Housing

Housing promotional art.

Housing gives players a place to call home, providing permanent plots and a domicile that players can customize with decor collectable all over the universe. Housing exteriors may be customized based on racial styles, and the interiors are customizable with drag-and-place mechanics. Houses are organized into public or private "neighborhoods", where player characters can reside amongst random players or within a guild, respectively. The two neighborhoods are Founder's Point for the Alliance and Razorwind Shores for the Horde. These groups of homes are persistent, so that neighbors will remain neighbors until one of them intentionally moves. Plots are available for all independent of housing demand or ownership of game time.

Player housing is intended to be permanent across future expansions. Visiting houses cross-faction will be "minimally restrictive".

Housing is currently live in early access for players who have preordered Midnight, with the full breadth of related features coming alongside the expansion launch.

Obtaining a house

Housing is automatically unlocked for all players with the Midnight expansion. To obtain a house, simply enter the portal room in either Stormwind City or Orgrimmar to travel to Founder's Point or Razorwind Shores. While the districts are themed for the Alliance and Horde, there are no faction restrictions on who can build houses there. On the first login, the quest  [10-80] A House For You will automatically pop up, providing a pointer to the housing district. This quest chain also serves as a brief tutorial for the housing system as a whole. Once in the housing district, simply choose any open plot and claim it from the signpost. Players are limited to one house in each district, which is shared by all characters in the warband. While the first house is free, it will cost 1000 to purchase a second one. There is also a nominal fee to move the house to a different plot.

Neighborhoods

Promotional art of a neighborhood in Razorwind Shores (Game Informer magazine cover art).

Main article: Neighborhood

Each housing district is separated into multiple instanced neighborhoods. There are three types of neighborhoods: Public, Charter, and Guild. Once a house is created within a neighborhood, it will always be found in that neighborhood unless its owner chooses to move it. Players can move their houses to a different neighborhood, including to a different type of neighborhood, for a nominal fee.

Public neighborhoods

Public neighborhoods are the default neighborhood type and are open to everyone. Upon entering the housing district for the first time, players will be randomly placed within a public neighborhood with available plots. A selection of other public neighborhoods can also be viewed and traveled to from the Housing Dashboard.

Charter neighborhoods

Charter neighborhoods are restricted to a specified list of players. To create one, talk to the housing steward NPC in either district. They will provide a charter that functions similarly to a  [Guild Charter]; a minimum of ten separate player accounts (not characters) is required to create a charter neighborhood. The owner of the charter neighborhood can add or remove players, as well as change the neighborhood's name.

Guild neighborhoods

Guild neighborhoods function similarly to charter neighborhoods, but are linked to a guild rather than a custom list of players. The guild leader can create the neighborhood by speaking with the housing steward and change the neighborhood's name. Like charter neighborhoods, the guild must have a minimum membership of ten player accounts to create a guild neighborhood. If a player leaves or is removed from the guild, their house will likewise be removed from the guild neighborhood.

House Level

Still from the Housing Teaser.

The House Level is an upgrade system that incrementally updates the budgets for placing decor, as well as unlocking additional rooms. Housing Experience is earned by obtaining new pieces of decor; once enough XP has been earned to level up, speak with Jorvan Longmoor in Founder's Point or Rotha in Razorwind Shores to increase the House Level.

The maximum House Level is 5 during Early Access, but will increase to 9 in Midnight.

Level	XP	Exterior Budget	Interior Budget	Room Budget	Unlocks
1	0	200	910	19
2	10	200	1155	24	Square Room (Medium)
3	1200	250	1450	30	Daylight Circle Room
4	2400	250	1745	36	Octagon Room (Large)
5	2400	250	2050	43	Square Room (Large) Evening Circle Room
6	5700	250	2360	50	Hearthlight Armillary
7	7900	250	2680	58
8	10300	250	3000	66
9	12900	250	3340	75

History

Main article: Housing/History

Player housing in the form of both personal and guild housing, a common feature in other MMO games, was originally planned for inclusion in the original World of Warcraft, but the designers ultimately cut the feature from the game's initial release with the intent of adding it in a future patch or expansion instead.

Blizzard continued to internally discuss the idea of housing in the years and expansions following the initial release, but cited concerns about it not being worth the development time and resources and it potentially exacerbating a lack of players in the open world.

Garrisons, one of the major features of the Warlords of Draenor (2014) expansion, were envisioned at the time as the World of Warcraft version of housing. Over the course of the expansion and in retrospect, garrisons were criticized partly for feeling isolating and detracting from the game's social aspects and partly for feeling mandatory due to the amount of utility and player power they provided, issues that the developers specifically sought to avoid when designing the modern housing feature.

During Battle for Azeroth, the designers had begun making concrete pitches for what would become the housing feature, although they recognized that the feature would be too big to fit in the development time of a single expansion. Housing was officially announced as a feature launching in Midnight at the Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct in November 2024.

Notes and trivia

• There are no global limitations on "housing slots" as phasing does the work to make "infinite slots" possible, allowing every player to have a house.
• Blood elf and night elf-themed exteriors are expected to be available in patch 12.0.0.
• To celebrate the release of housing early access in World of Warcraft, its sister game of Hearthstone featured the Welcome to the Neighborhood! event, which featured housing-themed quests and rewarded the housing-themed Welcome Home! card.

Gallery

• 

  Rugged decor concept art
• 

  Folk decor concept art
• 

  Mockup map posted on Blizzard social media
• 

  "Welcome Home!" in Hearthstone.

Videos

• Housing Teaser
• Housing Early Access Trailer
• Housing 101: Getting Started

Patch changes

• Patch 12.0.0 (2025-01-20): Full implementation including charter neighborhoods, endeavors, additional room, exterior, and decor options, and a maximum House Level of 9.
  
• Hotfix (2025-12-10): House Level 3 now awards an exterior decor placement budget of +50 items, in addition to existing rewards.
  
• Patch 11.2.7 (2025-12-02): Limited early access version added, with a maximum House Level of 5.
  

External links

• World of Warcraft Community Site Building in Azeroth: A First Look at Housing
• World of Warcraft Community Site Azeroth Beautiful: A Look at Housing Interior Design
• World of Warcraft Community Site Azeroth Living: A Look at Housing Rewards
• World of Warcraft Community Site WoW Housing: It's Only Neighborly