What is a Condo?

Condos offer a unique form of shared real estate ownership. While individuals own their personal units, they also share responsibility for the building’s common areas and overall decisions. These decisions are managed by a board of directors elected by the owners.

Living in a condo comes with both rights and responsibilities. Owners are expected to pay fees, follow community rules, attend meetings, and take part in governance. It’s not just a legal arrangement, it’s also about being part of a community.

Most people think of condos as homes in large towers in dense urban areas. A better way to think of a condo is as a shared real estate ownership structure where owners engage in collaborative decision making. Condos are also diverse, with many existing in suburban and rural areas and with unique and differing needs. 

What this means is that purchasing a condo makes you part of a community where you are directly responsible for paying your share of that community’s upkeep, following its rules, staying informed about its needs, voting and more. Here’s a summary of what condo owners can, should and must do:

Freehold corporations are ones where the land/property is jointly owned by the unit owners

The four different types of freehold condo corporations under the Condo Act:

• The most common type of condo corporation in Ontario
• Has individual units and common elements which often include areas such as a foyer, exterior walls, and amenities

• A standard condo corporation that is intended to be built in phases where new units and common elements are constructed and added to the initial condo corporation
• Upon final phase registration, which must take place within 10 years of the initial condominium registration, a phased condominium becomes a completed standard condominium

• The units are typically vacant lots at the time of purchase. The layout of the condominium may resemble a subdivision
• The common elements are often things such as private roadways, private sewer systems and may include amenities such as a park or recreational facility
• The developer may sell the individual units as vacant or may build a home on some or all of the units

• There are no units in this type of condo corporation, only common elements which are shared by owners of parcels of tied land (POTL) that are legally attached to the common elements
• Owners purchase a common interest in the common elements that is attached to their POTL. Examples include shared roads, golf courses or ski hills

freehold. Unit owners buy a leasehold interest in a unit and its associated common elements but do not own the underlying land. Some key points about leasehold condo corporations include:

• Common expenses include a portion of the rent payable to the landowner
• Once the lease expires, the owner’s rights to occupy the condo unit is automatically terminated
• Leasehold condo corporations are not common in Ontario