After more than 20 years, World of Warcraft is finally getting a housing system – with its own houses, neighborhoods, and plenty of decoration options.
Finally your own house in… World of Warcraft: What has been just a pipe dream for many fans for years and is even indispensable in many MMO classics such as… Ultima Online is now becoming reality.
Blizzard has officially released the first details of the housing system, which will allow you to set up your own home in Azeroth. But how exactly does the feature work, where can you build, and what is behind the concept? We summarize the most important information for you.
Three pillars of the housing system
Blizzard’s housing in WoW follows a plan based on three core principles:
- Self-fulfillment without limits: Players should be able to design their house however they like – be it a magnificent fortress, a cozy country house, or a chaotic collection of trophies from past raids. The system should be intuitive to use, but still offer enough depth to create creative masterpieces.
- Social Interaction:Housing is not meant to be a solo feature. While you can enjoy your house alone, Blizzard places a high value on housing being a communal experience – whether through neighborhoods, guild houses, or joint decorating projects. More on this later.
- Long-term motivation:The housing system is designed to be an ever-evolving feature with new content across multiple expansions, rather than a one-time addition. There is no fixed endpoint – instead, your home should grow and develop over the years.
Where can you build your house?
One of the biggest questions in the community was: Where exactly will players be able to build their houses? Blizzard has initially decided on two instanced housing zones:
- Alliance:; an area inspired by Elwynn Forest, with influences from Westfall and Duskwood.
- Horde:; a region inspired by Durotar and Azshara.
Why only two starting areas? Blizzard wants to ensure that housing remains an active, social part of the game. If there were countless building sites, players could spread out too far and the social element of the feature would suffer. However, further housing zones are not ruled out in the future.
How does housing work exactly?
Blizzard has put a lot of thought into making housing as fair as possible:
- No Pay2Win: Most decorations and customizations are unlocked through in-game rewards. A small number of cosmetic items will be available in the store – similar to the way transmog items or pets are already available.
- Open to everyone: There are no expensive land costs, no lottery systems, and no waiting lists. If you want a house, you can get one.
- Cross-faction use:While your alliance characters can’t officially purchase a house in the horde zone (and vice versa), you can still enter and use it with your twinks from the other faction.
The concept of neighborhoods
Let’s get to the neighborhood feature: Instead of living alone in the wilderness, houses are grouped together in instanced but persistent neighborhoods with up to 50 players. There are two variants:
- Public Neighborhoods: Automatically generated neighborhoods in which you will be randomly assigned to other players.
- Private Neighborhoods: Groups of friends or guild members can live here together and work on their settlement.
If you don’t like your assigned neighbors, relocations should be possible at a later date.
When will housing be released?
Blizzard has so far remained tight-lipped about a specific release date. However, it is clear that the feature will be built up over the long term and is not intended to be just a one-time gimmick. In view of the extensive plans, it is likely to appear with the next WoW expansion in 2025 or 2026 at the earliest.
