Apartments are self-contained residential units occupying part of a larger building. They are usually set out on a single storey of a building and it is for this reason that in some regions (UK, India etc.) they are referred to as "flats". The term apartment is one that is used extensively in Europe, North America and places that use American English. The term "flat" is used in the UK, India and places that use British English. Apartments or flats have their own front door, kitchen, toilet and bathroom. In some countries a 1-bedroom apartment may be advertised as a 1bhk or 1bhk flat. The term "bhk" or "BHK" refers to bedroom, hall and kitchen. This means that the unit would have 1 bedroom, a hall (lounge/sitting room) and kitchen.
Apartments can be found in residential blocks or towers and sometimes as a part of a villa where the floors have been separated each with its own entrance etc.
Al Hilal is a mixed purpose district in the municipality of Doha, Qatar because of its unique location being situated between two main circular roads of Doha, the C-Ring Road and the D-Ring Road. As a result, there are many commercial buildings in the district housing the offices of several major companies such as Doha Insurance, Qatar Islamic Insurance, Qatar Airways (Tower 1), Qatar Petrochemical Company Headquarters, Gulf Times and United Parcel Service (UPS) to name a few. There are also several branches of the main banking corporations of Qatar including Commercial Bank, QNB and Doha Bank in the district as well as several medical centres, clinics and the Al Emadi Hospital.
Other important buildings in the area to note are one of the offices for the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, the Embassy of India and Al-Khansaa Library which houses an Arabic and English collection of approximately 90,000 items. The library is dedicated for women, children, female students and official delegates. The area has many mosques and several large residential compounds that offer fantastic and extensive facilities to its residents which are owned and managed by well-known real estate companies. Villas and apartments for rent in this district are slightly more expensive than one would find outside of Doha.