This guide is all about how to zone your city realistically. Many players don't actually care about a realistic look of a city, they just care about the functionality, but since Cities: Skylines is a game which is only being limited by the game hard limit, your pc and our imagination, then why do we simply just zone a whole bunch of high density residential across a district? There're already tons of assets in the vanilla game which can also make your city looks more realistic (except those that looks futuristic). Here we are going to know more about how to zone your 'skyscrapers' realistically!

Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones, ensuring a proper land use of a city.

As in Cities: Skylines, zoning just simply means clicking a few times of your mouse and making everything beside the road colored, then buildings will start growing.

Zoning was designed to ensure balanced communities. It allows the government to control the development of the land and ensure the public is satisfied with their community. Zoning also allows for the proper use of the land, enables the community to develop infrastructure adequately, and protects existing property from destruction or devaluation.

There are only 4 types of zoning available in the vanilla game itself. Here I'm going to introduce you different kinds of zoning that's possible to have in this game which you might find out new to you according to the RCI type and average height.

The purpose of telling you all of these is to give you a better idea on how to utilize your assets to act as different kind of zoning, making your city looks better.

Here are different zoning available for Residential buildings:

• Low Density Rural
  
• Low Density Self-Sufficient Spec
  
• Low Density High-Tech
  
• Low Density
  
• Low Density Custom Suburban
  
• Mid Density Custom Block
  
• Mid Density High-Tech
  
• Mid Density
  
• Residential Wall-to-Wall
  
• Mid Density Self-Sufficient Spec
  
• High Density High-Tech
  
• High Density
  
• High Density Self-Sufficient Spec
  
• High Density Custom High

Here are different zoning available for Commercial buildings:

• Organic & Local Spec
  
• Low Density
  
• Leisure Spec
  
• Mid Density Custom Wide
  
• Mid Density
  
• Commercial Wall-to-Wall
  
• High Density
  
• Tourism Spec
  
• High Density Custom High

Here are different zoning available for Industrial buildings:

• Farming Spec
  
• Forestry Spec
  
• Ore Spec
  
• Oil Spec
  
• General Industry
  
• General Industry High Education
  
• General Industry Clean
  
• Industries DLC Custom Industry

Here are different zoning available for Office buildings:

• Mid Density
  
• Mid Density Custom Low
  
• Mid Density Wall-to-Wall
  
• Financial Offices Spec L1
  
• High Density
  
• Financial Offices Spec L2
  
• IT Cluster Spec
  
• Financial Offices Spec L3
  
• High Density Custom High

Here are different zoning available for Mixed-use buildings:

• Mid Density Custom Low
  
• High Density Custom High

Skip to "Realistic Zone Height Tiers" if you think you're great at this.

Residential Zones are where people lives and chill-out from daily work. I don't think anyone here loves to spend their daily life in an office. The amount of units in a building in Cities: Skylines depends on the capacity. Bigger and denser buildings will have more people while smaller buildings will have less. Various mods can be used to alter the mechanics itself to have tons of people living in a single-storey house like sardines or have a much more realistic population density in different buildings.

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We're starting from the lowest average height of different kind of zoning available for residential types in-game.

Low Density Rural
These are literally just a few farm-life houses scattered over a big piece of land, together with some nice and wide farm fields. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just zone some small grids beside the dirt road that's far away from each other
- Mods: Just plop some nice-looking houses the way you want

Low Density Self-Sufficient Spec
Here are houses zoned with Self-Sufficient Buildings Specialization (Requires Green Cities DLC) that looks modern and quite flat with a nice gravel lawn. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the specialization listed above then zone everything in low residential
- Mods: Just plop them

Low Density High-Tech
Simply just a bunch of houses with High-Tech Housing Policy active, nothing different for me. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the policy listed above active then zone everything in low residential

Low Density
Low residential zone, nothing to say about it if you had played the game. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just zone it low residential
- Mods: You don't need it

Low Density Custom Suburban
Low residential zone, but without any futuristic vanilla villas. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: There are a lot of Content Creator Packs out there
- Mods: Just zone over a district with Themes set to respective theme from the workshop, or plop those low residential assets from the workshop



Mid Density Custom Block
These are high residential zones with similar looking apartments in Highrise Ban Policy, which means it's not tall, and not dense.You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the policy listed above active then zone everything in separated order, then make similar houses historical until you're done.
- Mods: Plop similar houses in order, or replace everything with workshop assets

