The Sims 4 For Rent is almost here! Members of the EA Creator Network have already had the opportunity to play the pack in early access but the latest expansion pack for The Sims 4 will be available to everyone this Thursday, December 7th, 2023.
Find out everything we know about The Sims 4 For Rent so far!
There’s been a lot of coverage and news coming directly from the developers regarding this pack so we thought it’d be a good idea to take all of the information that’s been confirmed so far and condense it for you in nice, organized sections. We’ll break down everything players can expect about property management, building Residential Rentals, and other gameplay features.
Table of Contents
The Sims 4 For Rent: Everything We Know So Far
Let’s dive right into every part of The Sims 4 For Rent that’s been confirmed so far! Remember, the developers always keep some things a surprise for players to discover on their own, so we’re sure there will be even more to explore than what’s been shown on Thursday!
The World of Tomarang
Tomarang (pronounced TOM-A-RONG) is the brand new world shipping with The Sims 4 For Rent. It is inspired by Southeast Asia and contains heaps and heaps of lore, activities, and surprises to discover, some of which we already know about!
For example, Tomarang is a full size residential world with 2 neighbourhoods and a total of 10 lots, 5 in each neighbourhood. If that doesn’t sound like a lot of space to work with, remember that you could potentially have up to 60 residential homes in Tomarang if you were to replace every lot with a 6-unit Residential Rental. That’s potentially up to 480 Sims living in Tomarang if you were so inclined to set up this world in that way.
Tomarang has a lot of common space outside of lots, too! The urban area of Tomarang, called Morensong, contains a park with hopscotch for kids to play on, as well as a botanical garden which is in fact on a lot so you can customize it! The more rural neighbourhood of Koh Sahpa contains a tiger sanctuary that Sims can visit! The tiger sanctuary is a rabbithole but you will get story pop-ups about what your Sims are getting up to inside. Visiting the tigers both during the day and at night (illegally) can give your Sims certain objects as rewards.
The much-advertised night market in Tomarang is in the Morensong neighbourhood. Sims can purchase fresh fish and many brand new dishes inspired by Southeast Asian cuisine. There is also a trinket stall in the night market where you can purchase tassels, which are a new collectible! Sims who collect all the tassels can combine them to get a special reward object. Marbles are another collectible in the expansion and the jar to display them in can be purchased from the trinket stall at the night market as well.
As if that already wasn’t a lot to do and explore, there is also a huge swimming area in Tomarang. Sims who swim to the other side of it can explore a cave that also contains lots of lore and possible rewards.
Building a Residential Rental
While Tomarang is beautiful and a fun place to explore, the main draw of The Sims 4 For Rent is the new lot type that allows multiple households to live on one lot. The official name of the new lot type is Residential Rental, not to be confused with regular Residential lots or vacation Rental lots. Residential Rentals are their own lot type with unique functionality.
Residential Rentals are not apartments. The apartments in City Living and Eco Lifestyle are not customizable on the outside. Players can only decorate and make modifications to the indoor space. Residential Rentals can be built from the ground up just like any other residential property in the game. This gives players the freedom to use the Residential Rental functionality for duplexes, attached town homes, condominiums, homes with rental rooms, university dorms, and many other different types of living arrangements with multiple households.
Once you’ve built your Residential Rental in The Sims 4 For Rent, splitting up the living space is as easy as clicking on a room and assigning it to a unit! You can designate shared spaces in a Residential Rental, too, so you can provide amenities for all the residents living there, like pools, gyms, recreation rooms, and anything else you want.
In Live Mode, you won’t be able to see what’s inside other units being rented by different households. Visiting your neighbour’s unit will require you to go through a load screen; however, there is a new quick-travel feature to eliminate cumbersome menus when traveling to other units. You can now just click on any residence in a neighbourhood and choose to travel there. This feature will be coming to the base game as well.
Don’t worry; you’ll still get a chance to see your neighbours without load screens, especially if there are shared spaces in the building. The other residents will periodically exit their units to use the objects in the shared spaces, so if you want to skip the load screens, you can catch up with them there.
Although the game does give you suggestions for what objects make a good rental unit with a higher rating, you are not obligated to follow those guidelines. You can include or omit whatever you want from individual units.
