The United Kingdom, Canada and Europe could offer a way forward for Australians trapped in a never-ending housing "nightmare".

Politicians, international leaders and local innovators came together at the MCG on Thursday for the Australian Co-operative Housing Alliance's annual summit.

Co-ops are a form of community-run housing, with the alliance pitching the non-profit and collective ownership model as the "missing piece" of Australia's affordable housing puzzle.

In Canada, more than 250,000 people live in co-operative housing.

They make up nearly 60 per cent of Switzerland's non-profit rental market and 17 per cent of Sweden's total housing.

While alliance members manage almost 3500 co-op properties worth nearly $2 billion, they still only account for less than 0.1 per cent of all ho

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