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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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.
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