How mutual-aid construction has helped thousands of working-class families secure homes while limiting real-estate speculation in Uruguay
Published in El País’s América Futura section and reported by Noor Mahtani, this article explores Uruguay’s decades-old cooperative housing system, which allows low-income families to build and own homes through a model of collective labour, state subsidies and community governance.
The story begins with Patricia Ríos, a domestic worker who spent years paying more than half her income on rent before joining a housing cooperative in Mercedes, Uruguay. Alongside 29 other families, she helped construct her own home through the country’s “Mutual Aid” program, dedicating several hours each day to building the cooperative’s apartments. The model, first introduced in the 1960s, requires residents to work together during construction while receiving government support through subsidised loans and technical guidance from architects, lawyers and social workers.
Uruguay now has around 730 housing cooperatives, and more than 20,000 homes have been built through this approach in the past 15 years. The system does more than provide housing. Participants collectively manage finances, make decisions about land and design, and develop new organisational skills. Experts say this process empowers residents while strengthening local communities.
Unlike conventional property markets, cooperative housing sharply limits speculation. Homes can be inherited or sold, but usually only to other cooperative members, preventing the rapid price inflation seen in many cities affected by short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb. As a result, Uruguay has maintained relatively high levels of decent housing: 57.3% of citizens own their homes, and most properties have reliable access to electricity, drinking water and sanitation.
The article places Uruguay’s experience within a wider regional crisis. Across Latin America, declining wages and rising property speculation have pushed homeownership out of reach for many younger people. In countries such as Colombia, Chile and Mexico, housing costs and inadequate public investment have forced many families to remain renters or live with relatives.
Uruguay’s cooperative system offers a partial alternative. Beyond building apartments, the program reshapes neighbourhoods by bringing infrastructure, services and social networks into previously underdeveloped areas. For participants like Ríos, the process is as transformative as the result. Working side by side with neighbours, she says, has taught her that collective action can achieve what individuals alone cannot.
The original article by Noor Mahtani, ‘El cooperativismo, el secreto de Uruguay contra la especulación inmobiliaria en tiempos de Airbnb’ was published in Spanish by El País on September 15, 2025.
It is available here.
El País is a Spanish daily newspaper headquartered in Madrid, Spain. Through their América Futura section, they cover sustainable development, innovation and technology in the Americas, and are widely regarded as one of the most influential newspapers in the Spanish-speaking world.
Summary by ZN