Mid Density High-Tech
Simply just a bunch of high density houses with High-Tech Housing Policy and Highrise Ban Policy active, nothing different for me. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the policy listed above active then zone everything in high residential

Mid Density
High residential zone but with Highrise Ban Policy active. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the policy listed above active then zone everything in high residential
- Mods: Just plop some low-rise apartments randomly

Mid Density Self-Sufficient Spec
Here are houses zoned with Self-Sufficient Buildings Specialization (Requires Green Cities DLC) that looks really modern and tall with greenery hanging around, of course with Highrise Ban Policy active. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the specialization and policy listed above active then zone everything in high residential
- Mods: Just plop some low level buildings

Residential Wall-to-Wall
High residential zone but with Residential Wall-to-Wall Buildings Specialization (Requires Plazas & Promenades DLC) that looks beautiful and compact. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the specialization listed above active then zone everything in high residential
- Mods: Just plop those beautiful artistic apartments randomly



High Density High-Tech
Nothing special, just some high residential inside a district with High-Tech Housing Policy active. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the policy listed above active then zone everything in high residential

High Density
High residential zone, you know it, and you like it. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just zone it high residential
- Mods: You don't need it

High Density Self-Sufficient Spec
High residential zone but with Self-Sufficient Buildings Specialization (Requires Green Cities DLC) that looks nice and tall with the highest vanilla residential building in C:S. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the specialization listed above then zone everything in high residential
- Mods: Just plop them as usual

High Density Custom High
Here comes the fun part, where we only use custom workshop assets that's big and tall, and nice for sure. This is how a city center looks like. You can do that in:
- Mods: Just plop down some big residential buildings randomly in the city center

Commercial Zones are where people work, sell and buy goods, also entertainment. Always remember to have good road layouts around dense commercial zones to loosen the incoming cargo traffic and have some small commercials scattered all around the residential zone to provide optimum convenience. Mods can be used to reduce cargo traffic or alter stocks usage of a commercial building but that will remove the fun part from the game which is traffic.

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We're starting from the lowest average height of different kind of zoning available for commercial types in-game.

Organic & Local Spec
Here're commercial buildings with Organic & Local Produce Specialization (requires Green Cities DLC) that looks modern and flat. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the specialization listed above then zone everything in low/high commercial
- Mods: Just plop them down

Low Density
Low commercial zone, yes, you know it. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just zone it low commercial
- Mods: You don't need it

Leisure Spec
Here're commercial buildings with Leisure Specialization (requires After Dark DLC) that includes bars and night clubs with red lights everywhere at night. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the specialization listed above then zone everything in low/high commercial
- Mods: Yes, just plop them down



Mid Density Custom Wide
There it is, nice and wide supermarkets with large parking areas, which is quite common in America. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: There are Content Creator Packs out there
- Mods: Just get some nice workshop assets and plop them down in a large plot of land, and don't forget the parking spaces

Mid Density
High commercial zone but with Highrise Ban Policy active. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the policy listed above then zone everything in high commercial
- Mods: Just plop them down of course

Commercial Wall-to-Wall
High commercial zone but with Commercial Wall-to-Wall Buildings Specialization (requires Plazas & Promenades DLC) that includes beautiful and compact shops. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the specialization listed above then zone everything in high commercial
- Mods: Just simply plop them down



High Density
Well, you know this, with higher noise pollution and weirder-looking buildings compared to regular commercial zone. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just zone it high commercial
- Mods: Well you don't need it

Tourism Spec
Commercial zone with the highest vanilla hotels and bars for your lovely tourists using Tourism Specialization (requires After Dark DLC). You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the specialization listed above then zone everything in low/high commercial
- Mods: Just plop it

High Density Custom High
Fun time, tall skyscrapers with huge employment and cargo traffic that ruin your city center in a short time. You can do that in:
- Mods: Just get some nice and tall workshop assets and plop them down in the city center

Industrial Zones are where people work and produce goods. This is where all the big machines and long traffics reside. Industries can bring you a lot of money but also a lot of problems. Of course mods can be used to make your life easier but I don't recommend overusing them.

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We're starting from the lowest average height of different kind of zoning available for industrial types in-game.

