The Key to Running a City Is Balancing the Budget

In city simulation management games, there are only two types of customers. One type is wealthy, and you need to make money from them. The other type is poor, and you also need to make money from them.

What do the wealthy need? They have investment and appreciation needs.

For them, you suppress the prices of those old, dilapidated buildings in already developed areas, acquire them at lower prices, demolish them, and build high-end residential properties to sell at higher prices to the wealthy, pocketing the price difference.
Over time, wealth in the city will exhibit the Matthew effect. Some people will have too much money, and if you don't create and manage a product with upward potential for them to play with, their money will flow to other players managing cities on the server.

For those who are poor, you build houses on outlying plots that you can't sell, rent them to the poor, and collect rent, which is also a source of income.
You need to make money on both ends. There's only one hard rule here: you must operate the city and maintain a balanced budget. Preaching righteousness is meaningless. The core goal is to cover the rigid expenses of city operations. If you talk a big game about how wonderful things should be, but can't pay the city operations team's wages, end up with overflowing sewage and stopped subways, and see residents relocate, then you've completely lost the game.

Because, as a player, you'll see various city parameters—garbage collectors asking for money, landscapers asking for money, wastewater treatment staff asking for money. Someone asks for money every day, so you have to find funds. Every day, besides finding money, it's all about finding money. That's real life.

There are many gameplay mechanics in the game.

For example, to demolish a block in the game, if the price is too high and your budget isn't enough, you can let that block suffer from overflowing sewage, flooding, and general filth. Property owners cooperate by not paying property management fees. Soon, anyone with a bit of money moves away, and thieves and hooligans move in. The subsequent owners don't want to live there anymore, so their asking prices drop, and you can smoothly redevelop it into luxury homes.

Simulation management games make it easier to experience the real market.