The wealthy penthouse owner is actually an interesting case in point.
Traditionally England only had Leasehold ownership of 3D space, you couldn't own it in perpetuity. Since the penthouse is presumably above many other properties belonging to other people its owner could only own a "long lease" (e.g. 100 or 250 years) on the penthouse, with the permanent freehold rights separate, often owned by brass plate companies with the ground rent and other fees paid to them disappearing into opaque foreign corporations.
Some years ago, recognising that this is crap, the British government introduced Commonhold, a way to own 3D space that acknowledges that the property owners who share the same physical building need to work together but rejects the approach that the Freehold should be a profit centre for rent-seeking third party investors.
So in principle today a penthouse could be owned Commonhold, which means it comes with membership of a "Commonhold Association" an entity that exists only so that the Commonhold owners can all be members, and to own the Freehold that they're all dependent on instead of it being possible for somebody else to own that.
In practice people didn't say "I demand Commonhold" and accept a price premium for this improved ownership. So if you developed a piece of land after the reform you had the choice, sell a property Commonhold for £X or sell the same property as Leasehold with say a £1000pa escalator ground rent going to Property Holding Corp 3472 based in the British Virgin Islands, for £X. It was a no brainer, and there are very few Commonhold properties today and plenty of these mysterious property holding corporations earning fat stacks.
Traditionally England only had Leasehold ownership of 3D space, you couldn't own it in perpetuity. Since the penthouse is presumably above many other properties belonging to other people its owner could only own a "long lease" (e.g. 100 or 250 years) on the penthouse, with the permanent freehold rights separate, often owned by brass plate companies with the ground rent and other fees paid to them disappearing into opaque foreign corporations.
Some years ago, recognising that this is crap, the British government introduced Commonhold, a way to own 3D space that acknowledges that the property owners who share the same physical building need to work together but rejects the approach that the Freehold should be a profit centre for rent-seeking third party investors.
So in principle today a penthouse could be owned Commonhold, which means it comes with membership of a "Commonhold Association" an entity that exists only so that the Commonhold owners can all be members, and to own the Freehold that they're all dependent on instead of it being possible for somebody else to own that.
In practice people didn't say "I demand Commonhold" and accept a price premium for this improved ownership. So if you developed a piece of land after the reform you had the choice, sell a property Commonhold for £X or sell the same property as Leasehold with say a £1000pa escalator ground rent going to Property Holding Corp 3472 based in the British Virgin Islands, for £X. It was a no brainer, and there are very few Commonhold properties today and plenty of these mysterious property holding corporations earning fat stacks.