Farming Spec
Vanilla farming industries in Farming Specialization with nice and small animal pastures and tons of flour mills. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the specialization listed above then zone everything in industrial
- Mods: Just plop them down

Forestry Spec
A bunch of forests and lumber mill with vanilla Forestry Specialization. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the specialization listed above then zone everything in industrial
- Mods: Just plop them down as usual



Ore Spec
Here're vanilla ore industrial buildings with Ore Specialization including some mining facilities and ore processors. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the specialization listed above then zone everything in industrial
- Mods: Yes, just plop them down

Oil Spec
A large field of vanilla oil extractors and processors with the help of Oil Specialization. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the specialization listed above then zone everything in industrial
- Mods: Just plop them down of course



General Industry
Just industries we always use to produce commercial goods. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just zone everything industrial
- Mods: Just plop them down

General Industry High Education
Normal industries that produce commercial goods but employ only high educated cims with Industry 4.0 Policy active. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the policy listed above then zone everything in industrial
- Mods: Just plop it

General Industry Clean
Industries that produce commercial goods but produce less pollution compared to generic industries with Filter Industrial Waste Policy active. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the policy listed above then zone everything in industrial
- Mods: Just plop it

Industries DLC Custom Industry
Big industrial complex with various types of industrial buildings either from Industries DLC or workshop. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Purchase Industries DLC and check out other guides about this DLC
- Mods: Just plop some workshop assets will do

Office Zones are where people type throughout the day and earn a living. This is where most of your stress come from. Nothing much here, just some old boring offices to fill in your city center with a more diverse manner.

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We're starting from the lowest average height of different kind of zoning available for office types in-game.

Mid Density
Office zone but with Highrise Ban Policy active. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the policy listed above then zone everything in offices
- Mods: Just plop them down

Mid Density Custom Low
Nice and low block offices in compact spaces. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: There are Content Creator Packs out there
- Mods: Just get some nice workshop assets and plop them down in a small piece of land

Mid Density Wall-to-Wall
Office zone but with Office Wall-to-Wall Buildings Specialization (requires Plazas & Promenades DLC) where you can blend in well with your high density offices with a beautiful style. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the specialization listed above then zone everything in offices
- Mods: Just plop those beautiful buildings down

Financial Offices Spec L1
Office zone but with Financial Offices Specialization (requires Financial Districts DLC) with a beautiful 19-20 century facade that suit well in a historical style area. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the specialization listed above then zone everything in offices, remember to mark them historical when they are level 1
- Mods: Just plop those beautiful buildings down, simple



High Density
Normal, yup normal offices. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just zone it offices
- Mods: Yes, just plop them down

Financial Offices Spec L2
Office zone but with Financial Offices Specialization (requires Financial Districts DLC) with a beautiful 19-20 century facade at the bottom but a glass box on top which gives it a unique look. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the specialization listed above then zone everything in offices, remember to mark them historical when they are level 2
- Mods: Just plop those beautiful buildings down



IT Cluster Spec
Offices but with IT Cluster Specialization (requires Green Cities DLC) where you can enjoy the view of your city on the highest vanilla assets. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the specialization listed above then zone everything in offices
- Mods: Just plop them down of course

Financial Offices Spec L3
Office zone but with Financial Offices Specialization (requires Financial Districts DLC) with a beautiful 19-20 century facade at the bottom and a very tall and unique glass box on top, giving it a taller profile. You can do that in:
- Vanilla: Just create a district with the specialization listed above then zone everything in offices
- Mods: Just plop those beautiful buildings down, easy

High Density Custom High
Tall skyscrapers with huge employment that is suitable to be the highest point in your city. You can do that in:
- Mods: Just get some nice and tall workshop assets and plop them down in the city center

This is a pretty popular zoning type that is sadly not in this game. But luckily, there's something called the Workshop! Mixed-use zoning is an urban design which blends in other zoning types harmoniously like residential apartment with commercial shop lots at the ground floor. This can really transform your city into a more convenient community, which eventually might reduce a certain amount of traffic.

We're going to have mixed-use zoning is Cities:Skylines 2 yay! 🎉

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We're starting from the lowest average height of different kind of zoning available for Mixed-use types.

Mid Density Custom Low
Nice and low shop lots with little residential units on top. You can do that in:
- Mods: Just get some nice workshop assets e.g. from Smilies and plop them down in a small piece of land accordingly with Anarchy on.


High Density Custom High
Tall apartment with huge amount of residents sitting on top of some shop lots. You can do that in:
- Mods: Just get some nice and tall workshop assets e.g. from Smilies and plop them down in place near city center accordingly with Anarchy on.

