To live in an apartment, condo, house whatever. I guess it’s all a personal choice. Just be sure you have the Internet or TV for viewing sports. :-*
The Minimalist lifestyle.
At the moment, all I want is peace and quite. If I had my way, I would live over 200 meters from nearest neighbour and even farther away from any busy street, train track or airport.
Whats the diff between condo and apt?
I have never lived in either. I THINK :
Condo you own but has monthly fees.
Apartment you pay rent every month and own nothing.
They get you one way or another.
yeah, I thought that was the difference but I keep hearing/reading people talking about buying apts.
My experience with apts back in 80s was that the walls and flooring is paper thin. No more of that for me I hope
I would consider condo but I don't like the idea of being under strata control and costs. Also too many people living too close.
Had a townhouse for a couple of years in the 90s but again with the strata and population issues. Also today it seems like here in metro Van that all newer townhouse are built like stacked boxcars.
Just a thought, while I don't mind this topic, I think it might be a bit of a stretch to call it entertainment.
When I first heard the topic I thought we were going a whole different direction with the lifestyle thing . Chika bow wow .
we did that one long time ago
I concur, for I am leaving an apartment now and going back to a condo as a tenant. I've also managed condos in Florida. It has its perks especially if you are single.
At some point I'd like to live in a single-family residence again, but no way will it be clustered close to other such residences.
For the most part, the key difference is that with a condo you own the air space, plus the wall and floor coverings, plus use of any balcony or terrace and some maintenance responsibility for it, plus anything in the interior including in many jurisdictions such as Florida also any heating, ventilation, or air condition appliances that provide service to only your unit.
The condominium association handles usually the rest with great variances in service, community governance, and monthly or quarterly costs.
Some resort condos, such as near beaches, also offer additional services for an additional fee to owners.
An apartment is a rental, but in very big cities like New York City you can also own a high-rise apartment too and it functions much like a condo though with variations including a higher level of service by the developer and management.
As for as day-to-day living, the key difference is sharing a community with owners for a condominium community versus only tenants in an apartment community.
Beware so-called townhomes, villas, row houses, duplexes et cetera especially if they proclaim falsely "maintenance free" on the sales pitch. Whatever they look like, those are not condos and one is responsible for far more on such units yet one shares walls with at least one other party just like with condos or apartments.
Often these units are little more than disguised condos but with far more cost to you as the individual owner. I have noticed more often than not that they are with construction defects, whether to units or in the community, somewhat more often than condos as well.
Interesting take Paolo. Here in Hamilton I notice there are many low rise type condos being built on cheap lots of old vacant or some old garage or store that's been torn down to make way for the lose rise condos, at intersections of main roads and streets in older parts of the city. For the baby boomers wanting to sell their older house and stay in the area in a low rise condo with no maintenance.
I'm not ready for that and would take a town-house condo if need be ie. for health reasons or convenience where I don't want to cut grass or shovel snow, but where I can still have a tiny bit of green space just to house a small table and BBQ out back.
Other than the branding, maybe this is entertainment if a few of us are even mildly entertained? ;D
Though not common in the Tampa Bay area in Florida, I have seen ground-level condos, which are not town-homes but look like town-homes, as well. If you have those there, do go for it but make sure to read closely just what you are buying. Sales pitches often misrepresent the reality. Sometimes even the real estate professional, who is trained to know better and should unlike many an owner, is not on point sadly.
Usually these types of ground-level units are not condos in Florida, and one key difference as you cite is truly low maintenance yet some usable space on your lot (note that you own often in reality only the condominium unit itself and any enclosed areas and not the lot for those but have the right of exclusive use of your lot).
The associated documents of public record, which should be requested from any owner or real estate agent and are usually required to be provided to you before the sale, will clear up any representations in advertising as to exactly what you are buying and what you are not buying.
Review those documents carefully and if pressured to sign some waiver that you have reviewed them upon submission to you, hold off until after you have had a few days to go over them and have your questions answered.
My life is entertainment but then I'm biased as I think exactly that, my life is entertainment. 
I think it depends on your own personal life style . If you travel a lot you might want to rent an apartment with a caretaker or buy a condo with trusted supervision .
