Raising land values with farms in SimCity 3000

Contributor/author(s): Nathan Kennedy

The best strategy I've found so far to get lots of land with really high land values is to start out creating lots of farms in your city, as many as you possibly can, and gradually replacing them with Dense zones (once the farms disappear) as your city grows. At a certain point it seems like there is a cap on how many farms can be created (especially if industrial is in low or negative demand).

Once heavy development takes over previous farmland, that area will reach Very High or Astronomical land values, even without anything surrounding the land (water, trees, museums, etc) that is normally needed to increase land values. The most valuable land on the whole map will be the land that had once been farms.

When a farm appears, it produces a "super good" aura, which increases the surrounding property values; however farms only want to appear on land with Low property values, and will cease to exist when it's land value goes above Medium. Farms will disappear if placed too close together, and I believe this is because they increase each other's property value too much. Farms must have at least 3+ tiles of open land between them to prevent this.

For a farm to appear, you must zone an area between 8x8 and 18x18 of light industrial - 9x9 works the best and is almost guaranteed to produce a farm. The road can only touch either one side (recommended), or two sides running parallel, for a farm to appear. You must make sure your farm is watered, or it will disappear shortly after popping up.

I've found farms only want to pop up when you use open land with little or no surrounding development. Any pollution in the area will prevent a farm from appearing, or will cause an existing farm to disappear. Having land values rise and/or having lots of development surrounding the farms will cause them to eventually disappear.

Once the farms have appeared, you can start zoning Light Residential and Light Commercial very close to the farms. I zone lots Light Residential surrounding the whole farm and leave a 1 or 2 tile buffer of unzoned land. The road touching the Light Residential wraps around the farm, and this is okay as long it does not touch the farm. Zoning Light around a farm doesn't appear to have much affect on an existing farm, but it can still prevent a farm from appearing when you initially create the zone. When you first zone for a farm, if other Light Industrial starts popping up instead, immediately bulldoze it, as it will hinder a farm from appearing.

Often when an existing farm disappears and starts turning into other Light Industrial buildings, I'll make the Barn and other buildings "Historical" (query it and check the "Make Historical" box) and then bulldoze the rest. Then you can have the barn mixed in with other buildings, although if the surrounding area is zoned as dense the barn will usually stay abandoned.

Once you start creating Medium or especially Dense zones around the farms, it will cause them to eventually disappear; Dense zones create more pollution, and that will kill a farm.

Once a farm disappears, you can re-zone the area as Dense Commercial or Residential, and the property values will get very high. It helps if the farms were surrounded by Light zones (I recommend Light Residential, as that seems to have the least impact on farms). While the farms still exist, I've had the light residential areas directly surrounding the farms get Very High land values, and the farms themselves get Medium land values; it is rare to ever get an industrial zone above a Medium land value, and if it happens to a farm, it will disappear and it's time to re-zone it to Medium or Dense Residential or Commercial.

The best other strategies for increasing land values are to have trees and/or water next to the zones. Museums, hospitals, schools, small & large parks, ballparks, etc. all help increase property value. The University and Stadium (from Gifts & Rewards) and Landmarks seem to have the best influence on surrounding land values aside from a farm. I've noticed areas usually won't reach Very High or Astronomical land values until after they are covered by both a police station (or two) and a fire station. It also helps if you zone 3x3 or 4x4 squares for any Dense zones (using road, rail, trees, windmills, or unzoned land, etc for separators) as most of the buildings that pop up tend to be 3x3 or 4x4 in size, and having them zoned to that exact size helps force the bigger buildings to pop up, and the bigger buildings tend to have the higher land values.

When you initially develop an area as Dense zones, they tend to have low property values, and it seems very difficult to ever get it above Medium unless you do something early on to increase land values. It's best to start out as Light or Medium and wait until you've got higher land values, then re-zone as Dense. I've placed lots of "special buildings" and trees around land without it having that big of an impact on value, and even waterfront land often only reaches a High land value. At the same time, dense development that was previously farmland will often reach Astronomical land values, even with nothing "special" near it.

See also
Land value vs. density tables
Increasing land value: more than just trees
Land value: one possible truth
Increasing land value: strategies
Improve land value/pollution conditions w/ trees
Raise land value to Astronomical