Death Game: Supernatural Battle (Vampire Towers #3) - Kelly St. Clare Page 0,42

He’d been frowning at me since I arrived on Level 66, but until Safina got here, I doubted the vampire would put it together.

“Enough,” Kyros said.

Fangs retreated, and everyone sat.

I studied my hashtags.

There was only one.

#amscrewed

Angelica strode into the room per her usual cue. Everyone tapped on their tablets. I did the same, opening the House Acquisition file. Usually, the first page contained the properties in whichever suburb the roll had landed on.

“Today, a slight detour from the norm,” the Vissimo began. “For the last three decades, rates of privately sold properties have held steady. Last year, the rate doubled as tourism spiked and vacation homes became a trend. Or so we assumed. While that theory was supported by the purchase of houses in waterfront locations and townhouse purchases in Black and Blue, there has been a recent and dramatic shift.”

Uh-oh.

“The rate of privately-purchased properties has doubled again in the last two months.”

I arched my brows. “So much?”

Angelica dipped her head. “I had my team do some digging. It appears that over 9000 homes in Bluff City were purchased by offshore owners.”

Ilion jerked. “Nine thousand? That’s 15 percent of the residential market.”

Think of Tommy leaving. Think of Tommy leaving.

“Private transactions usually operate at a word of mouth and local level, but the scale of this is suspicious to the extreme. Someone is brokering these deals, and yet our staff have never come across other realtors, beside Foremost workers. Not only that, the private owners we consider problematic are increasingly selling to overseas buyers.”

I’d known this moment would come as I accelerated acquisition. I needed to focus on the conversation as much as possible.

Angelica bowed. “I leave the seconds to discuss the possible reasons behind the surge; however, you can find a list of proposed theories at the bottom of the second page. If Foremost isn’t behind these purchases, this could be a potential market to hit with everything we have.”

Scrolling down, I skimmed through the theories of her team while doing my best to focus on what I had for breakfast that morning.

“Have you had contact with any of the owners or buyers?” Kyros asked, glancing up at her.

“I was awaiting your decision, sir.” Angelica straightened.

“You’ll have one by the end of the night.”

She bowed again, then launched into an abbreviated version of her usual spiel. Sundulus landed on Purple tonight. After her report, the stream of other team leaders delivered their reports. The door had barely closed on the Forecasting Head of Team before Conrad erupted.

“Foremost is behind the private sales,” he said, bursting to his feet. “It’s a safety net. They broker a deal and keep the details of the sale under wraps. They can then purchase the properties back when they wish. It would be perfectly within the rules.”

Danielle tapped her pen on the table. “No. If they had over nine thousand properties, then they could have won the game by now. Why would they broker private sales to overseas buyers instead of keeping the homes for themselves?”

Kyros was watching me.

I had to say something. “Because the trouble properties are demonstrating resistance to Live Right and Foremost. They likely prefer to sell privately than deal with either company. When the property is sold, Foremost can then approach the overseas buyers, who don’t have any resistance to their offer. Holiday homes are often an investment. Convincing overseas clientele to sell due to plummeting house values would be child’s play.”

Ilion scrolled through his tablet. “But some of these properties were purchased nearly thirty years ago. The rate has greatly accelerated in the last month, but prior to that, the rate was steady—between 300 and 350 properties were privately purchased each year.”

Go, Agatha.

“Just a theory.”

Kyros peered at me over steepled hands. “There’s more.”

Dammit.

My palms grew slick with sweat, and I reasoned away my thumping heart. All the seconds were looking at me. At least part of my reaction was masked by the natural instincts of my body around them. “Having visited a lot of these trouble properties, I can tell you that public favour for this company and Foremost isn’t good. I don’t think you should discount the possibility that the residents of Bluff City talk to each other. You know word of mouth is the strongest marketing tool there is. The information we’ve spread about plummeting house prices would have only skyrocketed that word of mouth. I also don’t think you should dismiss that someone might have seen an opportunity to make money. You may have forced other realtors