I find some HOA fees in Canada are crazy they are cheaper in Hawaii and they are expensive . Why would anyone buy a condo with 800 HOA a month ? Your stuck with this money drainer .
I can't agree more considering also the dark secret of sorts, which is not at all but people are sheeple, known as the "special assessment." The condo has responsibility for certain longer-term maintenance such as roofs, painting, paving, and other infrastructure.
One trick is to rent in a condominium that is older yet has been updated, for the owners often have paid down the mortgage such that your rent covers their assessment and then the rest is for a lower mortgage payment and other expenses. If you buy or rent a newer condo, there is nowhere to go but up plus construction defects are so common.
In Florida laws are more strict with regards to the reserves a condo must maintain for such deferred maintenance and replacement, but laws and such requirements vary by state (or province?). If the state or province has lackadaisical laws, you can bet the condos don't reserve near enough for such known deferred expenses.
When a condo has not saved enough for deferred expenses, or when there is a catastrophic expense such as caused by the weather such that not all the damage is covered by insurance or if the insurance proceeds are delayed or tied up in litigation as is often the case, WHAM! everyone gets hit with a "special assessment" of several thousands of dollars on top of whatever else they are paying.
Having dealt with the situation first-hand for the known need to replace the roofs as were improperly installed 12 years ago and as was the periodic duty of the association (it was a homeowners' association not a condo in that case), it's not a happy meeting of the homeowners at all.
If I could do it all over again and be in control, I would grow up on a large grain and beef farm with a stable of horses, and still be there.
Wow that's a whole lot of ...B.S.! 
Jibes aside, is there any particular reason why you feel that way? What have you liked about living in BC, of which I think still to visit parts of it perhaps next year?
I would not change growing up in a single family home, which is what I want to live in again with space from neighbours though not some large lawn I have to mow often, but I would have changed and have changed for half my life living in the state I was born and grew up in - Indiana USA. /thumbs down
You might find this interesting FYB where in India there are people returning to the farm from the city life, part of encouraging people to get back to the farm.
In India, this group helps turn wasteland into greener pastures
Most rural Indian parents dream of an education and job in the city for their children, rather than a life spent farming. But with a growing migration to cities, there is concern India might not be able to produce enough food to feed its people. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports on one group’s effort to restore rural land and communities, in part one of a two-part look.https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/in-india-this-group-helps-turn-wasteland-into-greener-pastures
I had my chance. Lived on two different farms back to back for about 6 months a piece when I was 17.
One was a section in size and was a grain, beef, milk cow farm.
The other was about 1 1/2 section and was a grain, pig, and chicken farm.
Milk cows I liked, but having to be there twice a day every day sucked.
Pig crap stinks so bad.
Chickens I could take or leave.
Really loved working in the fields, driving tractor and grain trucks, and just being in the outdoors.
Would have loved if the govt made it possible for me to farm, but I didn't learn enough to do it on my own. I did consider trying to homestead in northwest BC way back when, but never got close to trying.
I grew up watching westerns and really wanted to live on a ranch and be a cowboy. I like living far away from city noises. I like working the fields. I wish I had grown up around horses and would liked to have learned how to ride and to have been able to own some.
In short, BC, specially the lower mainland, is, or was, Gods country. We have everything geographically that I ever wanted. Ocean, beaches, rivers, mountains, lakes, forests, some farming, better winters than most of Canada and a lot of the States.
We don't get hurricanes, tornados, excessive blizzards, much in the way of floods or drought.
Pretty much the only natural disaster that we have to worry about is the big earthquake we are supposed to get someday.
Not Quite the paradise it was though. Way too many people here now.
I have always felt that marriages/relationships are best served by each party having their own personal domicile that they can retreat to.
I also think we tend to think we need more living space ( large houses) than we need. I have for a long time kept more than one place to get to rather than one large one. Love the well planned smaller apartment with space to find outdoors. Partly explains my love of Vancouver and proximity to Stanley park or any place close to a lake. And on the reverse I like Vegas, a small apartment, and the strip close by to immerse in the craziness when I want.
And I have always disliked lawn care or snow removal. Seems like such a waste of time.
And perhaps best of all I've learned to vehicle share. Saves a lot of money with the built in benefit of needing to walk/bike ride at times which is exercise without planning. The best kind of exercise to me.