Properties and renting

A roof over your head, a business that pays while you sleep, or a tenant who pays you rent: it all starts under You → Properties.

Homes and businesses

Every kind of property exists in every district of Vesper City. You can own one of each kind in each district, and you buy it while standing in that district, so travel matters (see Districts and travel). Selling gives back 50% of what you paid.

• Businesses earn money every minute. Income builds up for 24 hours, then stops growing until you collect. Upkeep of 0.5% of the price a day comes off the income. Collected money lands in your pocket, where it can be stolen, so take it to the Bank.
• Business income is 40% of the rate listed on each business. You can own the same business in several districts, but only the copy you bought first earns in full: every other copy earns 50% of that. Above a day's income for your level (the Properties page shows the amount), you keep 15% of what your businesses make and the taxman takes the rest. Once what you keep passes $1,125,000 a day (or a day's income for your level, if that is more), you keep only 10% of everything above it.
• Homes earn nothing, but the one you live in raises your maximum happiness.

The top businesses and Expansions

The biggest businesses open late: the Radio Station at level 56, the Steamship Line at 62, the Picture Studio at 68, the Skyscraper Hotel at 75, the Airmail Line at 85 and The Vesper & Western Railroad at 100. They earn like every other business: the same share of the listed rate, the same upkeep, and the same taxman above a day's income for your level.

Past level 100, a business that opens at level 75 or later can be expanded: a new wing, a new route, a new line. Every 25 levels each of those businesses can take one more Expansion, and each one adds 10% to its income. An Expansion costs 30 days of the income it adds, in cash only; the card under Yours shows the price. Expanding collects the income waiting first. Expansions stay with the business: sell it and they go with it, with nothing paid back. The taxman still takes his share of everything above the ceiling, so Expansions help you keep pace but never take you past him.

Home tiers and the Don's free room

Homes come in tiers: a flophouse room, small flats, houses, and villas or mansions. Your first home is free: the Don's errand "Find a roof" gives you a flophouse room that costs nothing to keep and can't be sold or traded.

Every other home costs upkeep each day, a share of its price (0.1% for a small flat, 0.15% for a house, 0.2% for a villa or mansion). Each home beyond the one you live in costs 25% more. Below level 10, a small flat never costs more than $100 a day.

Upkeep comes from your cash, then your bank. If a day can't be paid, the home's bonus and everything built in it stop until you press Pay upkeep. Nothing is taken away and there's no back-pay.

Moving into a home in another district is a move home, with its usual cost and wait, and it means leaving your gang.

Renting a home

You can rent a home from level 1; look at the For rent tab. You rent from other players, one home at a time, paying cash, while standing in that district. You pay the first day and a deposit of 1 day(s) of rent up front.

Rent is taken each day from your cash, then your bank. If you can't pay, you're warned at once and evicted 24 hours later (48 hours below level 10). Time in jail or hospital doesn't count, and paying up stops the clock. When a tenancy ends, your deposit comes back less anything owed.

Letting a home out

From level 10 you can let a home you own but don't live in, from the To let tab. Any home you own but don't live in can be let, except your free flophouse room. You set a daily rent between 0.4% and 0.8% of its price, a little more if you've built upgrades in it. A landlord tax of 10% is taken before the rent reaches your bank. To sell, take the home back or raise the rent, you give 72 hours' notice.

Home upgrades

From level 3, You → Home upgrades lets you build in a home of your own (a small flat or better). Bigger homes have more slots. Each upgrade costs cash, takes time to build and has a weekly upkeep. Upgrades stay with the home: sell it and they're gone.

Tips

• Collect business income at least once every 24 hours.
• Keep some money in the bank so upkeep and rent never lapse.