Tower blocks were first built in the UK after the Second World War. Initially, they were welcomed, and their excellent views made them popular living places. Later, as the buildings themselves deteriorated, they grew a reputation for being undesirable low cost housing, and many tower blocks saw rising crime levels, increasing their unpopularity. One response to this was the great increase in the number of housing estates built, which in turn brings its own problems. In the UK, tower blocks particularly lost popularity after the partial collapse of Ronan Point in 1968.

The unpopularity of tower blocks in the UK is in marked contrast to many other countries. In Singapore and urban Hong Kong, for example, land prices are so high that almost the entire population lives in high rise apartments. Similarly, high land prices continue to encourage apartment tower construction in New York City (especially Manhattan).

One of the advantages of apartment blocks is that they decrease the costs of infrastructure development (water, power, roads, public transportation) as opposed to low-rise suburban houses.

Buildings containing low numbers of flats or apartments, or which are low-rise buildings such as tenement buildings, are described in apartment building. However in the United States all buildings are refered to as Apartment buildings regardless of their size.

In recent years, some council or ex-council high-rises in the United Kingdom, including Trellick Tower, Keeling House and The Barbican, have become popular with young professionals due to their excellent views, desirable locations and architectural pedigrees, and now command high prices. After a gap of around 30 years, new high-rise flats are once again being built in Glasgow, London, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool, this time for wealthy professionals. They are often referred to by the American term 'Apartment Buildings', particularly by the developers, perhaps in an effort to distance these newer buildings from the older Tower Blocks from the 1950s and '60s.

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