subject: What Is A Condominium? [print this page] Condos or condominiums are a kind of housing tenure and other real estate types wherein a particular portion of real property--typically an apartment house--is separately owned while usage and availability of mutual utilities, facilities, and amenities such as exterior areas, elevators, heating systems, and hallways are delivered under lawful rights linked with the individual ownership as well as supervised by the group of owners that communally represent possession of the entire property. In layman's terms, the word is mostly referred to the unit itself as a substitute to "apartment". To be more straightforward, condominiums may simply be referred to as the apartment that someone owns instead of rents. Furthermore, condominiums are apartments where the owners may have neighbors next door, below, and above their respective piece of property.
Condominiums versus Apartments
An apartment and a condominium only differ to each other from a legal standpoint. You won't be able to tell the difference between an apartment and a condo by simply looking at them, comparing them, or taking a visit at the building where they're located; they're essentially the same save for certain circumstances (basically, one is rented, one is owned). Add to that the fact that certain localities view the term "condominium" or its essential meaning as another term, and it all gets muddled up from hereon end. In any case, ownership is the main defining characteristic of a condominium, such that it's technically a cluster of separate home units along with the land where they're located.
There are certain condos that consist of solitary family houses reminiscent of regular, single-unit real estate in subdivisions. They're called "detached condominiums", and they're still referred to as condos because their owners aren't solely responsible for the upkeep of the dwellings' exteriors, yards, gardens, and so on. There are also "site condominiums" wherein the homeowner has more influence over the property and may in fact have ownership (as in "lot line" or "whole lot" condos) of the exterior facade. These constructs are favored by some gated communities and planned neighborhoods, in fact.
International Condominium Terms
Usually, a condo as known by everyone in the U.S. comprises of multi-unit houses--that is, a development or apartment--wherein each unit is separately owned and the mutual areas such as recreational conveniences and other in-property features are shared by all (typically as "tenants in common") by the unit owners of the building. If you want to be more technical about it, condominiums refer to a legal term used in the United States and in most Canadian provinces because there are also certain bi-laws involved that all homeowners should follow for the sake of the condo community, such as noise reduction.
"Strata titles" are the equivalent of condominiums in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the Australian continent. As for Quebec, the term "co-propriete devise" or "divided co-property" also refers to condominiums as well. Meanwhile, "commonholds" is the English (England) and Wales version of condominiums, although this is a neologism introduced in 2004 that's rarely ever used in most places within that region. The French equivalent of condominiums is "co-ownerships" or "copropriete", which is typically supervised by the Syndic. As for New Zealanders, they refer to condominiums as apartments while referring to apartments (the rented units most Americans are familiar with) as flats.
