Condominium, Commonhold, and Legal Architecture of Private Property in the City

In 2002, Parliament introduced commonhold legislation to facilitate the subdivision of multi-unit buildings into individual freehold interests in England and Wales. In doing so, it followed a statutory change made across most of North America in the 1960s through condominium legislation to simplify the subdivision of multi-unit residences. Much as commonhold since it was introduced, condominium was seldom used in its early years. However, it now provides the architecture of ownership for a great many home-owners in certain North American cities. This paper describes and maps the emergence and spread of condominium in Vancouver, Canada, from 1970-2010, using the city to illustrate a continent-wide trend towards condominium, but also as exceptional for the prevalence of this relatively new form of land owership. It then reflects on the capacity of this legal form to shape an urban landscape and to change how it is that we understand private property.