<h2>No</h2>

<p>Building shortages are explicitly a part of the game.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><strong>BUILDING SHORTAGES…</strong> When the Bank has no houses to sell,
  players wishing to build must wait for some player to return or sell
  his/her houses to the Bank before building. If there are a limited
  number of houses and hotels available and two or more players wish
  to buy more than the Bank has, the houses or hotels must be sold at
  auction to the highest bidder.</p>
  
  <p><sub><a href="https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/monins.pdf" rel="noreferrer"><em>Monopoly</em> instructions on Hasbro.com</a></sub></p>
</blockquote>

<p>The rules for building a hotel state the following.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><strong>HOTELS…</strong> When a player has four houses on each property of a
  complete color-group, he/she may buy a hotel from the Bank and
  erect it on any property of the color-group. He/she returns the four
  houses from that property to the Bank and pays the price for the hotel
  as shown on the Title Deed card.</p>
  
  <p><sub>ibid.</sub></p>
</blockquote>

<p>Taking those two rules together makes <em>not</em> upgrading to hotels <a href="https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/q/13474/6352">an important part of the strategy of the game</a>; creating <em>a monopoly</em>.</p>

<p>It can't be stated often enough: the objective of the game is <em>not</em> to get rich; the objective of the game is bankrupting your opponents. The way to do that is to create a monopoly and deny them the resources they need.</p>

<p>For example, even if your opponent owns most of yellow, green, and dark blue, if you own light blue and pink with the maximum number of houses on each, you will have removed 24 houses from the stock of 32 in total. The only colour your opponent can now max out on houses and possibly upgrade to a hotel is dark blue, with Park Lane and Mayfair. But of course you refused to trade Park Lane with them and kept it for yourself, didn't you?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-03-05T08:09:53.050Z
2019-12-23T10:27:27.010Z
2019-12-23T10:27:27.010Z
SQB
<p>No.</p>

<p>You can only build a hotel if you have four houses on your properties.</p>

<p>You must build houses evenly.  That is, if you have three properties, then you must buy 1 house for A, 1 house for B, 1 house for C, 2nd house for A, 2nd house for B, 2nd house for C, and so on.</p>

<p>You cannot buy a hotel on one property.</p>

<p>If the houses are gone, then you cannot buy them.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/monins.pdf" rel="noreferrer">https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/monins.pdf</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-07T19:15:50.793Z
I heard that some people intentionally avoid building hotels to run down the supply of houses to prevent their opponents from getting enough houses to build hotels.
ikegami
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-07T20:24:55.917Z
If there are three properties in a color, all owned by me, and I have 4, 4 and 3 houses on 'm, can I buy 2 houses to make a Hotel on the 3 even if there are no houses in the supply?
steenbergh
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-08T01:18:28.303Z
No. If there are no houses in the supply, you can't buy houses. If your properties don't have enough houses on them, you can't buy hotels.
ConMan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-08T13:55:01.243Z
A clarification on "You cannot buy a hotel on one property" - you can if the other properties in the group each have four houses. You do not need to buy hotels for all properties in the group at once.
mmathis
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-23T09:48:10.070Z
@steenbergh you could build a hotel on one of the properties with 4 houses, then build a house on the 3, but that defeats the object of using the housing shortage to your advantage
WhatsThePoint
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-23T10:02:12.730Z
@WhatsThePoint No, you can't do that, because the number of houses would not be equally distributed between the properties.
steenbergh
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-11-23T10:03:28.867Z
@steenbergh ah yes my bad, apologies
WhatsThePoint
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-23T13:47:12.337Z
@steenbergh : "... can I buy 2 houses to make a Hotel on the 3 ..." Even if there were 2 houses available, you would only need to buy 1 house more and build a hotel after that. You only need 4 houses on the property in order to build a hotel, not 5 houses...
Robert Miller
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-12-23T13:50:14.677Z
@RobertMiller, Yeah, I meant 'buying 2 houses' to mean 'paying for 2 more upgrades, going from 3 houses, to 4, to hotel.' My question was if I could skip placing house #4 as they are out of supply...
steenbergh
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-07T18:44:28.810Z
2017-09-07T18:44:28.810Z
hymie
<p>Assuming all houses are already claimed, can a player purchase a hotel directly by paying the value of 5 houses in order to directly purchase a hotel?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-07T20:22:28.390Z
Related: [Does the “housing shortage” rule suggest that you should often refrain from buying hotels in monopoly?](https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/13474/does-the-housing-shortage-rule-suggest-that-you-should-often-refrain-from-buyi)
Malco
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-09-07T23:36:52.117Z
Possible duplicate of [What happens when you need to tear-down a hotel but no houses are in the bank in Monopoly?](https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/925/what-happens-when-you-need-to-tear-down-a-hotel-but-no-houses-are-in-the-bank-in)
Joe W
<monopoly>
Can you directly purchase a hotel if all the houses are gone?
yitzih
# Can you directly purchase a hotel if all the houses are gone?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-09-07)

Assuming all houses are already claimed, can a player purchase a hotel directly by paying the value of 5 houses in order to directly purchase a hotel?

