Strata title is a form of ownership and housing tenure devised for multi-level apartment blocks and horizontal subdivisions with shared areas. The word "strata" refers to apartments being on different levels. Strata title was first introduced in 1961 in the state of New South Wales, Australia, to better cope with the legal ownership of apartment blocks. Previously, the only adequate method of dividing ownership was company title, which had a number of defects, such as the difficulty of instituting mortgages. This term also applies to house-type strata title units in Australia. Other countries that have adopted the Australian system (or a similar variant) of apartment ownership include: Canada (Alberta, British Columbia), Fiji, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. Other countries have legislation based on similar principles but with different definitions and using different mechanisms in their administration. Strata title schemes are composed of individual lots and common property. Lots are either apartments, garages or storerooms and each is shown on the title as being owned by a lot owner. Common property is defined as everything else on the parcel of land that is not comprised in a Lot, such as common stairwells, driveways, roofs, gardens and so on. In New Zealand In New Zealand, strata title, commonly called a unit title, is created by the Unit Titles Act 2010. There are 145,000 unit title dwellings in New Zealand. A unit title can be either a stratum in freehold, where the owners own the underlying land, or stratum in leasehold, where another person owns the land and the body corporate pays rent to that person. As New Zealand uses the Torrens System of indefeasible titles, the title for a unit title has a title for the principal unit, showing the legal description of the principal unit and any accessory units and any legal document registered against those units (called an interest); a Supplementary Record Sheet, showing the rules of the body corporate, its registered address and any interests registered against the underlying land; and the survey plan, which shows the boundaries of the units and the common property. A person purchasing a unit title purchases a principal unit, which is designed as a place of business or residence; any accessory units included in the title for the principal unit, such as car parks and storage lockers; and a beneficial interest in the