Even the Dragonborn needs a place to lay their head. Luckily, there are plenty of Skyrim houses to make a home, each with their own unique advantages and disadvantages. So let’s take a look at all of the purchasable properties, from Breezehome to Proudspire Manor, how much they cost, what facilities they offer, and whether they’re worth your hard-earned septim.
If you need help navigating the vast valleys and monumental mountains on your open-world adventure, check out our guide to the best Skyrim maps. We’ve also got a Skyrim marriage guide, so you can find your perfect virtual spouse to co-inhabit your dream Skyrim House.
What are Skyrim houses?
As you’d expect, a Skyrim house is a building that you can purchase and turn into your home. All houses offer sleeping accommodations and containers where you can safely store your belongings. There are houses available for you to purchase in most of the major Skyrim cities, but you need to get permission from the city’s Jarl before you can buy them – usually by completing specific quests and gaining reputation within the city.
There’s no limit on how many Skyrim houses you can own. You can also ask spouses to move into your house, or move into their house with them, and you can later have children or pets join the household.
What’s the best Skyrim house?
There’s no definitive answer regarding which is the best Skyrim house, as they all have their own unique advantages and disadvantages, and only you can truly know which property best suits your needs. However, we have gone over all of the prices, locations, included facilities, and pros and cons of each of the purchasable Skyrim houses below to help you decide.
Purchasable Skyrim houses
Skyrim Breezehome
- Location: Whiterun
- Price: 5k septim
- Total upgrade price: 1.8k septim
- Requirements: Complete the Bleak Falls Barrow quest
- Purchase from: Proventus Avenicci or Brill
Breezehome is likely the first home you gain access to in the game and is very affordable. It’s the only home that doesn’t come with an enchanting table, but Breezehome and Vlindrel Hall are also the only homes that provide adequate storage in the alchemy room. It’s conveniently located close to the town’s alchemist, blacksmith, general goods store, smelter, and taverns.
For its low price and early-game accessibility, it’s definitely worth picking up as your first Skyrim house. If you choose to side with the Stormcloaks during the Civil War, you also need to purchase Breezehome and complete certain tasks in order to reinstate yourself as the Thane of Whiterun.
Skyrim Honeyside
- Location: Riften
- Price: 5k-8k septim
- Total upgrade price: 4.3k septim
- Requirement: Complete Skooma Trade
- Purchase from: Anuriel
Just as affordable as Breezehome, Honeyside is accessible relatively early in the game and comes with the added bonus of a private dock that allows you to access it from outside of the city. It contains a tanning rack, cooking facilities, an alchemy lab, and an arcane enchanter, and is one of only two purchasable houses in a Skyrim city that have an exterior porch and garden.
In the garden, you can grow and harvest alchemy ingredients and food items, and have access to two chickens. It’s also conveniently located near smithing facilities at the Scorched Hammer, and the Pawned Prawn shop, however, there’s no smelter nearby, with the closest being at Shor’s Stone. Additionally, if you want to have a child in your house, you have to sacrifice your arcane enchanter.
Skyrim Vlindrel Hall
- Location: Markarth
- Price: 8k septim
- Total upgrade price: 4.2k septim
- Requirements: Complete multiple quests for the Jarl, including the one where you recover Hrolfdir’s Shield
- Purchase from: Raerek
With wonderful views and easy access to Understone Keep, Vlindrel Hall is a beautiful house built in the unique Dwemer architectural style, featuring a large, ornate gold door leading into the cliffside. Its modest starting price makes it relatively accessible, and its inexpensive upgrades add a real sense of luxury.
Boasting three large bookshelves, room for an alchemy lab and arcane enchanter, and multiple weapon plaques, it’s a great property for those of you looking to expand your library. Vlindrel Hill is also close to several merchants, and its entrance hall planters grow useful quest ingredients such as Jazbay grapes.
Unfortunately, it’s quite a walk to the smithing and smelting facilities, it only offers one exit, has the dimmest lighting out of all purchasable houses in the game, and only has one mannequin. Additionally, adding a children’s room in the Hearthfire add-on replaces the alchemy lab, and adopted male children dislike living in Markarth.
