![[For Newbies] How to buy a house in LOTRO for The Lord of the Rings Online™](https://steamsolo.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/for-newbies-how-to-buy-a-house-in-lotro-the-lord-of-the-rings-online.jpg)
Overview
Houses are part of the player housing system in LotRO. Player houses are located in four homesteads. Three different kinds of houses are available: Standard Houses and Deluxe Houses for personal homes, and Kinship Houses for kinships. The style of houses are different for each of the four homesteads depending on the area.
Housing – Homesteads – Neighbourhoods
The wonder and responsibility of owning a home requires a bit of finesse and a lot of money, and level 15. There are four homesteads to which your character(s) can choose from: a majestic Elven home in Falathlorn Homesteads, an underground Dwarven home in Thorin’s Hall Homesteads, a rustic Men of Bree home Bree-land Homesteads, or a cosy Hobbit home in Shire Homesteads. Just remember that your new home will be the home for all your characters on that server. Once you choose which homestead will be your place of residence, you must choose between two different sizes: Standard or Deluxe. Whichever one your characters can afford, it will be a place you can call home with storage capabilities and decoration options. If you are a kinship leader you can purchase a kinship home and your entire kin can share the fun of rent, storage, and decoration.
Homesteads
Player housing takes the form of instanced neighbourhoods within a homestead. There are four distinct homesteads, one for each of the four playable races of Lord of the Rings Online.
Men of Bree-land
The homestead of Men is located in Bree-land, south of the Midgewater Marshes. The houses in the Bree-land homestead are rustic wood and stone houses, similar to the cabin-like houses found throughout Bree-land.
Hobbits of the Shire
The Hobbit homestead is in the Southfarthing of the Shire, south of Waymeet. Homes in the Hobbit homestead are both smials dug into the sides of hills, and above-ground houses, consistent with Hobbit homes found throughout the Shire.
Elves of Ered Luin
The Elf homestead is in Falathlorn, across the bridge near Duillond in Ered Luin. Elven homes are ornately designed domed houses similar to the Elven architecture found throughout Eriador.
Dwarves of the Blue Mountains
The homestead of the Dwarves is inside a large cavern in Thorin’s Gate in Ered Luin, not far from the Stable-master Wíli. Dwarven homes are detailed stonework architecture consistent with dwarven architecture seen in Thorin’s Hall.
Neighbourhoods
Each neighbourhood consists of 30 houses:
16 standard houses
10 deluxe houses
4 kinship houses
Each server starts with a small number of neighborhoods. When all the houses in one neighborhood are sold, a new instance is generated and more houses become available for purchase. While this process is expansive, it is not indefinite. As a result, some servers, such as the highly populous Brandywine, have had issues with shortages of certain housing types.
Gathering Areas – Each neighborhood has its own gathering area with a stage and rows of chairs. In the Shire and Bree neighborhoods, there are areas with tents that allow for role-playing of a market area. The Shire homestead also has a party tree that can be used for public gatherings. These gathering areas that can be used for meetings and events held by players, and all neighborhoods have a local Vault-keeper and vendors such as the Healer, Housing Furnisher, and Provisioner and Supplier. The latter also offer neighbors a discount of 10 or 15%.
Personal Houses
Personal houses allow players to establish roots in Middle-earth, with their own customizable space. Personal houses are either Standard or Deluxe houses, both offering additional storage space: Housing Storage.
When a character owns a personal house, all the characters on the player’s account will automatically receive the Travel to Personal House skill that returns them to their personal house. The skill has a one hour cooldown separate from the other recall cooldowns. Also, the characters on the account will automatically receive a Passive Skill that grants a 10% discount when purchasing and repairing with the vendors inside the neighbourhood in which house lies. This does not stack with the Kinship discount, which is 15%. If the character’s Kinship house and personal house are in the same neighbourhood, only the Kinship discount will apply.
See House for further details on houses and their types, the following is a brief summary.
Standard Houses
Standard houses offer 22 interior hooks, 5 exterior hooks, and a storage chest.
Four different iterations of the Standard house are available:
Bree-land Standard House
Shire Standard House
Falathlorn Standard House
Thorin’s Hall Standard House
Deluxe Houses
Deluxe houses offer 47 interior hooks, 7 exterior hooks, and a storage chest.
Four different varieties of deluxe houses are available:
Bree-land Deluxe House
Shire Deluxe House
Falathlorn Deluxe House
Thorin’s Hall Deluxe House
Discussion and Tips
Location – This may be a factor when choosing a personal house as it relates to travelling. Because any character receives A) the free Return Home skill providing free fast travel to any milestone of the player’s choice, B) a Racial Trait at a certain level providing free transport to their racial home town, C) a free Travel to Kinship House skill (if being in a Kinship and the Kinship owns such a house), and D) a free Travel to Personal House skill bound to the characters on the same world and account. Hence, a player may want to put down his/her house in an area that provides yet another fast travel destination.
Note that Thorin’s Hall Homesteads is the closest to a stable-master who offers swift travel to Bree, Michel Delving, and Celondim.
Addresses – While each neighbourhood instance has exactly the same geographical layout, each house has a unique address based on street and the name of the world. For example, 6 Myrtle Court, Derndelf, Shire Homesteads (i.e. street, world, region). When about to enter a neighbourhood, friends can use the “Add to Favorites” button at the entering panel.
Kinship Houses
Kinship houses are the largest of houses, and are designed to be gathering halls that kinships can use for meetings, events, and general socialization. If a character is a member of a kinship that has a kinship house, they will receive a Travel to Kinship House skill having a one hour cooldown separate from other recall skill cooldowns. Only the Leader of a Rank 7 Kinship or higher can purchase a Kinship House.
Kinship houses offer 80 interior decorating hooks, 12 exterior decorating hooks, and a storage chest.
Four different varieties of kinship houses are available:
Bree-land Kinship House
Purchasing a House
Players can purchase only one home per account (per server) and need to be at least level 15. Buy a house from a Housing Broker or by visiting a neighbourhood and clicking a “For Sale” sign (if there is any). The Housing Brokers for each of the homesteads are:
Nan Henwood for Bree-land Homesteads
Andy Brockhouse for Shire Homesteads
Barchiril for Falathlorn Homesteads
Rúni for Thorin’s Hall Homesteads
For details on Abandoning and Foreclosur