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One of the most useful things a player can do in Skyrim is own a home. In addition to being able to house a family with one, Skyrim Anniversary Edition homes offer players a useful place to come back to after a long day's (or week's) adventuring that tends to be better-looking and better-stocked than vanilla options.
Skyrim Anniversary Edition introduces nine new player homes to the game, including a necromancer's lair, a dwarven ruin, and a cozy cottage just outside Whiterun. Most of these new homes can be earned through quests, meaning that players don't need to worry about purchasing them and they can be acquired at just about any level.
Updated April 30, 2022 by Erik Petrovich: Skyrim Anniversary Edition houses tend to be easier to get and have more facilities than vanilla Skyrim homes. Though there are some that can be bought outright with gold, the majority of them are rewarded upon completion of an associated questline. Because some are available as soon as Level 10, that means players can reliably get one of the Skyrim Anniversary Addition homes from almost the start of the game. Lots of the Skyrim new houses are places built for certain playstyles - Gallows Hall is tailor-made for necromancers, for example - so be sure to review the features of each new Skyrim Anniversary Edition houses to figure out which new Skyrim home is right for you.
How To Get Skyrim Homes (And Why You Should)
Player homes in Skyrim are useful for a ton of reasons. They serve as permanent places to store items, they tend to come with crafting stations and special facilities, and they're in all ways great places to establish an HQ for your adventures as the Dragonborn. To get most homes in the game players must buy it from a Steward or complete a questline.
In Anniversary Edition, there are only two homes that can be purchased outright with no associated questline. After buying a home, you will sometimes have the option to purchase additional features and rooms. For this reason, it's a good idea to save up much more than the required Gold amount for a home so that you can instantly install the facilities you want.
Tundra Homestead
- Price/Prerequisite: 7500 Gold, from Dragonsreach Steward
- Major Features: Farmland, all crafting tables, weapon/armor and special item displays, cooking area
The Tundra Homestead is located just north of Whiterun's many farms and ranches, east of the city itself. It comes fully-furnished with almost every crafting station in the game located somewhere on the vast property – even a surface to Bake on. The basement contains bookshelves, weapons and armor displays, and a place to store Dragon Priest masks and various Claws.
The Tundra Homestead can be bought for 7,500 Gold from Proventus Avenicci, the Jarl of Whiterun's steward, once the player is able to purchase property in Whiterun. When prompted, ask to purchase a home outside of the city.
Myrwatch
- Price/Prerequisite: Complete "Myrwatch" questline, which starts just outside
- Major Features: All crafting tables, weapon/armor and special item displays, cooking area, Staff Enchanter
Myrwatch is located to the east of Morthal and is, alongside the Tundra Homestead, one of the few fully-furnished homes in Skyrim. Myrwatch contains every crafting station in the game, though, including a Staff Enchanter and a Forge that allows players to create equipment normally only available at specific locations, like the Skyforge.
Myrwatch is unlocked once the player completes its associated quest, also titled Myrwatch, which is picked up upon discovering the home. It does not cost anything, and offers much more than just about any other home in Skyrim.
Goldenhills Plantation
- Price/Prerequisite: Complete "The Unquiet Dead" quest, which starts upon entering the farm
- Major Features: Lots of farmland, can add variety of features like a Homestead via personal steward
The Goldenhills Plantation is less of a home and more of a farm, where players can grow crops and tend to animals as part of the Farming creation. There is a small home on the property, though, which houses an alchemy station and has several rooms for raising a family or decorating.
The Goldenhills Plantation is located just outside of Rorikstead in Whiterun Hold, and although the property doesn't cost anything, players must complete the quest The Unquiet Dead to gain access to it.
The Dead Man's Dread
- Price/Prerequisite: Complete "The Restless" quest, which begins in Solitude after reading a book at The Winking Skeever
- Major Features: All crafting tables except a Smelter, armor/weapon displays, cooking area, a Shrine of Arkay – also, it's a Pirate Ship, so that counts for something
The Dead Man's Dread is a pirate ship docked in a cave on the outskirts of northern Skyrim, and is the subject of a quest added with the Dead Man's Dread creation. It's one of the largest homes in the game when one includes the massive cave it resides in, and it even comes with unique clothes themed around pirates and Redguards.
