Karachi’s Vertical Expansion Raises Questions Over Rooftop Ownership

Karachi’s population is increasingly spreading vertically, with high-rise buildings transforming the city’s skyline. While government institutions and private developers both play a major role in the city’s construction and development, many builders, like public-sector institutions, have also faced allegations of misconduct.

In the past, residential buildings in Karachi typically had four to six floors, with common areas ranging from parking spaces to rooftops shared by all apartment owners. Today, residential towers with 40 to 60 floors are being constructed on similar plots, with individual units selling for hundreds of millions of rupees. However, a longstanding and contentious practice involves developers selling rooftops as exclusive penthouse properties rather than retaining them as common areas for the building’s residents.

Who owns the rooftop?

This raises a fundamental question: Does selling apartments worth millions of rupees without granting residents their rightful share in the rooftop constitute an infringement of their basic property rights?

A ruling from Mumbai

An important legal development has emerged from neighbouring India, where Mumbai, the country’s commercial hub, is also experiencing rapid vertical urban expansion. A recent ruling concerning rooftop ownership could provide a legal precedent for organisations and individuals campaigning for civic rights in Karachi to seek justice and challenge similar practices.

The Maharashtra State Co-operative Appellate Court has ruled that builders cannot sell a building’s common rooftop as the private property of an individual. The court also held that illegal occupation of common areas cannot be protected through judicial proceedings or injunctions. Merely using a space for an extended period or paying maintenance charges does not establish legal ownership.

The dispute

The ruling was delivered in a longstanding dispute involving the Shah and Nahar Industrial Premises Co-operative Society in Mumbai’s Worli area. The case concerned an open rooftop measuring 2,370 square feet adjacent to an industrial unit.