Most of the US differentiates owned vs rented by using the terms condo or apartment, but the term apartment is used for both in at least Chicago and New York.

Also Australia. Here I say I own my apartment. Here you can own or rent an apartment just like you can own or rent a house.

I didn't know what a "condo" was until recently. I've heard that word on american TV shows but I never knew what it meant.

Don't you say flat? And I think a condo is a flat with access to facilities?

We also say flat. We use "apartment" and "flat" interchangeably.

My apartment building has shared facilities, which are accessible to anyone who lives in the building, no matter if they own or rent their apartments.

condo is a flat that you own with common facilities.

Not sure why you are downvoted as that is the precise legal definition. In a condominium the building is community owned.

dunno, by the time i woke up i was back to neutral again...

literally from wikipedia:

> Unlike apartments which are leased by their tenants, condominium units are owned outright. Additionally, the owners of the individual units also collectively own the common areas of the property, such as corridors/hallways, walkways, laundry rooms, etc., as well as common utilities and amenities, such as the HVAC system, elevators, and so on.

you can rent a condo from the owner like any other house of course... maybe that's why i got some downvotes. but some owners renting out their condos doesn't turn it into an apartment building.

>owners renting out their condos doesn't turn it into an apartment building.

Apartment and condominium are not mutually exclusive. Condominium only refers to the way a building is owned, if most or all of the units in a condominium were rented out by their owners to 3rd parties you could reasonably call it a condominium apartment building.

I have a condo in Chicago so there's more to it. And individually we live in "units".

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/flats/london/ https://japanpropertycentral.com/real-estate-faq/apartment-b... https://tranio.com/usa/ca/apartments/

Okay, I listed examples in London, Japan and California that clearly indicate that apartments can be purchased.

This is a distinction I also grew up with, I think it's a regional thing.

Pretty sure it grew as something like, "apartment" != "apartment building", where the second is read as "(adjective) (noun)" instead of as a compound noun, and just describes the physical layout of the whole building, while just "apartment" is describing the individual units and has an implied rent-not-buy.

In my experience, it's a distinction made in suburbs, I suspect because of the influence of NIMBYs who are opposed to rental apartments existing or being built. They say it's because they're afraid it'll lower property values and attract the "wrong" kinds of people that they chose to live in suburbs to stay away from.

"Apartments" says urban sprawl, poor people and minorities, "condos" says the opposite. The first says "there goes the neighborhood" and the other implies luxury housing that raises property values.

In cities, "apartments" is generally used for rental and owned apartments.

It gets even weirder in some places. We owned a house in an HOA for awhile in Michigan that was technically a "site condominium". We owned the exclusive right to build an house on our lot and the house that the previous owners built but the HOA owned the common areas and if I recall correctly the mineral rights for our property.