A penthouse is a type of dwelling at the top of a tall building. It can be owned like a condo, or leased like an apartment. Sometimes, the building can be completely commercial in nature and only have one penthouse home on the top. Most iconic penthouses in the Manhattan sense are owned. And even the ones that are leased are usually by an individual owner leasing out their penthouse, versus an apartment style were the entire building is owned by a single owner with all units leased out.
But now I am grossly off topic!