The Right Of Housing

The type of ownership is very important to determine a building if its an apartment or a condominium, or any other type of housing, particularly with apartments and condominiums. So what are the difference between apartments and condominiums? And what are the type of ownership that embodies these types of housing?


How can you determine if a building is a condominium or an apartment? Condominiums and apartments are practically similar with each other. According to many philippine real estate experts, a building to be used as an apartment could also be used as a condominium, and vice versa. One way of determining the difference of condominiums from apartments is with its ownership.

The type of ownership is very important to determine a building if its an apartment or a condominium, or any other type of housing. Ownership falls under the term that professionals call as housing tenure. Housing tenure refers to the financial arrangements under which someone has the right to live in a house or apartment.

Housing tenure
Determining the difference between condominiums and apartments falls under its housing tenure. The huge difference is that apartments are commonly rented or leased to tenants while condominiums are individually owned. This is a very good example of two of the most widely used forms of housing tenure, which are tenancy and owner occupancy.

Tenancy, or leasehold estate is an ownership interest in land in which a lessee or a tenant holds real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord, while owner occupancy involves an owner-occupier who lives in a house that he or she owns. However, according to many philippine real estate experts, the housing tenure that embodies condominiums is a modified form of owner occupancy.

Because of the introduction of new types of housing, new forms of housing tenure were also introduced in the industry to determine a type of ownership an individual have on any type of housing. These new types of housing tenure are modified and mixed forms of owner occupancy and tenancy. One example is with condominiums.

Condominiums, though a type of owner occupancy, is a form of commonhold and strata title which involves ownership of an apartment or house is assigned to an individual, but common areas (e.g. hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas) are controlled by the homeowners' association. Fees are charged to the condo owners for maintenance of the common areas. According to many philippine real estate experts, these are referred to as "condo fees".

Other types of housing tenure
Other types of housing tenure other than condominiums, tenancy, and owner occupancy, include: Cooperative housing, which is a type of ownership of the entire building or complex is held in common by a homeowners' association; Public housing, which is a type of government housing, whether provided for free or leased at a subsidised rate; as well as Squatting which involves occupation by non-owner without permission by the owner.