GTA 5 Best Properties to Buy in Story Mode: Prices, Weekly Income and Payback Time

GTA 5 lets Michael, Franklin and Trevor buy 15 businesses in story mode, from a $80,000 bar in Paleto Bay to a $150,000,000 golf club. Most of them never pay for themselves in a normal playthrough. A few do, and fast. Here is every property with its price, its weekly income and how many in-game weeks it takes to earn its price back, so you know exactly where your money should go.

The essentials:

• Property buying unlocks after Trevor's mission "Nervous Ron". You buy a business by walking up to its "For Sale" sign.
• Income lands in the owner's bank account every in-game week. One in-game week lasts about 5 hours 36 minutes of real play (one in-game day is 48 real minutes).
• Best passive earner: Smoke on the Water (Franklin, $204,000), which pays back in 22 weeks.
• Best value overall: the Sonar Collections Dock ($250,000), which can return $940,000 through nuclear waste collection.
• Best cinemas: the Doppler and the Ten Cent Theater (Michael), both 76 weeks to break even. Skip the Tivoli.
• Worst investment: the Los Santos Golf Club at $150,000,000, which needs 568 weeks to break even.
• 100% completion only asks for five properties. The cheapest five cost $784,000 in total.

When to Buy: After the Stock Market, Not Before

Do not spend your early savings on businesses. The real money in GTA 5 story mode comes from Lester's assassination missions and the stock trades around them, which can push each character into the hundreds of millions. Our GTA 5 stock market guide explains the timing. Four of Lester's five hits only unlock after the final story mission, so the smart order is simple: save, invest in stocks, then buy property with the profit.

There are also a few story locks to know about (as documented on the GTA Wiki):

• Until "Friends Reunited", Trevor can only buy properties in Blaine County.
• Between "Caida Libre" and "Monkey Business", Michael and Trevor cannot buy in Los Santos.
• Tequi-la-la opens after Trevor's Strangers and Freaks mission "Vinewood Souvenirs - Willy".
• The LSPD Auto Impound opens after Franklin finishes Tonya's towing missions.
• The Sonar Collections Dock opens after "The Merryweather Heist".

Every GTA 5 Story Mode Property, Ranked by Payback Time

Figures are the maximum weekly income listed by the GTA Wiki. Payback is the number of in-game weeks needed to earn back the purchase price.

Four more properties pay per job instead of per week:

Trevor also gets the Vanilla Unicorn for free after the mission "Hang Ten". It pays $5,000 a week and doubles as one of his safehouses.

The Best Properties to Buy

1. Sonar Collections Dock ($250,000): the best value in the game

This is the only property that reliably pays for itself several times over. Owning the dock gives you a submarine and unlocks the 30 nuclear waste barrels on the sea floor. Each barrel pays $23,000 and collecting all of them adds a $250,000 bonus, for $940,000 in total. You are in profit after 11 barrels. It also unlocks Michael's Strangers and Freaks mission "Death at Sea". Our nuclear waste locations guide maps every barrel.

2. Smoke on the Water ($204,000): the best passive income

Franklin's weed dispensary in La Puerta earns $9,300 a week. That is the best ratio of income to price of any business, with a payback of 22 in-game weeks. If Franklin is your main character, buy it first.

3. McKenzie Field Hangar ($150,000): money and missions for Trevor

The Grapeseed airstrip unlocks Trevor's arms trafficking missions by air and by ground. They pay $7,000 and $5,000 a run, so the hangar is paid off after about 21 air runs. You get fun missions, a Cuban 800 and a Dune Buggy while you run them, and a reason to fly.

4. Doppler Cinema or Ten Cent Theater (Michael)

If Michael has stock market money to burn, the cinemas are where it works hardest. The Doppler ($10,000,000) and the Ten Cent Theater ($20,000,000) both break even in 76 weeks. The Tivoli costs $30,000,000 for barely more income than the Doppler: 211 weeks to break even. Buy the Doppler first, then the Ten Cent, and leave the Tivoli for completionists.

5. Los Santos Customs ($349,000): buy it for the perk, not the money

On paper it is a poor investment: $1,600 a week, 219 weeks to break even. In practice, owning the Route 68 branch in the Grand Senora Desert makes Franklin's modifications free at that shop. If you love tuning cars, it saves more than it earns. Our Los Santos Customs guide lists what you can upgrade.

The Properties to Skip

• Los Santos Golf Club ($150,000,000): 568 weeks to break even, more than 3,000 hours of real play. You get free golf and can wear any outfit on the course. That is all.
• Car Scrapyard ($275,000): $150 per destroyed car means 1,834 wrecks before you see a profit.
• Tivoli Cinema ($30,000,000): three times the price of the Doppler for almost the same weekly income.
• Hookies ($600,000): 128 weeks to break even, and only one of Franklin or Michael can own it.

Property Management Calls: Do Not Ignore Them

Once you own businesses, the managers will phone you from time to time with a job: someone stole a delivery, a rival needs to be dealt with, a taxi fare is waiting. The GTA Wiki notes that ignoring these calls can reduce that business's weekly profit. They are short, they pay their own reward and they keep your income at the maximum, so take them when they come.

How to Collect Property Income Faster

Weekly income follows the in-game clock, not real time. A few habits help:

• Sleep at a safehouse. Every character can sleep in their bed to skip several in-game hours.
• Play long sessions. Time only passes while you are in the game, not while it is switched off.
• Buy early with the right character. Income goes to the owner's account only. A property bought by Franklin does nothing for Michael's balance.

Even with all of that, a 76-week cinema still needs over 400 hours of real play to pay off. Treat most properties as a way to spend stock market profits and finish the game, not as your main income. For the methods that actually make money fast, see our GTA 5 story mode money guide.

Which Properties Count for 100% Completion?

The 100% checklist asks you to buy five properties, by any combination of characters. The cheapest five businesses are:

Swap the Impound for the Sonar Collections Dock ($250,000) if you have not finished Tonya's missions: the dock pays itself back anyway. Our GTA 5 100% completion checklist covers every other requirement.

Vehicle Storage Is a Separate List

Garages, the Puerto Del Sol Marina berth ($75,000), the Vespucci Helipad ($419,850) and the Los Santos International hangar ($1,378,600) store vehicles but earn nothing. The garages cost $30,000 each and hold four cars. If you want to know how much each one holds, read our GTA 5 garages guide.

What This Could Mean for GTA 6

Rockstar has not said whether GTA 6 will let Jason and Lucia buy businesses. Vice City, the setting confirmed by the official trailers, was home to the asset system of GTA Vice City in 2002, where buying a business unlocked its missions and a steady income. GTA 5 kept the idea of passive income but made most properties poor investments. If businesses return, the GTA 5 lesson is likely to hold: the ones tied to missions and activities are worth far more than the ones that just pay a weekly cheque.

Sources

• GTA Wiki, "Properties in GTA V" (prices, weekly income, owners and unlock conditions).
• Rockstar Games, Grand Theft Auto V (2013) and the GTA 5 manual.