After years of requests, WoW finally gets player housing in Patch 11.2.7. Blizzard built the system around neighborhoods rather than isolated instances, learning from the Garrison problem in Warlords of Draenor. Instead of sitting alone in your personal space, you'll have a home alongside other players in a shared village. This guide covers everything you need to claim your plot, pick the right neighborhood type, and get involved in community activities.
Neighborhood System
Neighborhoods are instanced zones that give you personal housing space while keeping social interaction alive. When you claim a house, you're joining a community of other players, not just getting a building.
The Basics
Each neighborhood holds around 50 to 55 plots in a persistent instance. As neighborhoods fill up, the game automatically creates new ones, so you'll always find an available spot. Your neighbors stay the same unless someone decides to move, which helps build stable communities over time.
The layout breaks down into a few key areas. A central hub serves as the town center with higher housing density and most of the action. You'll find all the important NPCs here: decor vendors, housing upgrade specialists, dye trainers, and portals to Stormwind or Orgrimmar depending on your faction. Outside the hub, plots spread across different biomes. Some sit in small cul-de-sacs with two or three houses grouped together, while others are tucked away in quieter spots for players who prefer solitude.
Your house is its own separate instance inside the neighborhood. You share outdoor space with neighbors, but your interior stays private and under your control.
Faction Neighborhoods
WoW offers two neighborhood zones, one for each faction:
Founder's Point (Alliance)
The Alliance neighborhood pulls from classic Eastern Kingdoms landscapes. You'll find biomes that feel like Elwynn Forest's peaceful woods, Westfall's rustic farmland, Redridge Mountains' rugged terrain, and Duskwood's creepy atmosphere. This gives Alliance players options to match their character's background or just pick what looks good to them.
Razorwind Shores (Horde)
Sitting off the coast of Durotar, the Horde neighborhood mixes themes from iconic Horde territories. Areas inspired by the Barrens and Azshara blend with lush tropical beaches similar to Echo Isles. The zone has multiple elevation levels, featuring trees, ponds, greenery, a darker Forsaken-themed section, and dusty desert areas.
Claiming Your House
Before you can start decorating, you need to finish a quick intro and grab a plot.
Step by Step
- Finish the Intro Quest - When you first enter your faction's neighborhood, an intro quest pops up in your Quest Log. This short chain teaches you the basics and gets you ready to pick a plot.
- Find Available Plots - Open your map in the neighborhood to see plot locations. Icons show where each plot sits throughout the zone. Some will already be claimed, so look for ones still available.
- Buy Your Plot - Once you've found an available plot you like, fly over and interact with the sign in front of it. You'll pay some gold to lock it in.
- Run Through the Decor Tutorial - After buying your home and stepping inside, you can do a Decor Tutorial that walks you through placing and arranging decorations.
Picking the Right Spot
Think about what matters to you when choosing a plot.
The biome determines your surroundings. Each neighborhood has multiple biomes with their own look, from forests to farmland to spookier environments.
Distance from the hub affects your social experience. Plots near the central town see more foot traffic and give you quick access to vendors. Distant plots offer peace and quiet.
If you're joining a private neighborhood with friends, you might want houses near each other.
Moving Your House
The housing system makes relocation painless. If you get tired of your spot, want different neighbors, or just feel like a change, you can pack up and go.
How It Works
Interact with the sign in front of your current home to start. The system lets you pack your entire house, decorations included, and move to a new location. You can relocate within the same neighborhood or jump to a completely different instance.
Neighborhood Types
WoW has two main neighborhood categories for different player needs.
Public Neighborhoods
Public neighborhoods are open communities that the game servers create and manage. Anyone on your server can claim a plot here.
What to expect from public neighborhoods:
- The game creates them automatically as needed
- Anyone can buy an available house
- New instances spin up as old ones fill
- The game picks the names
- Endeavor activities are chosen and run by the game
- Around 50 to 55 players per instance
Public neighborhoods work well if you want the social housing experience without coordinating with a specific group.
Private Neighborhoods
Private neighborhoods give organized groups their own exclusive communities. They come in two flavors: Guild and Charter.
Guild Neighborhoods
These are locked to members of a specific guild. To create one, your guild needs at least 10 active members in the past 30 days. Once you hit that threshold, a guild Officer can talk to the housing steward NPC and set up the instance.
Guilds with more than 50 members get multiple 50-slot instances linked together, so everyone can have a house regardless of total guild size.
Charter Neighborhoods
Charter neighborhoods run on an invite-only basis separate from guild membership. The charter owner creates the neighborhood and invites specific players, letting friends from different guilds live together.
The charter leader controls membership and can add or remove players whenever needed. Charter neighborhoods max out at 50 to 55 plots and can't expand like guild neighborhoods can.
Managing Private Neighborhoods
Both private neighborhood types include permission systems for designated leaders. These let you manage membership rosters, pick Endeavor activities, and handle other admin tasks.
Owners name their private neighborhoods. Names don't have to be unique across the game since the system adds identifiers to tell them apart.
Account Limits and Warband Sharing
Housing works on an account-wide basis with specific caps on what you can own.
What You Can Own
Each WoW account can have a maximum of two houses:
- One in Founder's Point (Alliance)
- One in Razorwind Shores (Horde)
This limit covers your entire Warband, so all your characters share access to these homes. You can't own multiple houses in the same faction's neighborhood.
