What Is A Condominium?
A common misconception, even among the real estate professionals, is to associate the word condominium with the type of high-rise building architecture with dwelling units called condo units. Wrong, a condominium is not a building, though that is normally what we have grown to see in bigger cities like Manila, Cebu and, most recently, in Davao. In reality, any multi-unit structure like row houses and apartments can become a condominium.
Condominium Defined
The term condominium actually refers to the type of ownership, wherein an individual owns a unit and co-owns with other individual owners the commonly shared interest in the building. Typically, when you buy a condo unit, say a studio-type unit, you own that unit and you can have the title under your name. But your ownership doesn’t stop there. Together with other unit owners, you also become a co-owner with undivided interest of the common elements of community that are used by everyone else: the hallway, the corridors, the gardens, and even the land. The keyword here is ownership. As an individual owner, you own your unit; everyone else (including you) owns the “common elements” of the project.
The Condominium Corporation
In the Philippines, a condominium is actually setup as a corporation, where the individual unit owners become shareholders of the corporation. Going back to the common elements mentioned previously, it is the whole corporation that owns those. Moreover, as a share holder, you also participate in running the corporation like setting-up and following its rules.
Condominium Title
A condo unit owner is given a Condominium Certificate of Title as evidence that is he an owner. One of the good things about this title is that it can be in the name of a foreigner. Foreigners are wary of buying house and lot in the Philippines, because they cannot have the title in their name. The Condominium form of ownership provides a better, if not the best, alternative for them.