Loft is a word that is increasingly being heard by people in the real estate business from builders and property brokers. There is even a term loft apartment that is being used to confuse apartment buyers and also those who are looking for accommodation on rent. While most people feel they know the meaning of an apartment that is an independent dwelling unit inside a building, most remain confused between a loft and an apartment. Though there are a few similarities, there are many differences between a loft and an apartment that will be talked about in this article.
Loft
Loft is a word that has traditionally been used to refer to an open space below the ceiling of a house or any other building. In fact, lofts have been treated like attics that are spaces below the roof of a room inside a home that are used for storage purposes. A loft served the purpose of additional space inside homes in earlier times, and it was common for homeowners to fill this space with household items that were rarely used.
However, of late, the word loft is cleverly being used by builders, to sell their studio apartments of small sizes to give an impression of large living spaces. This is because of the fact that the place has no walls and looks big. A loft is also a large open space with high ceiling that is found in commercial buildings of yesteryears. These open spaces are being converted into residential places by builders and sold as loft apartments.
Apartment
Apartment is a dwelling unit inside a building that contains many such units. It is also known as a flat in commonwealth countries, whereas they are also referred to as condominiums in US. In an apartment building, roof of the building is shared by all the flat owners while there are also stairs and passages that are shared as common facilities by all the inmates. In a sharp contrast to an independent house or a bungalow, an apartment is a building that has many tenants or owners. Apartments have become very popular accommodation units in big metros and also medium sized cities where there is a space crunch with an influx of people from outside in search of better opportunities. Owners of large residential properties are converting their properties with the help of builders into buildings containing a large number of apartments to fetch big profits.
What is the difference between Loft and Apartment?
• An apartment is an independent accommodation unit inside a building that contains many such units.
• There are many different types of apartments such as 1 BHK, 2BHK, efficiency, and studio apartments
• Roof, stairs and passage are shared by the apartment owners in an apartment building
• Loft is a word used to refer to a large space below the ceiling of a room used by homeowners for storage purposes
• Loft used to indicate a kind of dwelling that was used by poor artists in post WW II era, in New York. It was mostly the upper floor with open spaces in decadent buildings.
• In present times, builders are selling small studio apartments labeling them as loft apartments to lure customers.