Since the year 1969 the cooperative housing movement has contributed substantially towards increasing the housing stock within the country. The main objective of the cooperative housing movement “was to promote cooperative housing in the country and also to coordinate and facilitate the operation of the various cooperative housing societies”.

The cooperative movement has gained momentum and the number of housing units being developed each year is now substantial. Yet this movement has been unable to maintain its momentum in a progressive manner. The failure of many of these the cooperatives stems from the lack of public awareness about the advantages of the cooperative housing sector.

It has been observed that cooperatives have flourished among the middle and higher income groups while they have completely failed to stimulate housing activities in the lower income groups. Even the Task Force on Housing and Urban Development has made strong observations on the fact that cooperative housing is totally absent among the lower-income groups. It has strongly recommended that low-income groups should be encouraged to form cooperatives in order to meet their immediate shelter requirements.

In Kerala Real Estate values are appreciating like never before and thus the housing cooperatives can find their rightful place in the fiercely competitive real estate market. In the urban centers slums are proliferating and to control things from getting out of hand, the government must step in to provide something useful to people who are feeling marginalized in the urban centers. The earlier difficulties faced by the housing cooperatives in earlier times are a thing of the past due to the changed outlook of the people towards a home in modern times.