Residential vertical urbanisation: the intertwining of law and financialisation

‘Vertical urbanisation’, a new form of housing densification, has accelerated in the 21st century and now dominates the skylines of many global cities. Tall residential buildings are more complex than lower-rise multi-occupied buildings due to their sophisticated infrastructures and technologies, co-dependent spatial relationships, mixed uses and density of occupation. They are also more legally complex, especially when individual units are sold using legal forms such as condominium, strata title or leasehold (multi-owned properties) rather than remaining in single ownership with apartments being rented out. This means that property rights in residential towers are distributed among multiple parties, forming an intricate web of legal relationships of different and often conflicting interests. This article demonstrates that an understanding of the various ways in which law operates at all stages of high-rise development and management can make an important contribution to urban theory. However, there has been little theoretical or empirical research into the roles of law(s) in shaping these physical and social spaces. Using primarily English developments for illustration, we show how different laws (in this case, the laws of England and Wales) interact with housing financialisation at various scales, from the global to the home, to shape the production, materialisation, safety and maintenance of residential towers and their surrounding neighbourhoods, as well as the lived experiences of residents and their neighbours. Our grounded analytical approach provides a framework for future empirical research investigating residential towers, in England and elsewhere, that will contribute new understandings to urban development and theory.