Many people like the idea of living in a high rise but choose to live elsewhere for one reasons – the price. Living in a high rise apartment isn’t cheap. Renting a condo or even an entire house is often the same price as a high rise apartment each month – or cheaper! Surely renting a single-family house should be more expensive than renting an apartment, right? It doesn’t always work that way. So why are high rise apartments so expensive then? Let’s get into the details.
Why High Rise Apartments Are So Expensive: The Truth
The old parable of “you get what you pay for” holds true for many things in life. High rise apartments are one of them, at least in part. The oftentimes steep price of a high rise apartment goes beyond that phrase, though. Here are a few reasons why high rise apartments are so expensive:
- Location, Location, Location
- Upkeep Is Constant
- Amenities Come At A Cost
- The Building Itself Requires Maintenance
- Many High Rises Offer Top-Tier Accommodations
Let’s go into each of these items a bit more.
1. High Rise Apartment Buildings Are Often In Great Locations
“Location, location, location”. That’s the go-to expression in real estate for describing what makes a property valuable.
This parable holds true in the world of rentals, too. High rise apartment buildings are often in fantastic locations – in the heart of the city, near popular destinations like the beach or parks and so on.
It’s a essentially a law of economics and trade – what’s desired by many will not be cheap. A huge reason why high rise apartments are so expensive is because there’s a demand to live there.
When we pay a steep price for a high rise apartment, there’s a good chance that a large portion of this cost is purely for the location.
Of course, this holds true for living in any type of property in or near a desirable locale.
2. The Upkeep In High Rise Apartment Buildings Is Constant
Every high rise is unique – this includes the amount of units and people that live there. Safe to say, nearly all high rise apartment buildings house hundreds or even thousands of people.
High rise apartment buildings can host the same amount of people as an entire town.
Just like a town requires staff to work at city hall, keep everyone safe and maintain the town’s public spaces, so does a large building.
High rise apartment buildings require an entire staff to manage it. This includes cleaning, maintaining and managing the administrative work.
Just like tax dollars pay for the town’s employees, our rent pays for the staff needed to maintain our buildings.
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3. Amenities Come At A Cost
A huge reason why high-rises are appealing is because of the amenities the building offers.
For instance, the building I presently live in has a gym comparable to a commercial gym (not quite as good, but cheaper), along with an entertainment room, dog area, parking (optional), communal gas grilles, pool, a laundry room and full concierge.
Not tooting my own horn, either. Many buildings in my area offer similar amenities or better. In fact, a fair portion of people are moving out of my building for some of the newer ones nearby.
It’s not uncommon for modern high rises to offer a hybrid of living space and ‘lifestyle experience’. Building owners are advancing themselves every year to become more appealing that their competition – this includes newer, upgraded amenities.
A big reason why high rise apartments are so expensive is due to the amenities they offer. Amenity fees can easily surpass 10% of the total monthly rental costs. In turn, though, you won’t need to pay for these things elsewhere if you take full advantage of them.
4. The Building Itself Requires Maintenance
You know how homeowners always comment on the amount of maintenance their single-family house requires? They’re probably right in more ways than one. Not only do they need to handle coordinating and even fixing their property, but they must also pay a fair penny to do so.
Now imagine the amount of work and money a single-family home needs in proportion to what a large apartment building requires.
An often overlooked reason as to why high rise apartments are so expensive is because the physical building requires work, and a lot of it.
People who rent apartments don’t always care about how much damage they leave behind. After a resident moves out, apartments often require extensive remodeling and fixing before it can be rented again. Common areas get worn through daily use by so many residents as well.
Whenever something breaks, the building must pay for the repairs (in a landlord-tenant arrangement). In the past few months, our apartment required a new door handle, an ice machine fix and a garbage disposal replacement on top of some smaller stuff. Our rent covers this already, so there’s no additional charge.
On top of repairs brought about by residential usage, the physical structure requires upkeep, too. Mechanical systems break, roofs leak and facades wear out – just like in a single-family house.
In short, high rise apartment buildings get repaired a whole lot on a regular basis…or at least they should be!
5. Many High Rises Offer Nice Accommodations
While not always the cases, it’s becoming harder and harder to find a high rise apartment building that’s in crappy condition inside.
You can be sure that the majority of high rise buildings, at least nowadays, are nice in the following ways (in this order, too):
- Driveways, lobbies, elevator bays and entries.
- Shared amenities like workout areas, function rooms and other shared facilities.
- Hallways and other common areas.
- The building’s exterior.
- Interior of individual apartments.
In a newer building, it’s likely that all of the above are nicely finished. Of course, this comes at a price.
The final reason on our list of why high rise apartments are so expensive is due to the maintenance costs of the physical structure.
In Closing
If you came here wondering why high rise apartments are so pricey, you now know five key aspects of what the rental price truly covers. At the end of the day, it’s usually not about how expensive the cost of an apartment is, but what you actually get in return that actually matters! Thanks for reading.
