Trading properties

Updated

Most Rentopia districts are three streets, and the opening rolls rarely give all three to one player. Trades are how Garden District, Lantern Quarter, Ember Row, Sun Coast, and Evergreen Hills actually get built. They are also how a careful player stops someone else from building. This page is the deal itself: what you can put in, what the bank charges, and which offers to refuse.

What a trade can contain

Either side can offer cash, streets, stations, City Power, Reservoir Co., and a held Lockup exit card. You can do both directions at once: your Amber Square plus $100 for their two stations, for example. The offer waits until the other player accepts or rejects it. You cannot slip a street out of a district that still has houses or a hotel. Sell the buildings back to the bank first. That refund is only half the build cost, so tearing down to make a trade is a real price, not a formality.

Mortgaged deeds can move. The player who receives a mortgaged street pays the bank a fee of 10 percent of the mortgage value at the moment of the trade. They do not have to clear the whole mortgage immediately, but they do have to have the fee in cash. A Skyline Point mortgage is $200, so the fee is $20. A Cobbler Lane mortgage is $30, so the fee is $3. If the receiver cannot pay the fee, the trade does not go through. Do not stuff a trade with three mortgaged deeds and no cash to cover the fees.

Finish your district, or break theirs

Price a street by what it completes. Orchid Avenue is printed at $160. If you already own Rose Court and Peony Place, Orchid Avenue is the deed that doubles Garden District and unlocks $100 houses. In that seat it is worth more than $160, and it can be worth a station plus cash. If you own nothing in Garden District, Orchid Avenue is an $12 rent and a trading chip. Paying a premium for it is how you donate a district to the seller, who will simply trade it onward to the player who does own the other two.

The mirror image is the blocking trade. Someone holds two Lantern Quarter streets and needs Copper Road, which you own and do not need. You do not have to give it to them. You can trade it to a third player, or you can ask a price that includes one of their completed streets. A trade that helps both districts get finished in the same deal often helps the player who can build immediately, because even one row of houses comes out before the other player has saved the house cost.

Stations, companies, and exit cards

Stations are clean trading pieces. They have no buildings, they are not part of a street district, and their rent is easy to count: $25, $50, $100, $200. Giving away your third station drops you from $100 to $50 and may give the other player the $200 set. That is a large swing to hide inside a "small" deal. Say the station count out loud before you accept.

City Power and Reservoir Co. are a pair. Trading someone their second company gives them the ten-times bill. Trading them a first company gives them four times the dice, which is usually tolerable. If you hold one and they hold one, the company is the most dangerous chip on the table. Treat it like the last street of a district.

A Fortune or Town Fund exit card lets the holder leave Lockup without rolling doubles and without paying the fine. Early in the match it feels like a trinket. It is not a trinket after Busted has fired twice and the fine is $50 every visit. Keep yours if you are the player sitting just in front of Busted with no cash. Spend it in a trade only when the deed you receive completes a district you can build this turn.

Offers to refuse

  • Any deal that completes someone else's district while yours stays one street short.
  • Cash that looks large and is actually one salary. $200 is a single pass of START.
  • A mortgaged Skyline deed you cannot afford to clear, offered as if it were a gift.
  • Your last house-ready district in exchange for scattered streets you cannot build on.
  • A trade you cannot pay the mortgage fees for. The game will reject it, and you have shown everyone what you wanted.

Two-player matches have fewer blocking options, because there is no third seat to send a dangerous deed to. In that game, refusing is often the whole strategy: leave their district unfinished and build your own. With five or more players, someone will make the trade you refused. Then your job is to be the one who gets paid, or to have a district that is already standing.

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