You add tiny, mini, useless balconies so that you can check off another tick box on a zillow or trulia search, justify an increased rental cost.

Then you make the balconies as small as possible, as featureless as possible, and throw a whole bunch of rules into your rental agreement that prevent you from actually using them for basically any reason: Can't smoke on the balcony, can't dry clothes on it, can't cook on it, can't display any thing like a flag or banner on the balcony because of some made up aesthetic code, etc.

I've lived in a lot of different apartments of differing quality and location, and while I'm not saying that modern apartment residential balconies are entirely a scam, they very often are.

In some places that is a strategy to satisfy zoning requirements. The builder has to provide a minimum amount of outdoor area per dwelling unit. They could create a large ground-level courtyard, or they can create a bunch of tiny balconies that sum up to the same total area. The ~~ladder~~ latter strategy allows a larger building to exist on the same lot.

Edit: Stupid voice-to-text always gets me.

97% of the time, the average car just sits in the parking space, taking up space not being used.

I guess you can say something similar applied to balconies. They are probably being used, but only a small portion of the day.

Counterexample. We love our little balcony. We have some plants, a bench, and a hummingbird feeder. We take our coffee out there for 'cocktail hour' at 7, and sit, talk, watch the world go by a few floors down, and enjoy each other's company.

If you're not using your balcony, you really should.

So pot plants have somewhere to die

You couldn't pay me to go out on a balcony if it's higher than 1 story. Fuck heights.

For smokers

People want the option to use their balcony. Then they realize it's usually not so pleasant being exposed like that to the sun, wind, temp.

I use mine! Actually I made sure to.look for an apartment with a balcony since I have pets

Maybe in order to give each resident the same chance to jump?

/s

Depends on where you live. In Japan, most of the time it's either way too hot to hang out on the balcony or way too cold. In Europe it's fine in many places for most of the year.

Some of it also has to do with rent prices which can be higher if you have a balcony.

Also, and again in Japan: There is an emergency balcony exit in some apartment buildings in case a natural disaster hits. It's probably easier to climb your way down a bunch of balconies with holes in the ground than a blank wall

There aren't many smokers anymore, and small apartment balconies were usually used for smoking.

As someone who can barely approach the edge of a 3-story parking structure, I would come unraveled on one of those balconies.

As a counterexample, look at the Marina City towers in Chicago (aka the corncobs); all of the units have balconies, and the balconies are definitely a selling point. They're quite large; in the case of the studios, the balcony can be nearly as large as the living space. (I think that I recently saw a nearly all original condo in Marina City go up for sale in the mid $400s? It was an interesting time capsule.)

That's funny. I see all the skyscrapers around here with balconies and I get jealous, but I never thought about the fact that I almost never see people on those balconies until I read your question.

It's for emergency exit.

/s

....smokers....

plants and barbecues

They are not human friendly.

The bigger ones are great for parties but that's not an everyday event

I find them too windy and noisy half the time. They are also wet half the time, either from condensation or recent rain.

I use mine to play Civ