advance research on cooperativism of older people, based on the concept of neighborhood cooperative, understood as a social enterprise where all the residents of a neighborhood participate to provide their members with all the habitability benefits with a low economic contribution. This research analyzes its economic viability in the specific sector of the elderly, by making it possible to obtain the specific benefits of this sector of the population (including the improvement of housing and solving the problems of forced solitude), also managing a social rental park, in moments of difficult access to rental housing. A methodology based on the economic study of a theoretical implementation in a case study in Malaga is proposed. The study concludes by analyzing the economic viability and the increase in social benefits that allows its implementation, thanks to the hiring of support assistants, in the offer of social rent at an appraised price.