Strata title is one of this state's most magical inventions: a means of creating land out of thin air. But strata subdivision has delivered an unfortunate Australian urban myth, namely that legal title to a strata lot is no different to a title in land, and as a consequence, strata title owners enjoy the same property rights as those reserved for landowners.

Many apartment owners - such as those at Meriton's World Square - see their individual rights as paramount to any duty they owe the collective where they have chosen to buy property.

The often-forgotten reality of a strata investment is the fact you buy no more than cubic airspace - all six boundaries of which are common property for which the care and maintenance is vested in the owners corporation.

When, in 1961, the NSW Parliament invented the subdivision of cubic airspace to create strata lots, what could have been seen as an otherwise charlatan pursuit was given an air of legitimacy. Certificates of title for strata lots were made identical to those issued for the subdivision of land.

With the new strata certificate of title came the cache of ''property rights''.