Tod looked at the list, took a deep breath, and then selected Real Estate Experience. He felt it as his money just... vanished.

Opening cash

$39,100,000

Real Estate Experience

-$10,000,000

Total Cash Spent

-$10,000,000

Remaining Cash before 'income'

$29,100,000

But he had to do it. Real estate was essentially the model most large sustainable train operators used. Even Hong Kong had the famous R+P model, which was subsequently replicated everywhere else in the world.

That moment, he noticed there’s a new real estate submenu which he could select, and once selected, a menu appeared.

Real Estate Experience Level 1 unlocked

Actions

Comments

Buy property or land

You may now purchase land or buildings surrounding your stations.

Develop or redevelopment

You may develop empty land, or redevelop existing land

Ah. But what could he do once he bought the land anyway? What sort of buildings could he build?

Actions on land

Effects

Build Residential Property

Residential Properties help to promote population growth in the district, and it's immediate vicinity to the train station also improves the daily revenues and traffics.

Increases ridership by 2 per day.

Rental income. Income is net, and per annum

Build Commercial Property

Commercial Properties help to promote job growth, traffic, and purchases

Increases ridership by 5 per day.

Rental income. Income is net, and per annum

Build Transport Hub ($10million)

Increases daily ridership by 500 for each connected station on your rail network. Maximum of 6, and can only be built at rail interchanges

Hmm. That wasn’t much, and it didn’t tell him how much each of the property costs anyway. Increased ridership sounds good, and they even pay rent.

But what’s the outlay? Tod only had $29million left, and he needed the best bang for his buck in order to grow quickly!

Development cost (per unit)

Yearly income (rental)

Low Density

Medium

High Density

Low Density

Medium Density

High Density

Land use type

Land Cost

Per acre

<30 units

30-100 units

>100 units per acre

<30 units

30-100 units

>100 units per acre

Residential-only

$2m

$0.5m

$0.4m

$0.3m

$50k

$40k

$30k

Commercial/Mixed Use Properties

$3m

$0.6m

$0.5m

$0.5m

$60k

$50k

$50k

Residential-only

$10m

$1m

$0.9m

$0.8m

$100k

$90k

$80k

Commercial/Mixed Use Properties

$12m

$2m

$1.8m

$1.5m

$200k

$180k

$150k

Residential-only

$20m

$3m

$2.5m

$2m

$300k

$250k

$200k

Commercial/Mixed Use Properties

$30m

$5m

$4m

$3m

$500k

$400k

$300k

Oh. It’s cheaper to buy land in the outlying areas, and cheaper to build too! He looked at the numbers and had a brief headache. He had to calculate what’s the best way to spend is $29m!