Housing
| Gameplay Topics: Combat • Deeds • Fellowship Manoeuvre • Housing • Instance Finder • Reputation • Titles • Warband Maneuvers |
Welcome to the homesteads of Middle-earth! 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.
Index of Housing Related Information
- Housing - starting page - general information on Housing.
- House - Detailed descriptions of the individual housing types.
- Housing Storage - Detailed information on Housing Storage
- Housing Management - Details on Abandoning, Escrow, Lockout and Foreclosure
Housing areas
- Bree-land Homesteads - Housing near Bree
- Shire Homesteads - Hobbit style housing in the Shire
- Falathlorn Homesteads - Elvish housing near Celondim
- Thorin's Hall Homesteads - Dwarf style housing near Thorin's Hall.
- Premium Housing - Premium Gondorian Housing
- Decoration Items
- LOTRO Store - Housing decorations available for purchase with LP from the LOTRO Store
- Crafting Stations - Introduced in Update 17.1, Crafting Stations allow one to provide crafting access for your Personal House or Kin house.
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.
- For more information see Bree-land Homesteads
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.
- For more information see Shire Homesteads
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.
- For more information see Falathlorn Homesteads
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.
- For more information see Thorin's Hall Homesteads
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:
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.
As of December 2019, each housing area has a stable master with travel to many locations as well as to festival areas. Presumably this will be permanent, in which case location with relation to travel as above does not become a consideration.
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:
Privileges - If a character is a member of a kinship that has a kinship house, they will automatically receive a 15% discount when purchasing and repairing at the vendors inside that kinship's neighbourhood. This does not stack with the Personal House discount; only the better discount will apply.
Decorating the Kinship House - The leader of the kinship manages the permissions for that house, including who can toggle the Decoration Mode.
Upkeep and Donations - When granted permission by the kinship leader, characters may pay for the upkeep. In the Character panel the House button opens a panel which displays the character's personal house as well as the kinship house; at that panel the Maintenance button opens a panel with options to deposit upkeep.
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 Foreclosure, see Housing Management.
In addition to the purchase price, each house has an upkeep cost associated with it. If the upkeep is in arrears the house will be locked until the outstanding amount is paid. The upkeep cost varies slightly from address to address within a neighborhood (details are on each of the homestead pages listed above), but the average weekly fees are:
- Standard: 50
- Deluxe: 150
- Kinship: 300
Decorating
Only Decoration Items can be displayed within a home. They are placed in "decorating hooks" and may be rotated within that hook. Decorations can be crafted from a recipe sold by the neighbourhood vendors. Players can even purchase ambient music to be played automatically when characters are inside the home. To apply the decorations, players first enter Decoration Mode by clicking on the small icon on lower left of the mini-map. See Customizing the House and/or Decoration Items for further details on furnishing.
House type Interior
hooksExterior
hooksStandard House 22 5 Deluxe House 47 7 Kinship House 80 12
- With Update 17.1 you can purchase Crafting Stations for your house from the Lotro Store.
- Update 18.2 provided additional hooks inside all houses.
Housing Related Recipes
Several recipes for crafted decoration items are available from the Housing Furnishers inside the homesteads. Recipes for decoration items are also available from the various Reputation vendors across Middle-earth. Some recipes require very high standing with the reputation faction in order to purchase the recipe, but not to learn and craft the item.
Cook
Farmer
Forester
| Item | Vendor | Location | Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Log-holder Recipe | Bill Twiggins | Bree-land Homesteads |
Jeweller
| Item | Vendor | Location | Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Elven Starry Chandelier Recipe | Barthavron | Falathlorn Homesteads | |
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Pointed Chandelier Recipe | Authun | Blue Stone Garrison | |
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Silver Candlestand Recipe | Authun | Blue Stone Garrison |
Metalsmith
| Item | Vendor | Location | Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Candlestand Recipe | Hafgrím | Gath Forthnír | 16 52 
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Iron Candlestand Recipe | Hafgrím | Gath Forthnír | 16 52
|
Scholar
| Item | Vendor | Location | Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
'Above Weathertop' Painting Recipe | Atharbain | Rivendell | 16 52
|
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'Shore Glimpse' Painting Recipe | Atharbain | Rivendell | 16 52
|
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Burnt Orange Wall Paint Recipe | Bassiril | Imlad Lalaith |  10 Lothlórien Silver Branches
|
Tailor
Weaponsmith
| Item | Vendor | Location | Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Leaf-blade Candlestand Recipe | Celegdes | Tinnudir (Keep) | 16 52
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Leaf-blade Chandelier Recipe | Celegdes | Tinnudir (Keep) | 16 52
|
