For Rent

Chapter 9: Condo Towers and Homeless Refuges

Upon awakening, Karine realizes that the apartment blocks are still not completed. However, she also realizes that lots are in finite supply, and represent a much bigger share of the costs in this city than they had in the swamp village or in the previous town.

As such, she buys the condo tower's blueprint, in hopes of making the cost back by selling one for a much higher price than an apartment block would possibly command in this city. So rather than requiring four lots to get to the three million talas, and the other two requirements, I can get it done with three, and it would cost us only 100 more tons of materials. Now that's what I call densification!

"Ouch! The town ordered us to get the homeless refuge to three stars!" Billerica scolds her while she's shopping for second-hand homes to buy so that she can get the condo tower built.

Here it seems like even a multigenerational house could fetch six-figure prices. However, she only puts one of the apartment blocks for sale, and realizes that using the construction bots to build an elevator shaft for 8 people will be much less expensive than buying a ready-made elevator of the same size, which she feels is more practical to its tenants than a grand staircase or an art gallery.

However, she buys a multigenerational house, which gets demolished in a matter of minutes. And the apartment block price limit is apparently a measly T600k, which also finds a buyer in minutes.

But then, as she puts the second apartment block for sale, the owner of the first one also puts it for sale, and, no longer bound by the terms of the HCP, asks for a much higher price than the price Karine sold it for.

"What's going on here?" Karine asks her colleagues about how housing prices go way up. "It seems like the HCP terms force us to sell at below-market prices!"

"What do you mean, below-market?" Billerica asks her, bewildered by the statement.

"I sold an apartment block for six hundred thousand talas, the maximum authorized under the HCP. However, its new owner put it for sale at a much higher price immediately. Now I have a much better idea of why people seemed hesitant to get housing starts done! And this means we need to build our own projects outside of the HCP!"

"Fine, if that's what it takes to repay our debts!" Yenaleda sighs.

This makes me feel like it's a lot easier to earn money in hell by playing the real estate market than it is to build more housing units! It's the closest thing to a "get rich quick" scheme in hell! Karine has more bulbs flashing in her mind. She also feels like urban densification isn't necessarily the answer to the housing crisis in hell.

"I wonder what has been done to curb real estate speculation"

"You want to become caliph instead of the caliph again?" Karine's boss asks her, while his face turns green. "It wasn't enough for you to suggest that homeless refuges should be built, you also feel like it's necessary to get speculation under control! All I know about homeless refuges is that it's the same as any other real estate property to me, and real estate speculation is flying way over my head!"

"I will discuss that with you but later, please..." Yenaleda sighs, while returning to her work.

Back on the console, Karine then buys a multigenerational house for almost twice the HCP limit on that type of house. Which takes up much of the day between demolishing it and later, building the condo tower.

Speaking of which, it's actually not that tall compared to what Karine saw being built, not only on Earth, but also on this world. A measly six floors, and five units per floor. Is that what they call densification in Hell? Building 30 units where only one previously existed is one thing, but I wonder if the Senate is considering other measures. However, I don't wish an Evergrande kind of situation on them; their lives are already hard enough as it is.