Difference Between Condominiums and Apartments

Have you ever wondered why some people call their place of residence a condominium and others an apartment? Though these two terms are usually used interchangeably, but they are not exactly the same thing. Condos (or also called as condominiums) and apartments are very similar. There is no way we can know whether it is an apartment or a condominium by just looking at the building, or even visiting it. But in fact, there are differences and that also significant ones.

The difference between those two buildings is mainly a legal distinction. A condo is considered as a collection of individually owned units or apartments, and these apartments could be rented out to someone else but the owners are still responsible for the general maintenance of the area. So from a legal standpoint, if we buy an apartment we could call ourselves a condo owner. An apartment, on the other hand, is a term usually applied to a unit (owned by the developers) in a building that is rented.

In other simple words, an apartment is property that we rent while a condo is property that we own. Ownership is the key difference between condo vs apartment distinctions – and usually, a condo label is applied only to communities which support a condo lifestyle. Condominiums offer facilities and services to condo owners such as maintenance repairs, pools, lawn care, gyms  and club houses.

One of the advantages of living in a condo is that we have full ownership of our house and therefore we can make changes to the interiors as well as the exteriors according to our whims and wishes – and this is not really possible when we live in an apartment. Although you own your house, common areas such as tennis courts, swimming pools, hallways etc are jointly owned by the members of the society, therefore the maintenance expenses are also shared by all the members