In the most of the US you pay rent to the owner of the apartment you live in. A partitioned building where you own the unit you live in is usually referred to as a "condominium" or "condo".
Yeah that sounds pretty different from other countries like France or Japan where there is no such distinction.
When a developer builds a housing building, they sell the apartments to people who will either live there or rent it to someone else. Then when the owners sell their apartment later, it can go from a resident owner to an investor, or the other way around.
As a result there is a mix of owners and renters in any condominium.
I understand this completely - English is my mother tongue and I'm American. People do own apartments, especially in larger cities. A lot of folks don't call them condos: It depends on where you live and what the developer decided to call them. In fact, my idea of a "condo" isn't an apartment in a high rise or even half of a house you own, but rather row houses, mostly with a front and back yard (basing this off of condos in places like Kokomo, Indiana and Nashville, Tennessee). Owner keeps up inside, they keep up outside.
Renting is not owning an apartment: You can renovate an apartment you own, but not a rental. This is much the same as renting a house instead of owning it.
