Games Like The Tenants, Split by Which Job You Liked
The 30-second answer
Updated August 2026.
The Tenants asks you to do three separate jobs, and its own Steam page advertises them as three separate things: “Decide which tenants you want to make business with”, “Design your apartments and give them a polished look”, “Invest wisely to achieve maximum profit”. People, decoration, money. Few people enjoy all three at the same rate. What you want next depends on which of the three jobs you were actually there for.
If you take one recommendation off this page, take House Flipper 2. It takes the renovation job and builds a whole game around it, with no tenants left to interrupt you, and for most people leaving The Tenants that is the cleanest upgrade. The closest match to The Tenants as a complete package is Hotel Galactic, which Steam credits to the same developer, and I still would not lead with it. Its entry below says why.
What The Tenants is, in one line
An apartment management game puts you in charge of a building: you place tenants, meet their needs, collect rent, and reinvest it to grow the property. The Tenants is that, with a first-person renovation sim wrapped around it, and it sits at 78.9% positive across 7,761 reviews at a $19.99 regular price. It ships for Windows only, with no macOS and no Linux build.
The wrapper is what makes this query awkward. Some of the people searching it want more rooms to strip and redecorate. Some want more people to keep happy. Some liked watching a number go up on a property they bought cheap. Those three readers should buy three different games. If you want the genre on its own terms first, what is an apartment management game defines it and best apartment building management games is the wider roundup.
Which job were you there for
| The part of The Tenants you liked | Start here | What you give up |
|---|---|---|
| Stripping a filthy flat and redressing it | House Flipper 2 | Tenants, entirely. Nobody moves in |
| The people: complaints, quirks, keeping them from clashing | Project Highrise | First-person tools. You never hold a paint roller |
| Watching the rent column climb on a property you bought cheap | Mad Tower Tycoon | Detail. Rooms are grid squares you fill, and none of them are yours to decorate |
The ten, at a glance
| Game | The job it keeps | Regular price | Steam reviews (as of August 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| House Flipper 2 | Renovation, deeper and much better looking | $39.99 | 19,797 at 87.2% positive |
| Landlord’s Super | Renovation as physical labour, tenants attached | $19.99 | 1,707 at 80.6% positive |
| Project Highrise | Tenants as needs your building either meets or fails | $19.99 | 4,811 at 84.9% positive |
| Hotel Galactic | Guests with stories, from The Tenants’ developer | $34.99 | 716 at 73.9% positive |
| Minami Lane | Residents and their happiness, in an evening | $4.99 | 6,667 at 97.4% positive |
| Little Renters | The whole landlord loop, shrunk to one small block | Not in this pass | Not in this pass |
| Neighborhoods | Neighbours who have to be able to afford to stay | Not announced | Unreleased, no reviews |
| Mad Tower Tycoon | Renting floors out for profit, at speed | $14.99 | 444 at 77.7% positive |
| Supermarket Simulator | The money loop with no property attached | $19.99 | 83,722 at 92.1% positive |
| Tiny Bookshop | A small business ledger you can read in one glance | $19.99 | 7,648 at 96.2% positive |
If you were there for the renovation
House Flipper 2
House Flipper 2 is the best single purchase on this page for someone coming off The Tenants, because it takes the renovation job and stops interrupting it. Its store description sells a “relaxing renovation simulator” where you buy, fix and sell, plus a sandbox mode for building a house from nothing and a free co-op add-on for up to four players.
It has no tenants at all, so if the reason you played The Tenants was the eviction drama, this removes it. At $39.99 regular it is also the most expensive game here, almost exactly twice The Tenants’ own $19.99, and it runs on Windows only. The original House Flipper is the one in the family with a macOS build, and at $24.99 regular it is the cheaper way to find out whether the renovation loop alone holds you. Games like House Flipper goes through the rest of that shelf properly.
Landlord’s Super
Landlord’s Super is the pick if you want to swing the hammer yourself rather than pick from a menu, and it is the strangest game on the list. No game here takes the landlord premise more literally: its store page describes taking “a dodgy loan, restore a property, move in the locals, attend to their grievances, then celebrate with a pint” in a first-person open world set in 1980s Britain. You order supplies, mix your own cement, assemble scaffolding and lay walls brick by brick. The Tenants abstracts renovation into contracts and a shopping menu; this one hands you the labour at a deliberately slow pace, on Windows only.
If you were there for the tenants
Project Highrise
Project Highrise is the strongest pick if the complaints and the personalities were what kept you playing. You build a tower floor by floor and fill it with office, retail and residential tenants, each with its own power, plumbing, lift and neighbour requirements. Its store page puts your side of the deal plainly: you “must keep your tenants happy” and keep them “paying rent on time”. It warns that failure means watching “tenants leave in disgust, taking their business elsewhere”. The Tenants’ complaint queue comes back here as a system with rules you can plan around.
You never touch anything directly, though. There is no first-person mode and no paint roller, and the same Steam page dates the release to 2016 (checked August 2026), so it looks its age. It runs on Windows and macOS. If it lands, games like Project Highrise goes further down that road.
Hotel Galactic
Hotel Galactic keeps more of The Tenants in one box than anything else here, and it is still the one I would buy last. Steam names EndGameLoop Games as the developer on both its store page and The Tenants’ store page, and you can feel the lineage: you build and decorate rooms, then meet guests whose stories unlock as they stay.
Steam sells it in Early Access, and the developers write on that same store page that they plan to spend roughly one to two years finishing it in public. It drops the third job on purpose, telling you to “forget about cold spreadsheets or demanding management”. At 73.9% positive over 716 reviews it has the lowest score here, at $34.99 it is the second most expensive, and it runs on Windows only. Buy it because you want the art and the guests, not because you want the landlord sim finished.
