Home upgrades

Build a bedroom, bar, gym, pool or defences into the home you live in: slots, costs, weekly upkeep, build times and what each upgrade does.

Last checked Nov 5, 2026 Category The city

Your home is more than a bed. From level 3, You → Home upgrades lets you build into the home you live in.

What you need

A home of your own: a small flat or better (the streets and a flophouse room have no room to build). See Properties and renting.
Free slots. Bigger homes have more: 0 in a flophouse room, 1 in a small flat, 3 in a house, 5 in a villa or mansion.
Cash. Each upgrade has two or three levels, and each level costs cash to build.

You pay the cost now, and the upgrade is built over a few hours (longer for the bigger levels). It starts working when it is finished.
Gold can skip the waiting (the Gold Shop's "finish my home upgrade now", see Gold and the store) but never the cost.
Each upgrade then has a weekly upkeep, taken from your cash first and the rest from your bank, like your home's own upkeep. If a week can't be paid either way, the upgrade switches off (lapses) until you pay again. You don't owe back pay for the weeks it was off.
While the home's own upkeep is unpaid, nothing built in it works either.
Upgrades belong to the home. Move away and they stay behind (they work again when you move back); sell the home and they are gone, with no refund.

Better bedroom and Housekeeper: your Happy bar refills faster. The housekeeper's upkeep is their wage.
Home bar: drinks give more happiness (see Nights out and drinks).
Home gym room: gym training costs less energy (see Gym and training).
Swimming pool: a higher happiness maximum. Needs a villa or mansion.
Defences against burglars: a guard dog, a guard (needs a house), locks, and a home safe that keeps some of your cash on hand out of a burglar's reach. A defence that has lapsed or isn't finished counts for nothing.
Garage: shown as coming soon.

Some upgrades need a bigger home than others; the page shows which.

Keep some money handy so upkeep never lapses.
A small flat with the right upgrade is a cheap way to get ahead of the happiness bar.
Defences are cash only, never Gold.