Empty apartments pay rent

[casual]

I've just noticed that apartments pay rent even if they are not rented yet, have 0 residents, waiting for new residents to move in.

This was surprising, I expected that only actual people living in your building pay rent, and that you have to build up slowly to avoid paying for utilities for which you don't have tenants.

It's possible that this is working as intended though, as these empty apartments do also consume utilities and accumulate wear/grime. As currently working, it trivializes early game expansion to some extent though, just borrow money and build dozens of appartments in batch.

For example, in Going Green scenario, I've had 25 occupied Basic Studios paying 140*25=3500, and built 20 new Luxury Studios (340*20=6800). Even though only 4 of 20 luxury studios are occupied, I got paid for all at midnight, and ADA budget details report confirms Rent: Apartments - 10300.

[way2co0l_2003]

Hmmmm. This is odd to me because I haven't personally seen this happen. Every experience I've observed up to this point suggests you don't get paid until they're rented out. Say, build 20, and then do nothing else and your income will increase daily as more of them are rented out. To be fair, I haven't actually looked into it too hard, that was just the observation I made so I'm pretty sure that's how it was working for me. I can't explain why it's different for you.

[casual]

Just try it out next time you play and let me know if it works differently for you

[KatherineOfSky]

OP, you are correct, the apartments generate rent even though they do not have residents. My best guess is that they end up being "owned" by a property company, which pays you rent regardless of occupancy. You also have to pay to evict these tenants, and will lose reputation on some of the higher level apartments.

Different difficulty settings definitely impacts the money-making ability, though.

[Lawrence]

It seems that this problem only occurs since the release of the Vegas DLC. Before that, a non-rented residence gives 0.
Seems more logic to me that no tenents means no profit, after all, you own the building.

[KatherineOfSky]

Originally posted by Lawrence:

It seems that this problem only occurs since the release of the Vegas DLC. Before that, a non-rented residence gives 0.
Seems more logic to me that no tenents means no profit, after all, you own the building.

This behaviour has been in place since day 1.

[Lawrence]

Always seems to me that an un-rented one used to give 0, since in some of my buildings, early days were in a loss with some unrented places, and I turned a profit when there where rented (with no extra constructions of course)...

[casual]

Originally posted by KatherineOfSky:

...
My best guess is that they end up being "owned" by a property company, which pays you rent regardless of occupancy. You also have to pay to evict these tenants, and will lose reputation on some of the higher level apartments.
...

Agreed, you could see it that way. Nothing changes money-wise when the tenant is finally found and moves in. He just starts to count towards your population (=prestige), and to provide business to stores and cafes.

It's good that apartments work differently from offices, just a bit unintuiitive.