Basement apartment

A typical basement apartment in Washington, DC.

A basement apartment is an apartment located below street level, underneath another structure—usually an apartment building, but possibly a house or a business. Rent in basement apartments is usually much lower than it is in above-ground units, due to a number of deficiencies common to basement apartments. The apartments are usually cramped, and tend to be noisy, both from uninsulated building noises and from traffic on the adjacent street. They are also particularly vulnerable to burglary, especially those with windows at sidewalk level. In some instances, residential use of below-ground space is illegal, but is done anyway in order for the building owner to generate extra income. Karel Teige says of the basement apartment under a house that "a basement apartment is a hostile environment and feels like an alien weight, dragging down the poor, serving only if fed by blood and sweat, a place the worker is not allowed to consider as his own home..."

A number of noted artistic achievements have occurred in basement apartments occupied by struggling authors, painters, and musicians.

Andy Warhol made one of his earliest films, Mrs. Warhol (black-and-white, 66 minutes), in the basement apartment of his house, where his mother (Julia Warhola) lived.

Ruth McKenney based a series of stories in The New Yorker, later republished in the book My Sister Eileen, on her experiences living with her sister in a moldy, one-room basement apartment above the Christopher Street subway station at 14 Gay Street in Greenwich Village for which she paid $45 a month. The apartment was burgled within the first week during the six months they lived there.

Homeowners will typically rent out basement apartments to tenants as a way to earn additional income so as to offset living expenses. Owning a home with a basement apartment can be an investment. Tenants will provide income to the home owner, reducing expenses, and equity will grow as the value of the property increases.

Basement apartments were the subject of Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah Harmer's hit single "Basement Apartment" in 2000.

In Canada

In general terms they are thought of as apartments in the basement of residential houses with the owner's living space on the upper floors, though there are many examples of it in older cities as part of older row house type buildings on main streets and even in older smaller apartment buildings. Even when it's built on a hill and the basement back door opens to a back yard, as in some houses and even town houses, they are still referred to as the basement if it is rented, or if the main living spaces of the family are on the upper floors. Modern basement apartments can be quite spacious and large, especially with some of the larger houses built in the suburbs.

See also

• Penthouse apartment