In France they’ll describe apartments by number of rooms not counting kitchen + bathroom (ex. “deux pièces” or “T2” is an American 1-bedroom). I wonder if a sitter has ever gotten confused over that before?
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Another thing to consider if stairs are important is the floor number, In North America, the first floor is on ground level. In some countries, they don’t count the ground level, and the first floor is one level up, what is called the second floor in North America.
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In the UK I’ve not come across condo (not yet - we do seem to adopt US terminology eventually) and instead we have:
flats - either a conversion of an older property into separate dwellings, or in purpose built buildings, usually all with a shared entrance from the street but each with their own front door. These could feature more than one level.
apartments - a flat which could be in a purpose built building or as a conversion, sometimes in a period property (in days gone by, in grand houses an elderly relative might live in an apartment while staff might live in a flat)
Studio - all in one room (separate bath/shower room, of course!)
maisonettes - a flat/apartment with its own entrance onto the street, although sometimes even this is described as a flat/apartment.
Other property descriptions include:
Bungalow - this only has a ground floor
Chalet bungalow - a bungalow with at least one room upstairs, not necessarily an add-on but built that way. I don’t know why that doesn’t make it a house.
Terraced house/bungalow - basically it shares both side walls with another
End terrace - it’s at the end of a row of properties linked
Detached - stands on its own
Link detached - joined to the neighbouring property by a garage
It probably is an issue for some renters as some landlords (including corporate ones) run a tight ship and are scared of squatters or people not on the lease moving in and may think of it as being like Airbnb. Even having a paid person sleep in the apartment might be an issue – addressed on leases.
In NYC even coop and condo owners have run into issues with “unsupervised” guests being against the rules – and while that’s really more geared toward Airbnb and illegal sublets – your neighbors, building managers, and boards may not make that distinction even if the person is being paid to stay.
It’s not an unrealistic concern. There may rules in the lease that allow you to have “workers” come in when you aren’t home, or friends stop by to water the plants, but not sleep there.
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Condos is not a term used in Australia. We say apartments or units and we don’t differentiate if it is owned or rented.
In Australia what does 4x2 mean? I assume it’s 4 ground floor rooms and 2 upstairs?
@BonnyinBrighton For a house I think it means 4 bedroom & 2 bathrooms
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Same in the Uk - we dont differentiate between rented or owned.