Here's something that can make your city grow naturally just like in the real world. Real-world cities grows from a small settlement and evolve into the great city we know today.

Here are the factors encouraging the formation of human settlements that could develop into a city (larger settlement):

• Water Sources
  
• Natural Resources
  
• Strategic Location
  
• Landscape

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Water is one of the most important basic needs for the survival of any lifeforms. In the early human civilizations, almost all settlements are located beside a body of water, mostly riversides. The more the volume of water, the higher the potential concentration of population. Well, this doesn't count for seawater because it's salty and not suitable for drinking.

When finding the best plot of land to build a brand new city, look for a place where you can see water. Stick to it as it will surely be the future city center.


In the early era of human society development, natural resources that decide the formation of settlements is mainly fertile land and maybe forestry. They provide the way for a constant development of the settlement to secure the survival of the population and the growth of the nation. Along with the development comes the involvement of other natural resources such as ore abundance and petroleum. They give the city an industrial boost to fuel the economy, making the already-big city even larger, even though the growth might stop at any moment.

This factor doesn't need to be worried since the game had already done it for you, so you just need to make sure that you free up the valuable land for your future industrial sector.


Here is something that might be slightly more complex. City does grow due to its strategic location that makes it vital for any aspect that it impacts on. Trade routes, intersection point between 2 or more flows of traffic, ease of access of the city, all of them could led to be the foundation of a city. Due to the flow of traffic in that area, it could possibly grow into a tiny settlement as a rest stop, then slowly becoming a town and even a large city if all the other requirements are met.

Look for the intersection point of the road networks that pass through the map connecting the outside world. That will be the best plot of land to be developed into a huge settlement.


The geographical features in the region affect how the city will grow. Majority of real-life cities are built in flat lands because of how easy it is to build something an a flat piece of land. Even though it is possible to build a settlement on top or on the body of a mountain, it is not a very viable option. A fairly flat land allows a city to grow without limitation to ground-use and posing danger, and it's cheap too. It gives the city a chance to develop without thinking too much about other problems.

Always remember: Respect the topography! If there's a hill, then there's a hill. Don't try to make everything flat to build anything you want unless there's no other way, instead, accept and adapt to any geographical obstacles so that it makes your city looks more natural (and interesting).

As the city grows, building heights and zoning specialization should be taken into account for a more sustainable development of the city. In this section I'm going to inspire you with different zoning heights in real-life that serve different uses. As you can see from many other cities around the world, they usually consists of:

Tier 1 - City Center / Downtown / Historic Downtown
Tier 2 - Blocks / Dense Residential Area / Dense Quarters
Tier 3 - Business Park / Industrial Zone / Trading Estate
Tier 4 - Neighborhoods / Suburbs / Borough
Tier 5 - Outskirts / Slums / Ghetto
Tier 6 - Out of Town / Farming Area / Small Settlements

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This is the central part or main business and commercial area of a city. City center or downtown usually consist of 1 or more iconic structure which are quite tall compared to other buildings around, and most of them have a transit hub nearby. In most European cities, the city center are also called historic downtown because of the long history behind the city and mostly don't have huge skyscrapers inside.

Tips for building iconic skyscrapers:
Try to have a small series of good-looking skyscrapers with a difference in height and some kind of evolving look. Try not to have a very tall building suddenly appearing in a low-height zone, it'll stick out too much. Skyscrapers CCP or the workshop can be useful.


This is a land used in which dense housing skyscrapers and apartments predominates. Dense residential area or blocks are designed places usually spotted in Asian cities for nice and tall condos also housing zones which consist of a park and tall apartments for the population. This zoning mostly spread around the city center and have basic services especially education together with public transport lines.

Tips for building housing development zones:
Remember to use the same-looking models in that small area, height can be vary. Try to include some community parks around the area or between buildings, and don't forget about parking, provide a few parking lots or with mods, more. Public transport is good, but optional.


This is an area where company offices and light industrial premises are built. Business parks are usually away from dense residential zones and city center where all the jobs are provided. Industrial zone by the way are far away from the city center and mostly stand alone on a flat piece of land near any shipping facility, and also far away from residential zones.

Tips for building industrial zones:
First of all, never direct a factory's traffic directly onto the collector/arterial road. That's a must. Besides, consider the type of industries you're building in that area when building a realistic industrial zone. Remember, factories don't stand out in the middle of nowhere.


