The answer is “both”.

“Condominium” comes from Latin.  Domus means “house”; dominum is the “lord or owner of the house”; therefore dominium signifies “power” or “ownership [of a house]”. Con means “with”. Hence condominium means “ownership [of a house] with”.

“Strata” is also derived from Latin, but its origin is a little more obscure. Originally, stratum meant “stretched out” or “spread”, but by the time we see it associated with condominiums in English, it was perhaps borrowed from geology where it is used to describe a layer in a rock formation. The plural of stratum is strata : “layers”.

Apparently the Australian (New South Wales) legal profession adopted “strata” in 1961 to cope with a new form of co-ownership of apartment blocks since such buildings have two or more “layers” or “strata”. So an owner of a Lot and undivided co-ownership in the common property was granted a “Strata Title”.

A few years later (1967?), British Columbia appropriated the term and much of the legislation from Australia, naming the first act the Strata Titles Act. This is why our system has consistently named such complexes “Strata Plan No. XXX”. As with the Australians the term “strata” was extended to include townhouse type and bare land developments. (Interesting to note that in this context “strata” has become a singular noun, much to the annoyance of inadequate grammar correction systems in word processing programs!)

During the 1970s, this concept of housing became increasingly popular throughout North America, but all the other provinces and states decided to call them “condominiums” to better describe the variety of possible combinations of dwellings. (Do you realize there are also condominium garages and storage facilities?)

British Columbia decided, in revising its act, to call the new version the Condominium Act (1978) in conformity with the rest of the continent. Then again, around 1999, the government chose to revert to “Strata” – hence the Strata Property Act.

Perhaps this was because so many of the legal definitions in the former acts continued to refer to “strata” – Strata Plan, Strata Lot, Strata Corporation – so “condominium” became incongruous and confusing.

Maybe they were also influenced by a popular perception, sometimes enhanced by the media, that “condo” somehow refers strictly to an apartment. Ironically, then, in British Columbia a “condominium” is now often thought to be a “layered” (stratified) building in defiance of its Latin origins, while a “strata” is not necessarily “layered” at all!

Isn’t this where we started? The answer is “Both”? In British Columbia at least, in general terms condominium is synonymous with strata.