Cities: Skylines II Solves High Rent Issues by Eliminating Landlords

High Rent Woes in Cities: Skylines II

Introduction

For months, players of Colossal Order’s 2023 city-building sim, Cities: Skylines II, have been grappling with exorbitant housing costs. Subreddits are filled with users frustrated that the cost of living was too high in their growing cities, with no apparent solution in sight. This week, the developer finally announced a fix: eliminating the game’s landlords.

Developer’s Solution

“First of all, we removed the virtual landlord so a building’s upkeep is now paid equally by all renters,”

the developer posted in a blog on the game’s Steam page. They also changed how rent is calculated, basing it on household income. Even if a household doesn’t have enough money to pay rent, they won’t complain but will instead spend less on resources.

Real-World Parallels

The rent issue in the game mirrors real-world problems. Over the past few years, real-world rents have skyrocketed, sometimes rising faster than wages. In cities like New York, tenants are fighting against fees that make housing less affordable. In the UK, rent is almost 10 percent higher than it was a year ago. From Hawaii to Berlin, the cost of living is exorbitant. While landlords aren’t always to blame, they are often the easiest targets for renters.

Game Mechanics and Player Frustration

Prior to this week’s fix, players struggled with the same issues faced by real-world city planners. One player wrote in April:

“For the love of god I can not fix high rent. Anything I do re-zone, de-zone, more jobs, less jobs, taxes high or low, wait time in game. Increased education, decreased education. City services does nothing. It seems anything I try does nothing.”

On the game’s subreddit, players have also criticized how the game’s logic around high rent contrasts with reality. One player noted that centralized locations with amenities will inevitably have higher land values but criticized the game for assuming a hyper-capitalist scenario where all land is owned by speculative landlords.

Real-World Solutions

In reality, socialized housing can exist centrally, as seen in Vienna, which The New York Times dubbed “a renters’ utopia.” In Vienna, the city itself is the landlord, owning about 220,000 apartments. In Cities: Skylines II, the developers simply removed landlords altogether.

Transition and Future Expectations

The change in-game will have “a transition period as the simulation adapts to the changes,” Colossal Order says in its blog, and they “can’t make any guarantees” on how it will impact games with mods. Although the update aims to fix most of the problems, players should still expect to see rent complaints when household incomes are too low. “Only when their income is too low to be able to pay rent will they complain about ‘High Rent’ and look for cheaper housing or move out of the city.” Perhaps it’s time players had a few in-game tenant groups of their own.