This is a specialized district or community with real estate within a town or city. Neighborhoods or suburbs are low density residential community with high land value around the city which usually seen in cities around the world. Borough by the way are community with administrative division from the city itself in various countries.

Tips for building neighborhoods/ suburbs:
It's ok to use the same model for the whole area, but mixing in some different varieties can really spice up the whole area so that it won't look boring. Small patches of green areas are important too.


This is a sparsely populated outlying district or region of a city. Slums are highly populated residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality; Ghetto as well are part of a city in which members of a minority group live mostly as a result of social, legal, or economic pressure.

Tips for building slums:
Use the workshop.


This is a place where almost no clue of a city can be seen. Here usually are farming area or mountainous regions where the city limit is situated. There're still some chances to spot some small settlements or villages that are dispersed around the area.

Tips for building farms:
Use dirt roads, they suit better. Avoid building long straight road. Making some slight twists and intersections in different angles can make it more natural. When building (decorating) farms, use some tiny trees to your advantage as orchards.

Zoning realistically is easy to learn, but hard to master. Luckily, we have satellite images in the 21st century. Use them to take some observations on different cities around the world, maybe you can learn something new that way.

Let's keep it simple right now. We're going through each tier stated above and the location it mostly situated in different cities. (Click on the link to Google Earth to have a look at what I'm talking about)


It's better to be in the center of a huge megapolis. Most of the city center of mega cities that situated along a wide river are built on the point bar deposition part of the river, just like Shanghai[earth.google.com] and London[earth.google.com]. For some cities in the world, they're having 2 or more downtown-looking area, and some are having a tall city center together with a historical downtown.


Well this tier is situated almost everywhere mostly in Asian cities, because of the dense population. Most of them are located on a big piece of land right next to each other but some are extended to the hillside near the dense area of the city, instant example like Singapore[earth.google.com] and Hong Kong[earth.google.com]. They provides tons of households for the city and so the demand of services like education and transportation are high.


Here's the place that provides job opportunities to the city's population. Huge offices are usually gathering around the city center where public transports are available while industrial parks are mostly located at a big piece of flat land where cargo transport are available and cargo traffic are focused on. Dubai[earth.google.com] and Doha[earth.google.com] for a quick example.


This is the place where real estate community owned by high income population are located. A big piece of land with high land value and low noise pollution makes a perfect place for real estate to be built. They're common in cities that're having people who are having more money than they expected, like in New York[earth.google.com] and Los Angeles[earth.google.com].


This is where very low income community live in and strive. They're commonly seen in cities with high Gini coefficient value and usually having their own economic system. For ghettos the situation is different from slums, they're mostly isolated from the city itself and having their own government that rules the small town. Just take New Delhi[earth.google.com] and Cairo[earth.google.com] for examples.


Simple, just the end of a city, mostly covered by wide farms or mountainous regions. Paris[earth.google.com] and Liechtenstein[earth.google.com] for example.


Let's take the capital city of my country, Kuala Lumpur[earth.google.com] (KL metropolitan area/ Klang Valley) as a good example.
As you can see on this map the big word stated "Kuala Lumpur" is where the city center almost is, and since it's an Asian city so 1/6 of the area around it are Tier 2 areas. The place where you can see "Port Klang" is likely a Tier 3 kind of industrial park and the port is just beside it on "Pulau Indah". "Puchong" and area around "Kuala Lumpur" here are mostly Tier 4 neighborhoods while others are more sparsely populated. "Putrajaya" as well is a self-administrative region with beautiful government buildings so it can be classified as a Tier 5 region. Everywhere where you can see green or blue is under Tier 6 of course. It's worth a while to have a look at how cities have a smooth transition between the edges and the nature.

Well, this is just a game. Realistic zoning in Cities: Skylines simply just means having buildings at certain height in certain area. Just try to smooth the height of buildings together and make your city looks natural.

How do you usually zone your city? Feel free to tell me in the comment section below!
More information about basic zoning click here[skylines.paradoxwikis.com].

Credits to all that provide those pics for this guide

Check out other guide(s) made by me:
Realistic City Layout from all over the World
Realistic Ways to Utilize Trees in C:S
CHIRP List

And also check out this YT video by City Planner Plays:










Rate this guide if you're liking it.
Have a nice day! 😉👍