What Is a Co-op Apartment and Should You Buy One? https://www.hauseit.com/what-is-a-co-op-apartment-nyc/
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A co op is a form of housing where a cooperative corporation owns an entire apartment building. Shareholders are issued a stock certificate and a proprietary lease to occupy a specific apartment in the building.
Owning a co-op apartment means that you own shares and a proprietary lease as opposed to owning a deed to real property like you would for a freestanding house or a condo.
Therefore, co-op apartment owners are technically shareholders of a corporation that owns the building, versus outright owners of real property. Furthermore, because a shareholder is allowed to occupy their apartment through the proprietary lease, they are technically tenants versus owners of their apartment.
The cooperative corporation is run by a board of directors elected by the shareholders.
Co op housing in NYC can be purchased on the open market just like buying a condo. Cooperative real estate can be found on all property search websites or through your buyer’s broker just like condos, townhouses or multi-family properties.
Buying a coop is a bit more complex than buying real property such as condos or townhouses. That’s because you’ll need to submit a lengthy coop board package and pass a coop board interview in order to have approval from the coop’s board to buy in the building.
Furthermore, many coops have stricter financial requirements than your typical mortgage broker or bank who is arguably taking more risk than the co-op itself by loaning money for your purchase. It typically takes at least two to three months to close on a co-op once you have a signed contract.
What Is a Co-op with Condo Rules?
Sometimes you’ll see listing agents market a property as a co op with condo rules. These properties are frequently listed as a condop. Don’t be confused however, a condop is usually just a building that has separate commercial condos on the ground floor and all of the residential units organized as a co-operative corporation. Therefore, a condop is simply a coop with commercial condo neighbors in the building.
While some condops may indeed have more flexible, condo like rules, you should not expect that to always be the case. A condop can have house rules that are as strict or more strict than your regular coop.
Often times, listing agents will market a coop as a co op with condo rules simply because they want to emphasize a relatively flexible sublet policy.
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