Condominium or Condo is a living space that can be owned and comes with other shared common areas like hallways, sidewalks and elevators owned by a condo corporation. Once you own a condo unit, you are granted membership to the association. The condo owner’s monthly association fees are used in the maintenance of common areas.
Classification of condos:
A lot of people prefer condominiums for its cost and convenience. Some prefer it due to its added security and since they like living as a community. If you are planning to buy a condo in Canada, check out the different options available in LuxuryMTL. The real-estate firm specialises in luxury condos and providing excellent support throughout the process.
Condominiums can be broadly classified into two types based on their contracts.
- Leasehold: The occupant has purchased the unit on contract with the owner or the landlord and doesn’t own the unit.
- Freehold: The occupant here owns the unit either completely or through mortgage. The freehold condominiums are further classified into Standard, Phased, Vacant land and Common element condos.
Standard Condominiums:
These typically could be either standalone or an apartment situated in high-rise building or a row house. A standard condo owner owns the unit’s ceilings, walls, flooring, parking lot, plumbing and electrical wiring. The common areas like driveway, recreational areas are shared by neighbours. The owner of a condo is subject to fluctuating maintenance fees goes into maintenance of common areas.
Phased Condominiums:
Phased condos are standard condominiums which are still under construction. The builder allows the tenants to buy a unit before the project is complete. It benefits the developer in terms of cash flow and cuts down the waiting time of condo owners to occupy the unit.
Vacant land Condominiums.
Like the name implies, these condos are bare lands. After purchasing an empty unit, future occupants can go on to build their own house conforming to the regulations. Including the house, the land belongs to the tenant as a condo unit. There would be restrictions in the developer’s declaration regarding size, design standards and maintenance requirement of future structures. Prospective buyers ought to read through the declaration carefully before finalising the deal.
Common element Condominiums:
There is no such thing like units here and only has common elements like roads, ski hill, golf course etc. Owners are held collectively responsible for maintaining the common areas. They pay monthly maintenance fees.
Condo owners enjoy numerous benefits. They gain access to many amenities at diluted prices which would not have been possible otherwise.