Once you have your house placement tool, you'll need to select a site for your new domicile. Land outside of the cities in Britannia is free, as long as the king's right-of-way is respected. That is, houses may be built in any unoccupied location outside a city, except over roads.
To place a house, you must be sure that you have a spot for your house that is free of obstructions (including rocks, trees, and plants) throughout the entire footprint of the house. There is also a 'buffer zone' around the house of five tiles north and south and one tile east and west that cannot contain other houses. This buffer zone is to ensure that houses are not able to block passage through their placement. The ground where you wish to place your house must be flat, as uneven ground will usually prevent the placement of a house. Houses cannot be placed in a justice region, or any region that is zoned for no housing (this includes any "point of interest" areas, such as dungeons). You also must be within 6 tiles of the target area to place a house.
Using a House Placement Tool
The house placement tool allows you to simply check land to see if a particular type of house will fit there, or actually build the house. The house placement tool looks like a spyglass, and can be purchased from an NPC Provisioner or Architect for a few hundred gold pieces.
To use the tool:
- The character placing the house must be at least 15 days old.
- You must not have demolished a house within the previous hour.
- Double-click the placement tool.
- A window appears listing "Classic Houses", "2-Story Customizable Houses", and "3-Story Customizable Houses". Select the type of house you wish to build.
- A window will appear listing the different house types, the cost of each, and the amount of secure storage and lockdown storage. Click the house type you wish to check.
- The house type you selected will appear 'ghosted' on your cursor. The cursor location of the ghosted image represents the location of the center of the south wall. On the older house types, this would be the center of the front steps, but for houses such as the small tower and small marble workshop, the steps are not centered on the south wall; adjust accordingly. Move the cursor to the location you want to test and single-click.
- You will receive a message telling you whether the area can hold that house type.
- If you are not in a 7-day waiting period for house placement, and the location is valid, a temporary house will be created at the location you targeted.
- If the area is not acceptable, then you will simply receive a message telling you that the house type will not fit.
- If a temporary house was placed, a confirmation menu appears, asking if you wish to place the house permanently and become the owner.
- The house placement tool will have a cooldown if used too many times in a given time period
Once your new house is created, make sure to check the security levels on the door(s) by activating the context-sensitive menu on them. There will, of course, be no furniture. Furnishings will have to be acquired and installed separately.
Players are only allowed to own one house per account. If your account comes into possession of a second house while it already owns one, all your other houses will become condemned. See the section on "Purchasing and Owning a House" for more information.
If a player places a house, has a house traded to him, or sets a house to Primary, a one-week timer begins. During that time, he may not place another house, have another house traded to him, or set another house as Primary. However, that player can still give away any number of houses on any number of shards without restriction.
Note: You can find out whether your timer is still active by double-clicking a house placement tool. If you still have a timer, it will say, "You must wait __ hours to place a house." Otherwise, you'll just get the house menu, which you can then cancel.
House Placement Rules
To sum up, the following rules apply to placing a house:
- An unobstructed, flat spot must be present throughout the entire footprint of house
- A buffer zone of five tiles north and south, and one tile east and west cannot contain rocks, trees, plants, other houses or other objects.
- Houses cannot be placed in justice regions (those patrolled by guards) or in other areas specifically zoned against housing (such as dungeons).
- The character placing the house must be at least 15 days old.
- Players are only allowed to own one house per account.
