Different Kinds of Condos

There are several different kinds of condos. These are generally formatted for residential, recreational, resort or commercial purposes, but there are a few common options.

The first of these is the residential condo and this type can be found in either the residential or the suburban setting. In the metropolitan setting there are a few formats that most consumers will be familiar with and the one that most people have seen is the modern high rise apartment building. As well, there are the newer three to five story mid rise buildings and the older buildings that have been converted from rental units.

Suburban condos tend to be of a different format than the metropolitan cousins and most of these take several forms like the cluster housing that consists of multi-unit structures each with separate entranceways, and townhouses that are actually single family homes distributed in rows. As well, the suburban condo takes the form of garden apartments that consist of a group of apartment buildings surrounded by a common green—frequently here, each of the floors are held by separate owners.

The suburban condo tends to make the most use of the land while creating an attractive ambiance that often includes a private drive and common recreational facilities. Many residential developments have created a complete lifestyle experience where the development is completely self-contained and a community for many people.

Recreational condos take a different format—often they include mobile home parks where the pad with the utility hookups is owned by one person with a share being sold off in the shared elements in the rest of the park. Alternatively, it could take on a leasehold format or another example comes where the condos are created in a rural area.  Here the common areas could include the beach, farm or forest and the common recreational facilities here could include a playground or community center and the assets could include boats or farm animals.

Of course there are also resort condos and these are frequently developed along lakeshores, seacoasts, and in island resorts or in ski country. There are generally two main types of resort condos—those developed to take advantage of warmer climates and those developed to take advantage of the colder climates. The warmer climate types are generally built around a common recreational facility that the residents can use year round—its generally a facility like a lakeshore or a golf course. The winter resorts, understandably, tend to be built around the facilities that harbor winter sports like skiing.

Finally, the ownership of a commercial or industrial condo is similar in concept to the ownership of a residential one. There are several reasons why owning a condo for commercial purposes is an attractive alternative to renting space and one if these is the avoidance of rental increases.     

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