Understanding a New York City Condominium

A condominium is a legal division of a building into physical units, each of which can be individually owned even as they all operate under a general condo agreement and some space is commonly owned. There are all kinds of condo units, including retail, office, parking and others in addition to the well-known residential condo units.

Condos are distinct from Cooperatives, which are a different ownership structure

CAUTION: “condo” does not guarantee the building is a “residential condo” in common parlance. For the purposes of the city, a condo building is simply a building divided into multiple condominium tax lots, which can be retail, office, industrial or parking condo units, in addition to the residential units.

To understand BBLs, you need to recognize their identifier. If the Lot (ie the last four digits of the BBL) starts with 75, for example “Lot 7501,” then it’s a condo. The condo lot number is generally chronologically sequential starting with 7501, then 7502, etc. depending on the number of condo buildings within the tax Block. For example the first condo created on a tax lot is virtually always 7501, then the next condo is 7502, then 7503, etc.