Housing

"Welcome to my castle!"

"But this is only a small tower?"

One of the most unique and exciting parts of UO is owning a house. To date, no other MMO has implemented a system quite like it. The ability to place, decorate, and customize your own home is one of the greatest aspects of this game.

Acquiring your abode

There are two methods to get a house: build or buy.

Building

To build a home you first need to purchase a House Placement Tool from an NPC Architect. They cost under 1,000 gold. Some characters of a persecuted nature advocate always carrying a tool so you can check your bank balance without saying "balance" and getting the public display of your net worth. Once you have your tool, look at the price ranges to see what is in your budget.

Once you have enough gold for the house it is time to find the location. Depending on your Shard, the open land available can vary greatly. On a heavily populated shard such as Atlantic, medium size houses are all that can fit. On less populated, 18x18 and other large sizes can be found if looked for hard enough.

When you are at your spot, select the house size/style and target the ground where the steps would go. Either the house will appear or it will tell you something is blocking. New housing requires no blocking objects under or within 1 tile of the foundation. The house must also be 5 tiles away from any other player house from front and behind. For more specifics on house placing, see House Placing.

If the house appears, congratulations! If not, keep trying.

Buying

House buyers do so for many reasons. They don't have the time to look for a spot. They can't find one because they want a large. They want a house in a specific location. Etc.

One of the main advantages to buying a house is it is usually a lot quicker than placing yourself. A big disadvantage is that the price is usually 10x or more then what it would cost to place yourself. For very large homes such as Keeps and Castles, buying is pretty much the only option available to most players.

There are several ways to find a house for sale. You can stand at a popular bank, such as West Britain Bank or Luna. You can go to areas you would like to live in and check house signs for sellers. If you see someone while searching, ask them if they know anyone selling. They might even say decide to if the price you offer is good enough. Shard specific trading sites are a good place to look for listings or post your own buy requests.

Once you have located a home and decided on a price with the seller, you both meet at the house. The seller opens the house sign and begins the transaction process. A trade window opens and on the seller's side, a glacial colored deed is shown with the house information. You then place the agreed upon gold/items in. Both parties accept. You now own the house!

Housing types

There are two types of housing: pre-built and custom.

Pre-Built

In the beginning, housing only came in premade styles. These houses cost slightly more than their dirt plot counter-parts. Original houses came first, Renaissance houses were adding during the Renaissance expansion.

Original

Stone and Plaster House Size 7x7 Cost 36,750gp Storage 489	Field Stone House Size 7x7 Cost 36,750gp Storage 489	Small Brick House Size 7x7 Cost 36,500gp Storage 489	Wooden House Size 7x7 Cost 35,000gp Storage 489
Wood and Plaster House Size 7x7 Cost 36,500gp Storage 489	Thatched-Roof Cottage Size 7x7 Cost 36,500gp Storage 489	Small Stone Workshop Size 7x7 Cost 50,250gp Storage 489	Small Marble Workshop Size 7x7 Cost 52,250gp Storage 489
Small Stone Tower Size 8x7 Cost 73,250gp Storage 667	Two-Story Villa Size 11x11 Cost 113,500gp Storage 1265	Sandstone House with Patio Size 12x8 Cost 76,250gp Storage 1265	Two-Story Log Cabin Size 8x13 Cost 81,250gp Storage 1265
Blue Tent Size 7x7 Cost 81,250gp Storage 1265	Green Tent Size 7x7 Cost 81,250gp Storage 1265	Brick House Size 14x14 Cost 131,250gp Storage 1576	Two-Story Wood and Plaster House Size 14x14 Cost 162,500gp Storage 1576
Two-Story Stone and Plaster House Size 14x14 Cost 162,750gp Storage 1576	Large House with Patio Size 15x14 Cost 129,000gp Storage 1576	Marble House with Patio Size 14x13 Cost 160,250gp Storage 1576	Tower Size 16x14 Cost 366,250gp Storage 2437
Small Stone Keep Size 24x24 Cost 562,500gp Storage 4688	Castle Size 30x30 Cost 865,500gp Storage 4688	The Trinsic Keep Estate Size 24x24 Cost 30,000,000gp Storage 4688	The Gothic Rose Castle Size 30x30 Cost 45,000,000gp Storage 4688
The Elsa Castle Size 30x30 Cost 45,000,000gp Storage 4688	The Spires Size 30x30 Cost 45,000,000gp Storage 4688	The Castle of Oceania Size 30x30 Cost 45,000,000gp Storage 4688

Custom

Introduced with the Age of Shadows expansion, custom houses were a groundbreaking system redefining what housing was and could be. No longer were players restricted to a dozen or so styles. The new limit is imagination.

Custom housing is available in a variety of sizes from 7x7 up to 18x18. Once a plot is placed, you can enter customization mode through the house sign and build your dream home. For further details, please see house customization.

Owning a home

Once your house is built, what do you do with it? That is up to you. The function of your house can vary greatly from a storage depot to a guild headquarters or just a place you use to unwind after a long day of slaying monsters.

Housing

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