You can build a Residential Rental almost anywhere you want, not just in Tomarang. You can also easily switch a Residential lot to a Residential Rental in Build Mode. The only places you cannot build Residential Rental properties in The Sims 4 For Rent is Sulani waterfront properties, vacation worlds, and San Myshuno penthouse lots.
Managing Tenants
There’s a lot that goes into managing a Residential Rental in The Sims 4 For Rent. Property owners can choose to live in a unit alongside their tenants or they can live elsewhere and manage the property from a distance.
When filling vacant units in The Sims 4 For Rent, players can click on the new For Rent sign to bring up the current tenant agreement. This is where they can set the rent for all units, the length of the lease on units, and set any rules for tenants to abide by. You can instate rules such as no noise after 10pm, no social events, no ghosts, or put a cap on how many people can live in each unit. If Cats and Dogs is installed, you can also have a no pets rule.
Click on a vacant unit you’d like to fill which will bring up a selection of potential tenants and their info. You can see how many Sims are in the household and what age groups they all are, how many beds they need, and how much they’re willing to pay in rent. You can use all this information to select the best tenants for the units you have.
Of course, not every tenant will follow the rules. You may find that some tenants blatantly disregard the rules you’ve put in place, or they are consistently late on rent payments. If this happens, you can evict them and get better tenants. You can also give struggling Sims a break and offer them second chances, though. They could appreciate your kindness and turn things around! While you can evict Sims for no reason at all, doing so without a valid reason is an unjust eviction and there will be negative consequences for your Sims for unjustly evicting a tenant.
Building Maintenance
Owning a rental property in The Sims 4 For Rent isn’t just about filling up units and sitting on your butt waiting for rent money to roll in. Buildings require maintenance and as the landlord, it’s your responsibility to handle things like broken appliances and mould infestations.
Tenants will periodically contact you requesting help with a problem in their unit. Their water heater could be leaking, the AC unit might be broken, or they could have a mould or electrical problem. You have the option to handle it quickly by hiring either a cheap or an expensive contractor. You can also try to fix the problem yourself. If you choose to fix it yourself, you’ll begin an event at the tenant’s unit and you’ll have to complete the goals during the event to fix up the unit to the tenant’s satisfaction.
You can make life extra difficult by applying some building-related lot challenges to a unit. Yep! Lot challenges on Residential Rentals are per unit, not for the whole building. There are also lot challenges to add the building maintenance functionality to regular residential homes if you want this gameplay in a regular Residential, too.
More Gameplay
Of course, most of The Sims 4 For Rent’s gameplay revolves around owning and managing rental properties but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing else to this pack! The Sims 4 For Rent also comes with 5 new traits, including one Elder-specific trait called Wise. The Wise trait can be acquired in gameplay from aging up. Sims with certain traits like Genius are more likely to gain the Wise trait when they become Elders. The other 4 traits are Cringe, Generous, Child of the Village, and Nosy.
The Sims 4 For Rent also comes with four new aspirations, each focused on a different aspect of the pack. Fount of Tomarani Knowledge is a Location aspiration. Seeker of Secrets is a Deviance aspiration. Discerning Dweller is a Popularity aspiration, and Five Star Property Owner is a Fortune aspiration.
There are two new appliances that come in The Sims 4 For Rent; a rice cooker, and a kettle which Sims can use to boil water for either coffee or tea! Sims will also now be able to boil water for their tea in the microwave. Y’know… if you’re uncivilized like that…
One not-so-wholesome activity Sims can partake in in The Sims 4 For Rent is snooping on their neighbours. There are lots of secrets to uncover about people in The Sims 4 For Rent and Nosy Sims will be particularly good at sniffing them out. Sims can spy on other Sims in public places or even break into their neighbour’s homes when they aren’t around to go snooping through their stuff! If Kleptomaniac Sims break into a home, they can also swipe stuff while they’re there.
Breaking and entering is a timed event so if you’re going to go breaking into people’s homes, you’d better make sure you’re gone before the timer runs out. If you’re not, you could get caught! The effort and risk could be worth it if you uncover a juicy secret, however. Once your Sim has uncovered a secret about another Sim, they can use it to blackmail them. You can break into any residential lot, not just residential rentals.
Oh, and did we mention there’s new dances and a new mould-related death type, too? Don’t worry; mould deaths are optional.
We can’t wait to dive into everything The Sims 4 For Rent has to offer later this week! And if you missed the developer livestream, you can catch up right here!
