Learn English – Does American “condominium” as applies to building ownership have an equivalent term in British or Australian or other English dialects

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An American "condo" is a building, usually residential or industrial, that is owned in condominium by multiple parties. I've recently learned that this term isn't used in conversation in Britain or Ireland. Does it still exist as a legal term there? What is the equivalent conversational term?

Best Answer

The two main types of property ownership in Britain are freehold and leasehold. Freehold means that the owner owns the property and the land it stands on. In leasehold arrangements, you buy a lease on a property for a certain number of years, sometimes as much as 999 years. That entitles you to occupy the property and sell the lease, but you don’t own the property the same way as a freeholder does. It’s often found in apartment blocks, where one party owns the land on which the property stands and the occupants of the apartments buy the lease for their own apartments and, usually, pay an annual sum to the individual or company who owns the land and, ultimately, all the properties.