Sun VillagesInstitute
08 · The Co-operative · Investing in licensed villages

The Sun Villages Co‑operative

Members have voted. The co-operative now invests only in villages built to the Sun Villages Model Licence, on the same principles the Sun Villages Institute holds.

Sun Villages Co-operative: eight principles, one network

The co-operative and its eight principles · Watch on YouTube

The decision

One co-operative, many villages

The members of the Sun Villages Co-operative have voted to adopt the principles of the Sun Villages Model Licence as the co-operative's own.

The Institute licenses the Sun Villages name and certifies each village against a written standard. The co-operative pools its members' money and invests only in villages that hold the licence. Every investment goes to a vote of members, with the facts set out in writing three weeks before.

Any group can build their own development based on the model, but there's a lot more freedom, strength, and financial liquidity if large numbers of people come together under the Sun Villages brand.

Stina Kerans, Can't Buy Property?

Shared by the co-operative and the Institute

The eight principles

Diners in the Young Street courtyard cafe, design model
Principle 1

Social first

Every home within 300 metres of a shared hub with a café. Movable boundaries, a mix of life stages, about six daily points of contact designed in.

Young Street from the air, one building on one title, design model
Principle 2

Held, not sold

One title, one owner. No strata, no unit subdivision. Sale and subdivision locked in the constitution.

Neighbours planting seedlings together, illustration
Principle 3

Shares first, then patient capital

Villages are built and held on shares. Where more is needed, only patient capital: community lending on the terms below. No bank lending.

A front door opening onto a garden path, illustration
Principle 4

A lease, not a tenancy

Long, inheritable leases with owner-like rights, and a minimum shareholding as bond.

Hands at work on copper, illustration
Principle 5

Wages, not markets

Lease fees index to wages only. Returns are capped and wage-indexed. Home price and investment price kept separate.

The Young Street frame rising, design model
Principle 6

Community sourced finance

Capital released only on quantity surveyor certificates. A minimum raise stated before money is taken, and the same terms for everyone.

Neighbours exchanging produce at a market shelter, illustration
Principle 7

The exchange

Every village joins the LETS from day one. Village hours recorded, a paid broker, limits both ways.

A branching network spreading across the land, illustration
Principle 8

The network

A lawful way for shares to change hands, published asset value and yield, and lease offsets between villages.

Above all eight: no promise of return or liquidity, and an honest public statement of what is done, under way and not yet.

Principle three, in full

Shares first, then patient capital

Patient capital is community lending: money from members, mission lenders and foundations, on terms that can never put a village at risk.

No bank and no lender whose business is secured property lending may lend to a licensed village. The test is on the terms, whoever the lender is.

  • No power of saleNo one can force a sale, appoint a receiver or take possession of the land.
  • Repaid from surplus onlyAfter running costs, the sinking fund and the commons. A shortfall waits; it is never a default.
  • No accelerationMissing a payment can never make the whole amount fall due.
  • Conversion, not enforcementIf deferral runs too long, the lender becomes a shareholder at published value, like every resident.
  • Return capped like a shareNever more than the wage-indexed return shareholders receive that year.
  • No vetoInformation and a seat at the annual meeting. No say over budgets, leases, fees or works.
The villages

Young Street and Narooma

Building G plan from the Young Street design model
Young Street, Queanbeyan

Where the model is being built

Sun Villages on Young Street, Crestwood: one title, built on shares, with the Queanbeyan Commons at its heart. More on Young Street

The motel deck at Kianga Homestead, Narooma
NSW South Coast

The Narooma project

Kianga Homestead and its motel are trading today, on land that already feeds, waters and powers itself. A potential investment for the co-operative, decided by members. More on Narooma

The pathway

How a village joins

Sun Villages Co-operative Limited · NSWC32906

Application for membership

Membership is 100 shares at $1 each. There is no entry fee. The annual subscription, set by the board, is $10 for the first year and includes the co-operative's own workshops.

Your application goes to the co-operative's secretary, Stina Kerans, at stina@sunvillages.institute. We use your details only to consider your application and keep the register of members the law requires. The board considers each application and, once admitted, you are entered in the register within 28 days.

Sources