It’s fun being a virtual landlord. I’ve been playing Project Highrise, a PC and Mac real estate management simulation, since the game’s release in September. It gives cash-strapped renters like me a chance to indulge the wild fantasy of owning property. It also offers members of Generation Rent some insight into how real-world landlords and larger developers actually do business.

Despite its cutesy appearance, the game is surprisingly detailed and utterly unsentimental. You begin the game by managing the costs of building infrastructure, and trying to avoid taking on too much bank debt before your tenants can provide a steady revenue stream. Before too long, you’re hiring consultants to lobby city hall for a metro station and wondering whether “prestige” artwork in the hallway might attract higher-paying residents.

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I also learned how easy it is to dehumanise your tenants. At first, each new tower resident was an intriguing little person I cared about. I customised their names so I could remember their characteristics. Phyllis, who didn’t seem to go out much, became “Phyllis the Quiet One”. Mildred, who always complained about the smell of the rubbish bins on her floor, became “Smell-sensitive Mildred”. Dave was simply “Tank Top Dave”.

But before too long, after filling six or seven floors, I forgot about them as individuals. They were simply rent payers; inhabitants of my units. And if they weren’t happy about something, they became a profit-draining pain.

I found it cost effective to evict low paying cafes and cheap liquor stores and bring in some higher paying 'creatives'

“We did a lot of research about how real-world things function,” says Matthew Viglione, designer of Project Highrise, which is made by Chicago-based SomaSim. “We talked to building developers and owners in Chicago about how much they plan for, how much they react, how needy certain tenants are, and how much you want residential [tenants] versus commercial [tenants]. We did walking tours of various skyscrapers, and said, ‘Yes, we want that element in the game.’”

Project Highrise runs a series of urban development challenges in which the player is put in charge of buildings in crisis, based loosely on repurposed and rejuvenated downtown Chicago skyscrapers like the Marquette Building.

I tried one challenge called “neighbourhood revitalisation”, which tests your ability to revive a particularly run-down building and restore it to profit-making glory. Shamefully, I found it cost effective to evict low paying cafes and cheap liquor stores and bring in some higher paying “creatives” – graphic design studios, architectural practices and talent agencies. Perhaps I was only following the gentrification model I’ve absorbed from real-life London.

Project Highrise’s programmer, Robert Zubek, says the game was not based on any one model of change – and it is possible to adopt a number of different strategies to find reliable, long-term profit.

“If you imagine a game where your tower is grimy and run down, you don’t actually have to fix it,” Zubek explains. “You can just lower the rent just enough for people to be less unhappy, so that they don’t move out. So you can play this ‘slumlord’ kind of game. It is still dehumanising, because ultimately you’re having to treat your tenants as financial resources.”