The review analyzes a monographic study by D.M. Demidovich, Associate Professor of St. Petersburg State University of Economics, devoted to the history of St. Petersburg's apartment buildings. Insufficient knowledge of the topic and modern historiographical trends that are increasingly focusing on everyday practices and the search for original approaches within historical urbanism make this review relevant. The issues of housing history and housing policy are currently the most in demand among researchers of the Soviet era. The value of the work being reviewed is that the author focused on an earlier, post-reform period. It was a time of rapid growth of the capital, new technologies were actively penetrated into the life of citizens, significant social transformations took place in society. The monograph is based on a source material that is broad and sufficient to achieve the research objectives. The author of the monograph has revealed a number of questions, in particular, representatives of which segments of the population were mainly owners of apartment buildings and which ones were tenants. The book details the process of investing in apartment buildings, regulating their construction and commissioning. The author also gave an assessment of the risks and profits of homeowners. She has analyzed in detail the formal and informal relations of various categories of the population, in particular, homeowners with the police and tenants, tenants with servants, etc.