FLAT, APARTMENT AND CONDOMINIUM

What is a Flat? an Apartment? or a Condominium?

My personal view is that

• a Flat is a housing block of lesser quality meant for lower-income groups. And it is the cheapest of the three.
• an Apartment is a high rise or low rise building with basic facilities. Like, security guards and playground. Some with facilities like swimming pool (smaller in size as compared to the number of residents), basketball court, gym, etc. Whereas
• a Condominium is more exclusive in terms of building outlook and structure, with more facilities than apartment.

But what about prices?

Of late, I noticed that an apartment / condo apartment (apartment with condo facilities) in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, can cost about the same or even more than a condominium. So, better buy a condominium than :)

Look at the definitions of the three from these websites

Asian Luxury Property / Real Estate Asia

Apartments and Condominiums

An apartment is a high-rise or low-rise building with basic facilities while a condominium consists of more facilities such as swimming pool, convenience store, tennis courts, gym, and other amenities. Apartments are relatively self-contained housing unit in a building which is often rented out to a family or one or more people for their exclusive use. It is sometimes called a flat. Some locales have legal definitions of what constitutes an apartment. In some places 'apartment' denotes a building that was built of such units, while 'flat' denotes a unit in a building built originally as a single-family house and later subdivided. One of the types of apartments available is studio apartment. These kinds of apartment usually consist mainly of a large room which is the living, dining, and bedroom combined. There are usually kitchen facilities as part of this central room, but the bathroom is its own smaller separate room. Condominiums fetch higher prices and rentals usually due to the fact that they are of better quality and come with a full range of facilities.

Penang Properties

What is the difference between an apartment, a condo or a flat ?

In Malaysia, apartment and condo are the same meaning. Most condo or apartment will have condominium facilities and security services. Flats generally means medium or low cost flat and in most cases would not have the facilities unlike condominium.

Also, please go here for other definitions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condominium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartment

Note that different countries has different definitions. Condominiums are more commonly known as "flats" in India. This type of housing is very common in larger cities like Delhi, Mumbai (Bombay), Bangalore,Hyderabad and Chennai (Madras) but are not commonly found in rural areas.