Warband Benefits
Decoration collecting works account-wide. Items you get on any character become available for all your houses. All characters in your Warband can also access and live in any house you've built, no matter what faction they are.
Cross-Faction Housing
The neighborhoods look faction-specific, but they fully support cross-faction play with a few rules.
Building Requirements
To build a house initially, you need a character from the matching faction:
- Building in Founder's Point requires an Alliance character
- Building in Razorwind Shores requires a Horde character
Living and Visiting
Once a house exists, the faction requirement goes away:
- Any Warband character can live in any house you own, regardless of faction
- You can invite players of either faction to visit
- Finishing the housing intro on one faction gives your opposite-faction characters immediate access to their neighborhood
So if an Alliance player finishes the intro and builds in Founder's Point, their Horde alts can jump straight into Razorwind Shores.
Privacy and Permissions
The housing system gives you fine control over who enters your space.
Separate Layers
Your plot (outdoor area) and your house (interior) have independent permission systems. This lets you set up flexible access:
- Let neighbors walk through your yard while keeping your house locked
- Open your house for events while restricting plot access
- Give guildmates full access while limiting strangers
Who You Can Allow or Block
You can set access for:
- Friends
- Guildmates
- Neighbors
- Everyone (public access)
Changing Permissions
You can adjust permissions anytime with no cooldown. The system checks for changes frequently, so you can open your house for a party and then close it when you're done. Anyone inside when permissions change gets booted from restricted areas immediately.
Neighborhood Endeavors
Endeavors are monthly community activities that bring residents together for shared goals.
What Endeavors Do
Each month, a new Endeavor activates and gives the whole neighborhood a themed set of tasks to complete together. These activities teach players about different factions and cultures across Azeroth while building community.
Task requirements scale based on neighborhood size and activity. Less active neighborhoods get easier requirements for future Endeavors, so small communities don't face impossible goals.
Task Variety
Endeavors include tasks across different gameplay types, so everyone can contribute no matter what content they prefer:
- Crafting
- Gathering
- Questing
- Dungeons
- Raids
Endeavor Selection
Selection works differently by neighborhood type:
Public Neighborhoods: The game randomly picks active Endeavors.
Private Neighborhoods: Designated managers can choose from available options.
Priority Endeavors: Sometimes, specific Endeavors tied to current events, story beats, or holidays activate across all neighborhoods automatically.
Visual Changes
As your neighborhood finishes Endeavor tasks, themed NPCs start showing up and themed decorations appear. Vendors matching the Endeavor's theme arrive and sell exclusive items to members and visitors.
Blizzard showed off a Val'sharah-themed Endeavor with an Emerald Nightmare-inspired tree growing in the neighborhood center, Treants patrolling the area, and a portal appearing near a tree.
Endeavor Rewards
Finishing Endeavor tasks gives you several reward types.
What Each Task Gives
Every task you personally complete grants:
- XP
- Endeavor currency (a new currency type)
- Neighborhood Favor
Endeavor Currency
This currency is shared across all Endeavors, letting you save up over time instead of spending during each event. You spend it with visiting NPCs in any neighborhood to buy themed decorations. Given the thematic nature of Endeavors, expect vendors to stock zone-specific, faction-specific, or race-themed decor and furniture.
Neighborhood Favor Progression
Neighborhood Favor works like a Renown track tied to your neighborhood.
Earning Favor
You gain Neighborhood Favor by doing activities in your neighborhood, mainly through Endeavor participation. As your neighborhood's collective Favor grows, you advance through ranks that benefit all residents.
Benefits for Everyone
Favor progression unlocks perks and upgrades for the whole neighborhood. One confirmed example: an increased decor item limit that lets all members place more decorations as the neighborhood hits higher ranks.
Checking Your Progress
The House Dashboard shows your current Neighborhood Favor level, displays rewards at future ranks, and gives you access to Endeavor info.
Known Rank 7 Rewards
Reaching Neighborhood Favor Rank 7 unlocks:
- Increased decor limit for your house
- Scarlet Throne (seating decoration)
- Bel'ameth Wooden Table
- Blightfire Lantern (light decoration)
The max Favor rank hasn't been officially confirmed, but preview materials show levels above 12. More ranks and rewards may come in future patches.
Other Neighborhood Features
Holiday Events
Blizzard's Housing and Holiday teams are collaborating to bring seasonal events into neighborhoods, though specifics haven't been announced.
NPCs
Beyond vendors and Endeavor-related characters, neighborhoods may include minor NPCs from quests you've completed elsewhere in the game.
Still Undecided
Some features haven't been finalized yet:
- Profession tables in neighborhoods
- Communal spaces like guild halls, taverns, or stages
Quick Reference
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Account Limits | 2 houses max (one per faction neighborhood), shared across your Warband |
| Plots Per Neighborhood | 50 to 55 |
| Alliance Neighborhood | Founder's Point - Eastern Kingdoms themes |
| Horde Neighborhood | Razorwind Shores - Durotar and coastal themes |
| Public Neighborhoods | Open to all, game-managed |
| Guild Private | Needs 10+ active members, tied to guild membership |
| Charter Private | Invite-only, separate from guilds |
| Cross-Faction Rules | Build with a matching-faction character; any Warband character can live in any house you own |
| Endeavors | Monthly community events (coming with Midnight, not in 11.2.7 early access) |
| Neighborhood Favor | Renown-style progression that unlocks rewards and housing upgrades for everyone |