Property Clasifications

Residences can be classified by, if, and how they are connected to near by residences and land. Different types of housing tenure can be used for the same physical type. As an example, connected residents might be owned by a single entity and leased out, or owned separately with an agreement covering the relationship between units and common areas and concerns. 'Single-family detached home' Major physical categories in North America and Europe include:

* Attached / multi-unit dwellings
- Apartment - An individual unit in a multi-unit building. The boundaries of the apartment are generally defined by a perimeter of locked or lockable doors. Often seen in multi-story apartment buildings.
- Multi-family house - Often seen in multi-story detached buildings, where each floor is a separate apartment or unit.
- Terraced house (a.k.a. townhouse or rowhouse) - A number of single or multi-unit buildings in a continuous row with shared walls and no intervening space.
- Condominium - Building or complex, just like apartments, owned by individuals. Usual grounds are owned and shared jointly. There are townhouse or rowhouse style condominiums as well.
- Cooperative (a.k.a. "co-op) - A type of several ownership in which the residents of a multiunit housing complex own shares in the cooperative corporation that owns the property, giving each resident the right to occupy a specific apartment or unit.

* Semi-detached dwellings
-Duplex - Two units with one shared wall.

* Single-family detached home

* Portable dwellings
- Mobile homes - Potentially a full-time residence which can be (might not in practice be) movable on wheels.
- Houseboats - A floating home
- Tents - Usually very temporary, with roof and walls consisting only of fabric-like material.

The size of an apartment or house can be described in square feet or meters. In the United States, this includes the area of "living space", excluding the garage and other non-living spaces. The "square meters" figure of a house in Europe may report the total area of the walls enclosing the home, thus including any attached garage and non-living spaces, which makes it crucial to inquire what kind of surface definition has been used.

It can be described more ruggedly by the number of rooms. A studio apartment has a single bedroom with no living room (possibly a separate kitchen). A one-bedroom apartment has a living or dining room separate from the bedroom. Two bedroom, three bedroom, and larger units are common. (A bedroom is defined as a room with a closet for clothes storage.)