The growing urbanization and rates of people migrating into cities worldwide have raised the question: how can the housing market best support its citizens? There are a wide variety of arguments regarding building apartments versus continuing the trend of single-family homes. Apartments offer more housing per arable land unit at the cost of lifestyle and culture. It is not worth sacrificing one’s lifestyle in order to fit more people into densely populated areas. Cities need to maintain zoning for single-family housing.
One of the greatest benefits of single-family homes is the luxury of lifestyle they grant to their dwellers. Single-family housing units allow families to maintain their privacy allowing for individuals to build and maintain a strong sense of identity. According to the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner (OVIC), “Protecting privacy is key to ensuring human dignity, safety, and self-determination.” The sense of autonomy that privacy allows for is also necessary for experiencing a fulfilling connection- a basic human need. People also deserve to experience breaks from the hustle and bustle of city life. While some might make the argument that these people could opt to live in less urban areas, there are simply not enough jobs and services necessary to support people in these areas. Single-family housing units allow people to come home after a long day at work and have quiet self-care time away from traffic and crowds of people. Another beloved feature of the single-family house is the yard. The accessibility of such outdoor spaces makes it more convenient and likely that people will spend time outdoors, yet another necessary activity for preserving mental health. The growth of apartments means surrendering the peaceful way of life that people rely on to maintain their well-being.
While some may argue for the development of apartments surrounding cities, this has devastating costs to the culture in the areas. When developers are seeking out locations for their new apartment projects they are likely to seek out popular or accessible areas. These areas are usually “hip” or of growing popularity following gentrification, which is the process of moving wealthier people into a poor urban area, which displaces the poorer inhabitants.. With their large apartment complexes, these developers offer large sums of money in the face of small businesses, which would be absurd for small business owners- who have to make a living- to deny. The apartments swallow up culture and individuality in cities. Again, fitting more people into cities is not worth sacrificing the warm and friendly face of a culture that locals and visitors love and cherish .
The economy is critical in the argument for single vs. multi-family dwellings. Replacing existing infrastructure with apartments means destroying the materials and essentially erasing the services that have already been used and having to use completely new ones. This is a costly task and an unnecessary one at that. There is also unused land surrounding cities that developers seek out. Even then, building up is much more expensive than building out. Building up requires more labor and complex materials to support stairs, elevators, and support beams. Furthermore for individual homeowners, single-family home ownership is one of the best ways to generate personal wealth. Single-family housing units are financially beneficial to both developers and homeowners alike.
The way of life that single-family homes offer should not be sold to cities and developers only to further populate already dense areas. One of the main arguments for building multi-family dwellings is that it is better for the environment since less land would be getting swallowed up by the phenomenon of urban areas growing further and further out, otherwise known as urban sprawl. These arguments, however, fail to look at the environmental costs of tearing down current infrastructure and using even more materials to build new ones. Cities should prioritize the lifestyle, culture, and maintain zoning for single-family homes.