**Tags:** monopoly

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Related: [Does the “housing shortage” rule suggest that you should often refrain from buying hotels in monopoly?](https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/13474/does-the-housing-shortage-rule-suggest-that-you-should-often-refrain-from-buyi)  
> **username_2**: Possible duplicate of [What happens when you need to tear-down a hotel but no houses are in the bank in Monopoly?](https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/925/what-happens-when-you-need-to-tear-down-a-hotel-but-no-houses-are-in-the-bank-in)  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2017-09-07. Score: 21 | Accepted answer

No.

You can only build a hotel if you have four houses on your properties.

You must build houses evenly. That is, if you have three properties, then you must buy 1 house for A, 1 house for B, 1 house for C, 2nd house for A, 2nd house for B, 2nd house for C, and so on.

You cannot buy a hotel on one property.

If the houses are gone, then you cannot buy them.

<https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/monins.pdf>

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: I heard that some people intentionally avoid building hotels to run down the supply of houses to prevent their opponents from getting enough houses to build hotels.  
> **username_6**: If there are three properties in a color, all owned by me, and I have 4, 4 and 3 houses on 'm, can I buy 2 houses to make a Hotel on the 3 even if there are no houses in the supply?  
> **username_7**: No. If there are no houses in the supply, you can't buy houses. If your properties don't have enough houses on them, you can't buy hotels.  
> **username_8**: A clarification on "You cannot buy a hotel on one property" - you can if the other properties in the group each have four houses. You do not need to buy hotels for all properties in the group at once.  
> **username_9**: @username_6 you could build a hotel on one of the properties with 4 houses, then build a house on the 3, but that defeats the object of using the housing shortage to your advantage  
> **username_6**: @username_9 No, you can't do that, because the number of houses would not be equally distributed between the properties.  
> **username_9**: @username_6 ah yes my bad, apologies  
> **username_10**: @username_6 : "... can I buy 2 houses to make a Hotel on the 3 ..." Even if there were 2 houses available, you would only need to buy 1 house more and build a hotel after that. You only need 4 houses on the property in order to build a hotel, not 5 houses...  
> **username_6**: @RobertMiller, Yeah, I meant 'buying 2 houses' to mean 'paying for 2 more upgrades, going from 3 houses, to 4, to hotel.' My question was if I could skip placing house #4 as they are out of supply...  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2018-03-05. Score: 9

## No

Building shortages are explicitly a part of the game.

> **BUILDING SHORTAGES…** When the Bank has no houses to sell,
> players wishing to build must wait for some player to return or sell
> his/her houses to the Bank before building. If there are a limited
> number of houses and hotels available and two or more players wish
> to buy more than the Bank has, the houses or hotels must be sold at
> auction to the highest bidder.
>
> [*Monopoly* instructions on Hasbro.com](https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/monins.pdf)

The rules for building a hotel state the following.

> **HOTELS…** When a player has four houses on each property of a
> complete color-group, he/she may buy a hotel from the Bank and
> erect it on any property of the color-group. He/she returns the four
> houses from that property to the Bank and pays the price for the hotel
> as shown on the Title Deed card.
>
> ibid.

Taking those two rules together makes *not* upgrading to hotels [an important part of the strategy of the game](https://boardgames.stackexchange.com/q/13474/6352); creating *a monopoly*.

It can't be stated often enough: the objective of the game is *not* to get rich; the objective of the game is bankrupting your opponents. The way to do that is to create a monopoly and deny them the resources they need.

For example, even if your opponent owns most of yellow, green, and dark blue, if you own light blue and pink with the maximum number of houses on each, you will have removed 24 houses from the stock of 32 in total. The only colour your opponent can now max out on houses and possibly upgrade to a hotel is dark blue, with Park Lane and Mayfair. But of course you refused to trade Park Lane with them and kept it for yourself, didn't you?


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