Cooperative housing represents one of the practical fields of cooperative thought. Theoretically, cooperative housing is one of the key pillars of solving housing problem for the low income in Egypt. Egyptian legislations gave many governmenttal facilities to support housing cooperative. However the practical side refers to the ineffectiveness role of cooperative housing in housing provision for the low income in Egypt, especially those who work in the industrial companies. This represents the research problem. Thus, the research aim is to find out the challenges facing cooperative housing system in Egypt.
The main research question is: "why does not cooperative housing play an effective role in solving housing problem for the low-income in Egypt especially those who work in the industrial companies? This paper assumes two possible answers to this question. The first possibility is inadequate framework governing the cooperative housing sector. The second possible reason belongs to customer attitude and behavior towards housing cooperatives.
The research adopted the analytical approach to understand the cooperative housing system in Egypt e.g. its principles, sources of financing, its performance and achievements, challenges and suggested solutions. Also, a short questionnaire was conducted to discover the opinions of a sample of some industrial workers. The questionnaire focused on validating the second research hypothesis regarding the customer behaviors with housing cooperatives and their ability to meet their obligations.