English question, please help?

I've never heard the term "housing estate". Judging by other answers it appears that this is a term used in the UK. In the US we would say "apartment complex", or simply "apartment". Whereas in Britain they say "flat" instead of "apartment".

In Britain a "housing estate" usually refers to an area developed by a single building company with similar or identical looking houses or sometimes several identical blocks of flats ("apartments" as Americans generally call them).

"Apartment complex" is a term not often used in Britain, though possibly very commonly used in the USA. In Britain "apartment" tends to be the term used for an individual upmarket (expensive!) dwelling in an upmarket "apartment block".

Await answers from Americans as to their language habits concerning those terms.

In English it is the listener that has to know what the speaker has said or you are at their mercy.

In the UK a housing estate is and area filled with many houses.
An apartment complex is a block of apartments. There may be one block or more than one block.

No