Hi, could some please explain the differences between all these types of housing residences:-
1)Condominium
2)Apartments
3)Flat
4)Bunglow
5)Townhouse
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1) Condo, something akin to an apartment, but more likely to be owned by the tenant.
2) Apartment, American version of a flat.
3) Flat, Euro version of an apartment.
4) Bungalow, smaller, cozy house or cabin.
5) Townhouse, think of one of those fancy NYC/Boston houses with their door facing a street.
Edited because fat thumb typos.
Condo: You own the interior (or rent it) but not the entire building nor the property surrounding it usually. Often one side of a 2 unit building.
Apartment: A series of rooms smaller than a condo often times, usually 1 story (no stairs). Normally found in a large building with multiple units.
Flat: British term for apartment. See above.
Bungalow: Often a small single building, smaller than a normal house. Could be a single bedroom, or even a studio (No walls between “bedroom” area and other areas.
Townhouse: Much like a condo, usually multi-storied. Unlike a condo, however, you own the entire portion of the building you reside in. Meaning, the roof is yours, the walls are yours, other than the shared wall between you and the next unit.
• Complex ([Image](https://dallasnews.imgix.net/case1.jpg)): A multi-story building with individual units. Entrances are interior (via hallways). Unit owners/tenants not responsible for exterior maintenance.
• Condominium: A complex where each unit is individually owned. Can be rented out by the individual owners to tenants.
• Apartment/Flat: A complex where each unit is owned by the building. Only rented.
• Townhouse ([Image](https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/88ba7f60e3443054f93b7bfd57558c91-cc_ft_960.jpg)): Similar to a condo but the entrances are exterior (no hallways), usually only 1-3 stories.
• Villa ([Image](https://nhs-dynamic.secure.footprint.net/images/homes/lennarweb/27299987-180427.jpg?maxwidth=1932&format=jpg)): Fancy name for a duplex (or tri/quad/etc.). Similar to a townhouse in nature, but more akin to a traditional single-family home (you just share a wall), and usually you are responsible for the exterior maintenance (e.g., mowing the yard). But villa is also a design-style for single-family homes as well, usually very nice ones, hence the marketing decision to change the name from a duplex to villa.
• Bungalow: A design-style for single-family homes.
Condominiums (condos), Apartments, Flats, and Townhouses are all names for the individual units within a multi-unit residential building. A flat is what an apartment is called in Europe/Britain, and that is a living space (including a kitchen, bedroom, and general private place for humans to exist) that is in a building with several of them; this can be in towers or long rows, I am currently in an apartment.
Condos are also often like this, and the main difference between an apartment/flat and a condo is that an apartment is typically owned and managed by a property management company and then leased out to occupants who don’t own the space, just pay to live there on a lease. Condos, conversely, are bought and sold, usually with the help of a mortgage, and once the full value of the condo (plus whatever interest the bank takes for the mortgage service) is paid off, you own that condo, but *only* the unit that is your living space, not the other units above, below, and next to you.
The best way to think about these, IMO: If you take a block of single-family, single-story houses, and pull them all together so that they’re touching side to size, with the “front door” of each house put facing a hallway of some sort, then you stack more blocks of housing on top of those and put stairs and elevators in. That’s an apartment complex or condo complex in a nutshell: complete homes all tucked into a smaller space.
This is all distinct from, say, a dorm room or barracks, because each unit is self-contained, whereas most dorm rooms only have places to sleep and (sometimes) go to the bathroom, but you’re expected to use communal living and cooking/eating spaces in those sorts of arrangements.
A townhouse is one of many homes that are typically narrow and multi-story, that are wall-to-wall on the sides but have a front and back lawn area that is fenced off. You can think of it as existing in between a single-family home with its own surrounding lot on all 4 sides, and a condo that is only surrounded by other condos or hallways.
Then there’s the Bungalow – this is just a specific type of house design, typically a single story or, if you’re fancy, a single story with an attic that is only enclosed by the roof, not a ceiling of any sort (aka an “attic”) – these are typically just another type of single-family home.
Technically, a condominium is a form of legal ownership with some parts of the property owned in common under a master deed but individual units of the property opened individual, with local law set requirements for a condo association (a type of homeowners association) to manage the commonly owned property.
The laws establishing the condominium form of ownership don’t have to specify specific building types. Hence you’ll find other answers specifying particular types of structures for condos, based on what’s common where they live. They’re all wrong. Where I live in suburbia, there are condominiums that are townhouses and even “mobile homes” (where the mobile homes are on fixed foundations and not mobile any more). But closer into Boston and within the city, there are tall apartment buildings that are condominiums, as well as triple deckers (three story homes, often originally for a single family but later converted into separate units on each floor) that have become condominiums.
It’s quite possible and even, in some areas, common for apartment buildings to be converted from a single ownership into condominiums. The just takes hiring a lawyer to create and file the new deeds, maybe some structural work such as making heat and electric billed separately, and then selling the resulting units.
Finally, I’ll point out that in contrast to the technical definition, it’s common for real estate advertising to use the word “apartment” when they mean an apartment to rent, regardless of whether the apartment is a condo or traditional (single owner for entire building). Conversely, it’s also common for them to use the word “condo” for selling whichever type of condo unit is most common, and to use the architectural term for other types of condos. Thu townhouses and stand-alone condos in my area will be listed under townhouses or single family homes, with the text description saying they’re part of a condominium.
Apartments are where there are multiple individual units within a common entry building.
A condominium is an apartment that one buys/owns vs. a rental apartment.
Flat is just the British term for apartment/condo, although sometimes you’ll hear the term used to define a small apartment building (ie. here in Chicago, a 3-floor building with 3 apartments would typically be referred to as a 3-flat, even though each individual unit would be called an apartment).
Townhouse are connected housing units each with their own entrance to the outside, typically multiple story.
A bungalow is a one story single family house or one with a partial second floor, typically lower slung/wide roof.
Google bungalow and townhouse and the pictures will tell you all you need to know. Those terms denote a particular kind of structure. There is variation in that not all townhouses look alike but they have certain charactistics in common. Same for bungalow. “Apartment” “condominium” do not denote a type. Apartment in the us is understood as a rental. It could be in a high rise, a multi family, or in complex. A tenant rents an apartment. Others have explained condos!
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