Skyrim Hjerim
- Location: Windhelm
- Price: 8k-12k septim
- Total upgrade price: 9k septim
- Requirements: Complete Blood on the Ice and either the Imperial Legion or The Battle for Fort Sungard questline
Located in the Valunstrad quarter of Windhelm, Hjerm is a two-story house containing a large armoury with three mannequins and multiple weapon racks and plaques, along with an arcane enchanter and the option to upgrade to an alchemy lab. It’s close to Windhelm’s fence, smelter, smithing facilities, alchemist’s shop, and general merchant, making it a pretty convenient location.
Hjerim contains an extra secret room, which sounds like a bonus, but it’s very small, extremely dark, and offers minimal storage. If you purchase the clean up for this room after completing the Blood on the Ice quest for 500 septim, you can get the stone altar, mutilated body parts, and bloodstains removed. Hjerm is a pretty pricey home, especially when you consider the cost of upgrades, and it’s a tricky house to obtain considering all the quests you need to complete in order to purchase it.
Skyrim Proudspire Manor
- Location: Solitude
- Price: 25k septim
- Total upgrade price: 11k septim
- Requirements: Complete The Man Who Cried Wolf and miscellaneous Jarl quest Elisif’s Tribute
The most expensive house available for purchase in Skyrim, Proudspire Manor is a large and stately property located near the Bard’s College and Vittoria Civi’s house to the east side of Solitude. It’s a bit of a fixer-upper at first, with cobwebs and dust diminishing its grandiose appearance, but with a couple of renovations it shapes up nicely.
Offering both an alchemy laboratory and enchanting facility, along with more flattering lighting than Hjerim, Proudspire Manor is a well-equipped property with easy access to a wonderful variety of amenities, including the widest selection of shops out of any hold. It also comes kitted out with a lovely patio, offering views of the surrounding forest, the ocean, and glimpses of Winterhold in the distance.
Of course, its cost is certainly a downside, with its base price already feeling extortionately high and its upgrades only adding to this. Additionally, it offers a more restrictive level of storage when compared to its competing property, Hjerim, and lacks a smelter.
Skyrim Severin Manor (The Elder Scrolls V: Dragonborn expansion)
- Location: Raven Rock
- Price: free
- Requirements: Complete the Severed Cold quest
A spacious Redoran-style manor located to the north-west corner of Raven Rock, Severin Manor is a part of The Elder Scrolls V: Dragonborn expansion, and is gifted to you by Lleril Morvayn after you complete the Severed Cold quest. It comes fully upgraded and furnished, boasting an arcane enchanter, a full alchemy lab and smithing workshop, and cooking facilities.
Containing a plethora of useful materials, from iron and steel ingots to fire salts and soul gems, along with plentiful storage including mannequins, chests, bookshelves, and a safe, this property has just about everything you could need.
However, the lighting is very sub-par, especially in the basement, there’s a long journey between Skyrim and Solstheim, and you can’t move your spouse into Severin Manor with you.
Skyrim house plots
The Skyrim Hearthfire expansion adds the option for you to purchase a plot of land in order to build your own homestead. Each plot of land costs 5k septim, but establishing your own homestead requires quite a bit of investment, as you need to gather a lot of materials to build and expand it.
Here are all the plots you can purchase.
| Skyrim plot | Location | Purchase from |
| Windstad Manor | Hjaalmarch | Aslfur, or Pactur if the Stormcloaks have taken Hjaalmarch |
| Lakeview | Falkreath | Nenya, or Tekla if the Stormcloaks have taken Falkreath |
| Heljarchen Hall | The Pale | Skald the Elder, or Brina Merilis if the Imperials have taken the Pale |
That’s everything we’ve got on Skyrim houses – we hope this helped you choose your dream home! If you want to listen to a loop of mediaeval tavern music as you peruse the property market, check out our Youtube Music download and Spotify download guides. Or, for more exciting adventures, head over to our list of the best Switch RPGs.
