jimmybobobbrain

Sweet. It'd be like factory dormitories in Chinese factories.

The bulk of these buildings tend to be purpose-built rental stacks. Towers built under these conditions tend to have very low strata fees, poor maintenance, and can easily fall in to slum style living. The ownership can extract high rents for little space, and people can sublet to even more people to make for bunk housing. Why not just go Hong Kong style?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cage_home

There is a slide towards smaller and smaller apartments. Two bedroom units in major city centers are clocking in at 600 sq.ft. at times. Then put two parents and two kids in to one, maybe operate a day care or two out of them. Again, these are rental units, so the owners care about low fees and no phone calls. Renters don't want to lose their place, so the calls don't come. Fools that are owner/residents find themselves trapped.

Buildings with low owner/renter ratio may have programs with mortgages:

http://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Selling/What_are_the_curre...

Plus, you never know if a single organization might buy up a massive number of units in the building and throw their weight around the strata to unduly benefit them.

One should also consider the source of the article. The author is a developer who would stand to make significant amounts of money on lower quality, rental focused apartments with more units per block. The hosting site has a huge focus on micro homes as a solution to everyone's needs or desires as well. Look at the list of articles under that section.