Daily newspapers are one of the most influential mass media and the news coverage can be used an indicator of social issues and needs. The purpose of this study was to investigate characteristics of physical environment in apartments, and to examine the underlying social ideas. In doing so, the contents of national daily newspapers in the past ten years were analyzed by using frequencies. The study found that sophistication, diversity, and differentiation were drawn as social values that lie in the physical environment of apartments, and the characteristics were related to housing types, space planning and complex layout. The finding shows that the coverage of the physical environment in apartments has been growing, and the increasing attention to the residential environment remains strong and significant.