This paper aims to investigate the design characteristics of a single housing block which is increasing in urban areas. For the analysis, all cases of single block housing in Daejeon metropolitan city were gathered into a database. Main concerns were on the location and the physical characteristics. The results of this study were as follows; 1) single block housing has been increasing both in the new developed areas and the existing urban areas 2) their location has shifted from residential districts to semi-residential and commercial districts. For this reason, the size and density has been increasing 3) the slab block with the hall type and the exterior corridor type were general in residential districts, diverse ones, however, including the point tower type were increasing with unusual circulation types such as central corridor, central core, double corridor, and mixed type in semi-residential and commercial districts 4) there were 5 types of access systems, and especially the street access and the piloti access were increasing, which were related with the high density.