You don't buy apartments, you rent them.
I didn't know what a "condo" was until recently. I've heard that word on american TV shows but I never knew what it meant.
literally from wikipedia:
> Unlike apartments which are leased by their tenants, condominium units are owned outright. Additionally, the owners of the individual units also collectively own the common areas of the property, such as corridors/hallways, walkways, laundry rooms, etc., as well as common utilities and amenities, such as the HVAC system, elevators, and so on.
you can rent a condo from the owner like any other house of course... maybe that's why i got some downvotes. but some owners renting out their condos doesn't turn it into an apartment building.
Apartment and condominium are not mutually exclusive. Condominium only refers to the way a building is owned, if most or all of the units in a condominium were rented out by their owners to 3rd parties you could reasonably call it a condominium apartment building.
My apartment building has shared facilities, which are accessible to anyone who lives in the building, no matter if they own or rent their apartments.
Okay, I listed examples in London, Japan and California that clearly indicate that apartments can be purchased.
Pretty sure it grew as something like, "apartment" != "apartment building", where the second is read as "(adjective) (noun)" instead of as a compound noun, and just describes the physical layout of the whole building, while just "apartment" is describing the individual units and has an implied rent-not-buy.
"Apartments" says urban sprawl, poor people and minorities, "condos" says the opposite. The first says "there goes the neighborhood" and the other implies luxury housing that raises property values.
In cities, "apartments" is generally used for rental and owned apartments.