Multi-residential buyer's guide
Security buyer's guide — condos & multi-residential buildings
Lobby, mail, elevator, parking, amenity, and perimeter coverage for condo boards and property managers. Plus tenant-privacy friction points.
7 minute read
Multi-res boards weigh two pressures: residents want visibility and deterrence in common areas, and privacy regulators want cameras kept out of unit-door framing. The design sits in the middle.
Compliance at a glance
Four KPIs to benchmark.
- Video retention
- 30 days (common), 7 days (amenity)
- Resident signage
- Every entry + common room
- Unit-door framing
- None
- Intercom platform
- IP + mobile answering
Priorities
What matters most, in order.
01Lobby & mail area coverage
Highest-value frames — package theft and tailgating.
02Elevator cab cameras
Resident-facing analytics, vandalism deterrence.
03Parking & garage LPR
Entry / exit plates, aisle coverage.
04Amenity spaces
Gyms, pools, party rooms — with clear signage.
The unit-door question
Privacy expectation at a unit door is different from a hallway. Cameras framed to capture who enters a specific unit are a PIPEDA red flag.
The fix is placement: cameras at corridor junctions, with framing that captures movement through the corridor rather than identifying activity at any specific door. Analytics can still detect and log loitering without turning into a unit-surveillance system.
Intercoms and tenant experience
Modern IP intercoms integrate with the access platform, support mobile answering for residents, and produce an audit trail for visitor access. A decade-old buzz-up system does none of these.
For short-term-rental-prone buildings, intercom analytics can flag repeat visitors at suspicious frequencies. For regular buildings, they simply make the lobby easier to manage.
Shared vs. dedicated access
Common amenities (gym, party room, pool) benefit from scheduled-access credentials — a booking produces a time-boxed fob, which is revoked when the booking ends. This kills the 'lost fob still works three years later' problem.
Unit entry is usually a separate system (traditional keys, a building-specific smart lock) — integration beyond the unit door is rarely worth the privacy friction.
RFP / vendor checklist
Use this to evaluate any quote.
Common-area coverage plan
Lobby, mail, elevator, corridors, amenities. Signed off by board.
Unit-door privacy review
Documented that no camera frame captures unit-entry identification.
Resident notice
Written notice of monitoring, posted in common areas and included in welcome package.
Amenity booking integration
Scheduled fob issuance tied to the booking system.
Garage LPR
Entry and exit plates, with retention policy for resident vs visitor vehicles.
Retention & release policy
Written rules for when footage is released to police vs. residents vs. never.
Red flags
Walk away if you see these.
Cameras framed directly on unit entries.
Intercom system is still analog / legacy buzz-up.
No written footage-release policy.
Single 'building master' fob shared among contractors.
Want this guide applied to your site?
A site walk + written recommendation against this checklist, usually within a week.