Minami Lane
Minami Lane is the cheapest way to find out whether resident happiness is the part you actually enjoy. You build a short Japanese street, put up homes and shops, set prices, and then watch villagers walk it and tell you what they think. Its store page is upfront that this is “2 to 4 hours of playtime”, so treat it as one very good evening. At $4.99 regular it is the lowest price I checked for this page and, at 97.4% positive over 6,667 reviews, the highest score. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. Games like Minami Lane has the rest of that shelf.
Little Renters
Little Renters is the pick if you want The Tenants’ own loop at a scale you can hold in your head. You place renters in a small block, decorate each flat to the taste of the person who has to live in it, and set a rent they are free to refuse, which is the three jobs of The Tenants shrunk until they fit on one screen. Its store page is blunt about what pulls it apart: “Thieves, Squatters, Fires, Sick Renters and Broken Decorations can cause you to Fail!”. It is in Early Access on Steam. It is also the one game on this page whose price and reviews I did not pull in this pass, which is why its row carries no figures and why you should read both off the store yourself before you buy.
Neighborhoods
Neighborhoods is the one to wishlist and wait on, because it is the only game here aiming at the part of being a landlord that games usually skip: whether people can afford to stay. Its store page calls it a cozy city sim that reimagines “the city builder as a city fixer”, where you tend to neighbours so they can “live somewhere they can afford, and afford to stay long enough to put down roots”. It has no release date and no price yet (as of August 2026), so there is nothing to score, and Windows is the only platform listed. What games get right about being a landlord covers why that framing is so rare.
If you were there for the money
Mad Tower Tycoon
Mad Tower Tycoon is the fastest route to the spreadsheet feeling, and it drops almost everything else on the way. Its store page is blunt about the loop: build over 100 floors, “rent offices, apartments or shops and build a financially lucrative skyscraper”, then manage lift waiting times so the queues do not build up. There are random events, including a fire, an earthquake and UFOs abducting your tenants.
Tenants here are income sources with a satisfaction bar, the presentation is functional, and no resident will ever surprise you. At 77.7% positive over 444 reviews it has the smallest review count of any game scored on this page. Windows and macOS both get a build.
Supermarket Simulator
Supermarket Simulator is the pick if the buy-low, price-high, restock, repeat rhythm was the real hook and the building was scenery. You set shelf prices against wholesale cost, expand the store and hire staff. It carries the largest review count on this page, 83,722 at 92.1% positive. There is no property ladder and no tenants. It is the money job with the other two jobs removed, on Windows and macOS.
Tiny Bookshop
Tiny Bookshop is the gentlest version of running a small business, and the one to pick if The Tenants stressed you out. You park a book cart in a seaside town, choose stock, set up in different spots and get to know the locals, and its store page frames the whole thing as a “cozy narrative management game”. The ledger stays legible in a single glance. It is $19.99 regular, 96.2% positive over 7,648 reviews, and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.
Where I think most players should land
The tenant job is a request queue attached to a happiness number, and a queue does not travel. You cannot buy more of it without buying a whole different management sim underneath, which is why the second half of this page is the harder half to shop. Anyone who was there for the people more than the paint has to change genre to get more of it, and Project Highrise, Minami Lane and Hotel Galactic pull in three completely different directions once you get past the shared premise, while Little Renters keeps the loop intact and throws away the scale. If that is you, buy Project Highrise: it turns the complaint queue back into a system with rules you can plan around, and the others are for readers who want the art, the short evening or the small version more than the systems.
One from us, sitting beside the list
Grandma Left Me a Building sits next to this list rather than on it. It is a hand-drawn 2D apartment management sim where you restore the run-down building your grandmother left you: you find tenants, collect rent, hire staff and upgrade the place. The cast runs to a midnight guitar-shredding elf, a philosophy-lecturing yeti and an opera singer who bursts into an aria in the elevator, and its store record commits to one line: “No time pressure, plan at your own pace.”
It is unreleased, so there are no scores or sales to point at yet, and it is due on 10 November 2026 (as of August 2026) for Windows and macOS on Steam. If the shelf interests you more than our corner of it, cozy games with no time pressure and apartment simulator games are better doors.
Quick answers
Is Hotel Galactic the closest game to The Tenants? Yes, in shape. Steam names the same developer on both store pages, and you build and decorate rooms and then live with the guests who arrive. Steam also sells it in Early Access with one to two more years of work planned, so House Flipper 2 is the safer first purchase.
Is House Flipper the same thing as The Tenants? No. House Flipper and its sequel keep the renovation job and delete the tenants completely: you buy a property, clean and rebuild it, and sell it on. Nobody moves in, nobody complains, and there is no rent.
What is the cheapest way to try this genre? $4.99, which is Minami Lane’s regular price and the lowest of the eight I priced this pass. It is a two to four hour street management game, short enough to finish in a sitting, and it settles the question of whether you want tenants or paint for the price of a coffee.
How many of these run on a Mac? Five. Project Highrise, Minami Lane, Mad Tower Tycoon, Supermarket Simulator and Tiny Bookshop all list a macOS build, and Minami Lane and Tiny Bookshop are the two that add Linux. House Flipper 2, Landlord’s Super, Hotel Galactic and Neighborhoods are Windows only, as is The Tenants itself. Little Renters is the tenth row and was not in this pass, so I have no platform list to give you for it.
Every price, review count, score, platform list and release date on this page came off the Steam store on 20 August 2026 and will drift. Regular prices are quoted throughout, so anything discounted when you look will read lower. Little Renters is the exception: it was not in that pass, so its row carries no figures at all.
