Condominium
Definition of "Condominium"
So, you’re out and about your homebuying dream and then you stumble upon this question: what is a condominium? Like, you think you know what is a condo home, but it's so hard to explain...
It's ok; it happens to the best of us.
It's not easy defining what is a condominium; condos are one weird body. Keeping up with its weirdness, we could say that condominium is a form of home ownership in which the owner exclusively owns the airspace within the walls but doesn’t own the actual walls, ceilings or floors of the home and anything beyond those.
But enough with the weird. Let’s make this easy and fun. What is a condo home? Let’s put it in a way that anyone can understand. The best way to describe what is a condominium is by defining it as a place within a place. And, while the interest is different from one to the other, you have ownership over both.
Example: an apartment within a condominium building, or a single-family house within a gated community. You accrue ownership of both, but the smaller unit – the apartment or the house - is 100% yours, while the rest – the common areas like gym, pool, lobby, laundry room, elevators…- are collectively owned by all other residents within the condominium and managed by associations such as a Homeowners Association.
Because the ownership is influenced by the neighbors – as you and they share common areas and, sometimes, services – it will vary from condo home to condo home if you can rent your condo to someone else, or if it’s a “owner’s only” type of property.
So, as you can see, it's hard to define what is a condo home. In the end, a condominium is not so much a place, but a form of ownership.
Popular Real Estate Terms
The definition for the gross living area published by the Appraisal Institute’s Dictionary of Real Estate 4th Edition is: “The total area of finished, above-grade residential ...
The real estate world features many tricky terms and concepts. One that often sneaks up on even the most experienced buyers and sellers is the "red herring." What is the meaning of red ...
Real annual return on a real estate investment. It equates the initial investment with the present value of future net cash inflows from the investment. The IRR can be determined by using a ...
Percentage of rentals estimated not to be made because of actual and anticipated vacancies. ...
Money earned or accrued during an accounting period that results in the increase in total assets. Items such as rental income. Revenues arising from the sales of real estate. The ...
Imagine someone asking you about the definition of the real estate market. At first sight, it may seem like an easy answer. But wait! Could the real estate market meaning be more complex ...
Millennials – also known as Generation Y, because they come after the so-called Generation X - is a term coined for a generational extract of people born at the end of the first ...
House made using standardized components that are preassembled on an assembly line in a factory rather than being built from "scratch" on a site. Normally, the prefabricate house is trucked ...
Glass containing wire support to make it stronger. There is less chance of glass being broken into pieces and hurting people. ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.