If you live in a busy area, you’ve probably seen apartment buildings of all shapes and sizes. Every building is unique in some way, whether it be the apartment layout, amenities, location, styles or countless other variables. There are, of course, some broad categories we can put any given apartment building into. One of the most common ways to categorize them is by height. More specifically, whether it’s a “high-rise” or “low-rise” building. So which is best to live in? In this article, we’ll be comparing high-rise vs. low-rise apartment buildings and which is better. Since I’ve lived in both types, I’ll add my opinions and experiences when needed. Let’s dive in.
What Is Considered A High Rise Apartment Building?
According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), the definition of a high-rise building is being “…greater than 75 feet (approximately 23 m) in height, where the building height is measured from the lowest level of fire department vehicle access to the floor of the highest occupiable story”. This is roughly equivalent to an eight story building.
With that definition in mind, many high-rise apartment buildings are 20, 30, 40 or even 100 stories high (on the extreme end)! For the sake of this article, we’ll stick with the eight-story metric for defining what a high-rise apartment building is. Anything under eight stories will be referred to as a “low-rise”.
The Differences Between High-Rise & Low-Rise Apartments:
Now that we’ve identified the difference between high-rise and low-rise apartment buildings by definition, let’s get into the more specific differences between the two and the unique advantages each type of building offers. Here are the categories we will use to do so:
- Views & Scenery
- Logistics
- Amenities
- Safety & Security
Well get into the details of each in the follow sections!
1. High-Rise Vs Low-Rise Apartment: View & Scenery
Both high-rise and low-rise apartments can have either great or not-so-great views. This largely depends on what’s around the building and what’s outside your specific windows.
For example, I lived in a corner unit on the sixth floor of a seven story building for a while. To the east, we could see a park in the distance. To the north, we were literally looking at our neighbors – a slightly taller building was just across the street.
The same thing can happen in a major city – even on the 25th floor of a Manhattan high rise, your view might be your neighbors’ windows 50-feet away.
What your view consists of largely depends on your location.
In terms of range and distance of your view, it’s obvious that the higher up you go, the further the distance away your view will be. The view from the 20th floor will be a lot broader than the view in the 7th floor.
If you’re looking for an apartment with an amazing, long distance view, you should look for the highest up apartment you can. Both high-rises and low-rises can have great views though!
2. High-Rise Vs Low-Rise Apartment: Logistics
When comparing high-rise vs. low-rise apartments, it may seem intuitively true that the daily logistics in a low-rise building are easier to deal with.
My experience is the opposite.
Yes, walking to and from an apartment on a low floor is technically easier than higher floors in both building types, because using the stairs is practical. However, the stairs are only useful when we aren’t carrying a lot.
Whether it be related to moving, grocery shopping or carrying anything remotely heavy, the stairs are a lot harder to deal with than elevators. It’s important to note that many low-rise apartment buildings don’t have elevators at all, particularly older ones.
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The low-rise apartment buildings I have lived in had elevators, albeit old in some cases. In all cases, we only had two elevators in each building and they weren’t great for moving or efficiency. In turn, there was often a wait to use them during busy times.
The high-rise building we now live in features six elevators. Since they go up to the 40th floor and experience lots of traffic, the elevator itself is very fast in comparison. We also have a freight elevator specifically for moving purposes, which can hold larger items. In fairness, we still experience lines and waiting depending on the time of day.
My verdict is this:
- Low-rise apartments are better from a logistics standpoint when you’re on foot and don’t need to carry anything.
- High-rise apartments are better from a logistics standpoint when it comes to moving and bringing things into your apartment.
3. High-Rise Vs Low-Rise Apartment: Amenities
What is an amenity in an apartment building? Any feature that’s a useful resource for residents. Examples include a gym/fitness center, laundry, computer lab, function rooms, patios, pools, parking garages, rooftop decks among many other features.
The amenities available in both high-rise and low-rise apartment buildings vary a great deal. The age of your building, its’ location and how much you pay will largely determine the type and quality of amenities available.
As a general rule, high-rise apartment buildings host more residents than low-rise buildings. Amenity fees are often rolled into the monthly rent. Therefore, the more residents that live in a building, the larger amount of money can be allocated towards building and maintaining amenities.
Due to this, larger buildings tend to have better amenities because more residents will be using them, and the largest buildings tend to be high rises.
High-rises are also newer than low-rise buildings on average. A relatively new high rise (less than 20 years old) will of course have more to offer than an older low-rise.
So what’s the verdict?
- Larger buildings have more amenities to offer than smaller, and larger buildings tend to be high rises.
- Newer buildings of both types offer better amenities than older buildings.
- Generally speaking, you get what you pay for!
4. High-Rise Vs Low-Rise Apartment: Safety & Security
The last – but certainly not least – variable to consider is safety and security. These terms are pretty broad, so let’s break them down into parts:
- Safety from burglars, theft and crime.
- Security – staff and the building itself.
- Safety in terms of emergency – weather, fires, etc.
Safety From Burglars, Theft & Crime
Unless your windows are protected, it’s much easier for someone to break into a lower floor than a higher one from the outside. While this is obvious, low-rise apartments usually feature more traditional windows in that they slide open vertically. High rise apartments feature added security on their windows, mainly to prevent falls. In turn, they don’t open enough for someone to get in. Modern buildings of both types will feature more secure and safe windows.
Truthfully, there’s a slim chance someone will try to break in through the window. The biggest concern should be the quality of doors and locks.
In terms of windows and doors, modern buildings of both types will generally be safer when compared to older buildings. Crooks and thieves can pick locks and get through obstacles a to easier in old buildings.
Security – Building & Staff
Building off the previous section, newer high-rise and low-rise buildings alike are more secure from a physical standpoint.
Newer buildings will feature better security technology to get in and around the building, such as an RFID fob. Fobs or keys may be required to access stairwells and elevators too.
If there are enough residents in the building, there will probably be a concierge / security desk. As stated, larger buildings tend to be high rises, so high-rise apartment buildings are more likely to offer security staff.
Since we’ve lived in a city for a while, we’ve had some form of security and concierge on a few occasions. The low-rise buildings we lived in had a one-person concierge during the day and a one-person security guard until midnight. No one was at the front desk from midnight until 9:00am.
The high-rise we now live in has multiple people at the front desk working as concierge during the day and at least one security guard all night, every night. This high-rise building has at least eight times as many residents as the low-rise mentioned above.
In our experience, high-rise buildings tend to offer more security.
In Case Of Emergency…
In the event of an emergency, a low-rise building is hands down safer.
Should there be a fire, severe weather event or something else, evacuating from a low-rise is a lot faster, as there are less stairs to travel down.
When living in a high-rise, there will be a lot more people trying to evacuate all at once. Elevators will either not be working or completely overloaded. Stairs will take a lot more time to get down and will be overly crowded too.
Low-rise buildings are safer than a high-rise in all types of emergency except flooding.
In Conclusion
We can’t say for certain whether a high-rise vs. low-rise apartment is “better”. We can say that one will be better than the other for you in terms of your needs. We hope we’ve covered every possible questions you may have while making this decision, either in this article or in others on our site. Thanks for reading!
