Condo Styles
Condominiums come in all types, sizes and shapes. Putting aside the various commercial and industrial condominiums, there are several types of residential condos, and then a variety of styles available within those types. There are also issues affecting each style of home and its market value.
The first condo to come to most people’s minds is an apartment. Variations on the apartment theme include four-story walk-ups, high-rises served by elevators and then penthouses, which could involve multiple decks, roof-top decks and/or multiple levels.
Keep in mind that upon resale, the market has a bias in favor of views in high-rises and a bias against ground-floor suites. It’s not a dramatic impact on value, but when there is a selection it seems the majority of condo buyers will choose the view.
The apartment condo market also pays more, and tends to buy more quickly, homes that face more than one direction and in which at least one side faces the sunny south. There is a slight bias against suites that face only north. There are always exceptions and these biases are only mentioned to help you consider all aspects when buying and/or reselling.
Townhouse condos have even more variations than apartments. Some of them have full basements, while others are built “concrete slab on-grade.” Having a basement adds value that will be reflected in the price per square foot for the above-grade area of the home. Townhouses also have more value if they are built in a single row, with light from both front and back. The end units of such rows might also have end windows, so these get light from three sides and are very popular sellers. Other townhouse designs are “back-to-back”, so the non-end units have windows facing only one direction.
In addition to all of these possible variations, townhouses can be built with every suite of two or three levels being vertically separate. Some people call these “no one above you; no one below you”. Others are “stacked” three-story buildings, with a bungalow suite on the ground floor and a two-story suite above. In some cases the bungalow extends under two back-to-back homes above, so the bungalow has windows front and back, but the homes above do not.
Other considerations are that some of these buildings are concrete, although most are wood-frame construction, and that some townhouses have drive-under parking for one or even two cars, while most have stall or carport parking. With all these variations, the value of each should be obvious, and they combine with location to create the market value of each home.
An increasingly popular condominium home type is retirement villas, also called bungalow townhouses. These one-story attached condo homes tend to be newer, are often alongside golf courses, and commonly have an age restriction, such as over-55s only. Villas are often built as duplexes, so every home has windows on three sides, yet some developments have “inside units,” meaning they are bracketed between their attached neighbors. Other factors influencing value in villas will be the inside area and number of bedrooms or a den, whether the attached garage is for one or two cars, whether the basement (if it has one) is finished and whether that basement has a walkout with lots of windows.
Lastly, unattached single-family homes can be owned as condominiums. Called bare-land condos, these homes are easier to understand than some believe, and can be much like any other subdivision. Be assured that you own the land as much as anyone does anywhere else. You also own the entire house that has been built on the land you own. But you also share ownership of the condominium corporation that has a package of service and maintenance agreements you sign on to when you buy.
In other words, it’s entirely your house, but you agree to exterior maintenance standards, and the work is done collectively to save money and maintain consistency. As well, you agree to jointly-organized lawn cutting, landscaping and snow clearing. All-in-all, it’s a house, but for a modest fee, you can travel for months or golf, and outward appearances will be maintained.