The Dead Man's Dread doesn't cost anything to unlock, but players must complete the quest titled The Restless. This can be picked up by reading the book The Restless at The Winking Skeever in Solitude.
Bloodchill Cavern
- Price/Prerequisite: Complete "Guests for Dinner" quest, which starts upon reaching Bloodchill Cavern
- Major Features: Indoor farmland, all crafting tables, lots of displays, Staff Enchanter, and a Library
Bloodchill Cavern is a vampiric home built into the side of a tall mountain face that serves as the perfect place for creatures of the night to establish a base of operations. Bloodchill Cavern features coffins instead of beds, lots of Gothic and twisted architecture, and also comes with lots of living space to raise a family (it's a bit different than raising the undead).
Bloodchill Cavern is unlocked by completing the Guests for Dinner quest which is delivered by a Courier when the player reaches Level 12. Be prepared to fend off some, shall we say, unsavory folk.
Shadowfoot Sanctum
- Price/Prerequisite: 7500 Gold, from Vekel the Man in the Ratway
- Major Features: Convenient location next to the Thieves Guild HQ, all crafting tables, all armor/weapon and special item displays, cooking area, Shrine of Akatosh
While Bloodchill Manor might be the best place for a dark sorcerer to call home, Shadowfoot Sanctum is a place built for thieves and others who prefer to dance in the shadows. It is connected to the Riften Thieves Guild, and contains every crafting station (except unique ones) as well as a hidden room for displaying stolen treasures.
Shadowfoot Sanctum can be bought for 7,500 Gold from Vekel the Man after the player picks up the quest also titled Shadowfoot Sanctum. This quest begins by coming across the home, which is located in the Ratway.
Hendraheim
- Price/Prerequisite: Complete "Hendraheim" quest, in which the player must defeat a warrior just outside the estate
- Major Features: All crafting tables, armor/weapon and special item displays, cooking area, outdoor Stable
Hendraheim is a Nordic longhouse built into the side of a mountain in the Reach, and it's one of the few homes that is capable of displaying almost every unique item in Skyrim. While it has a gigantic living area complete with dining tables and places to relax, Hendraheim also features a variety of crafting stations, a Stable, and a place to display more than 50 unique items like Dawnbreaker or Miraak's Staff.
In the quest also called Hendraheim Skyrim players are sent to respond to a challenge from an unknown warrior. A Courier delivers the letter that begins this quest when the player reaches Level 10.
Gallows Hall
- Price/Prerequisite: Complete "Dreams of the Dead" quest, which begins upon entering Gallows Hall
- Major Features: All crafting tables, cooking area, weapon/armor displays, the Altar of the Revenant (a Soul Gem converter), and the Bone Forge (for creating undead)
The Gallows Hall is a home tailor-made for Necromancers as a place where people "both wicked and misunderstood" were hung to death. The home not only houses a number of useful crafting stations and unique necromancer features like the Bone Forge, it also houses the Bloodworm Helm, the Helm of Oreyn Bearclaw, and the Staff of Worms – all equipment once owned by Mannimarco, the King of Worms.
Gallows Hall is unlocked by completing the quest titled Dreams of the Dead. This quest starts when players read Naraa's Journal, which can be found in a set of ruins north of Mara's Eye Pond in Eastmarch, just southwest of Windhelm.
Nchuanthumz
- Price/Prerequisite: Complete "The Sanctuary and the Manufactory" quest, which begins upon entering Nchuanthumz
- Major Features: All crafting tables, upgradable via special questline – also, you get to live in a Dwemer Ruin, and that's pretty awesome.
There are few places more dangerous than a Dwemer ruin, but Nchuanthumz might be the closest thing to a safe Dwarven player home in Skyrim. The home can be rebuilt over time by building automatons in its basement, who help repair and upgrade the ruin into a livable space. Eventually, it features all the same facilities as any other home, but set in a clockwork and steampunk cavern.
Nchuanthumz is unlocked by completing the quest The Sanctuary and the Manufactory, which is begun by reading Seeks-Ancient-Artifacts' journal in Winterhold. The quest has players rebuild the home over time, though nothing needs to be bought.