An apartment (North American English), flat (British English, Indian English, South African English) or unit (Australian English), is a self-contained housing unit that occupies part of a building. The housing tenure of apartments also varies considerably, from large-scale public housing, to owner occupancy within what is legally a condominium (strata title or commonhold) or leasehold, to tenants renting from a private landlord. The buildings that contain apartments may be called different things depending on size or country (see below).
Terminology
The term apartment is favoured in North America (although in some Canadian cities, flat is used for a unit which is part of a house containing two or three units, typically one to a floor). In the UK and Australia, flat is the common term, although parts of the real estate industry has recently begun using the term "apartment" for large upmarket flats, especially if their target group is foreign investors. In some countries, the word "unit" is a more general term referring to both apartments and rental business suites. The word 'unit' is generally used only in the context of a specific building. "Mixed-use buildings" combine commercial and residential uses within the same structure. Typically, mixed-use buildings consist of businesses on the lower floors (often retail in street-facing ground floor and supporting subterranean levels) and residential apartments on the upper floors.
By housing tenure
Tenement law refers to the feudal basis of permanent property such as land or rents. It may be found combined as in "Messuage or Tenement" to encompass all the land, buildings and other assets of a property. In the United States and some other countries, such as Canada, some apartment-dwellers own their units, either as a housing cooperative, in which the residents own shares of a corporation that owns the building or development; or in a condominium, whose residents own their apartments and share ownership of the public spaces. Most apartments are in buildings designed for the purpose, but large older houses are sometimes divided into apartments. The word apartment denotes a residential unit or section in a building. In some locations, particularly the United States, the word connotes a rental unit owned by the building owner, and is not typically used for a condominium. In England and Wales, some flat owners own shares in the company that owns the freehold of the building as well as holding the flat under a lease. This arrangement is commonly known as a "share of freehold" flat. The freehold company has the right to collect annual ground rents from each of the flat owners in the building. The freeholder can also develop or sell the building, subject to the usual planning and restrictions that might apply. This situation does not happen in Scotland, where long leasehold of residential property was previously unusual and now is impossible.
By size and other characteristics of the building
Apartment buildings are multi-story buildings where three or more residences are contained within one structure. Such a building may be called an apartment building, apartment complex, flat complex, block of flats, tenement (Scotland),tower block, high-rise or, occasionally, mansion block (in British English), especially if it consists of many apartments for rent. A high-rise apartment building is commonly referred to as a residential tower, apartment tower, or block of flats in Australia. A high-rise building is defined by its height differently in various jurisdictions. It may be only residential, in which case it might also be called a tower block, or it might include other functions such as hotels, offices, or shops. There is no clear difference between a tower block and a skyscraper, although a building with fifty or more stories is generally considered a skyscraper. High-rise buildings became possible with the invention of the elevator (lift) and cheaper, more abundant building materials. Their structural system usually is made of reinforced concrete and steel. A low-rise building and mid-rise buildings have fewer stories, but the limits are not always clear. Emporis defines a low-rise as "an enclosed structure below 35 metres [115 feet] which is divided into regular floor levels." The city of Toronto defines a mid-rise as a building between 4 and 12 stories. Most low-rise apartment buildings are walk-ups, lacking elevators Garden apartment buildings are usually one or two storey structures where the individual apartments open directly to the outdoors and where the building or complex offers landscaped grounds.
By country
In American English, the distinction between rental apartments and condominiums is that while rental buildings are owned by a single entity and rented out to many, condominiums are owned individually, while their owners still pay a monthly or yearly fee for building upkeep. Condominiums are often leased by their owner as rental apartments. A third alternative, the cooperative apartment building (or "co-op"), acts as a corporation with all of the tenants as shareholders of the building. Tenants in cooperative buildings do not own their apartment, but instead own a proportional number of shares of the entire cooperative. As in condominiums, cooperators pay a monthly fee for building upkeep. Co-ops are common in cities such as New York, and have gained some popularity in other larger urban areas in the U.S. In British English the usual word is "flat", but apartment is used by property developers to denote expensive "flats" in exclusive and expensive residential areas in, for example, parts of London such as Belgravia and Hampstead. In Scotland, it is called a block of flats or, if it is a traditional sandstone building, a tenement, a term which has a negative connotation elsewhere. In India and South Africa, the words "flat" and "apartment" are interchangeably used to refer to a housing unit in a building. The word "flat" is also used to refer to multi-story dwellings that have lifts.
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