I’ve been meaning to write this post ever since LOTRO launched Rohan Housing many months ago (okay I take it back, it’s nearly a year ago in Update 27.2!), but a combination of festival work, pretty-awful pain and more to do around the house has left little room for it. So, now we have a few weeks between events, I can finally introduce you to my Eastfold Hills home (Premium House)! But, in classic FJ style, I couldn’t just leave it there, so here’s my guide to Premium Houses in Rohan including: where to buy and which method I think is cheaper, the features of the new housing areas, where to acquire Rohan-themed decorations (if that’s what you want to do, of course) and also a bunch of improvement suggestions to SSG themselves. So, let’s dive in and take a look at Rohan Housing in LOTRO!
What is Premium Housing?
If you’re fairly new to The Lord of the Rings Online, you may wonder what Premium Housing is and how it’s different to other homestead locations in the main starter zones. The TL;DR is that you cannot use in-game gold and silver to purchase a Premium House – you have to use Housing Writs and/or Mithril Coins. I’ll get to my calculations on which I think is cheaper later. Another Premium Housing area is the Cape of Belfalas in Gondor.
Do I Have to Sub to Buy a Premium House?
No. However, you will need to pay maintenance fees (see below). It will also take you longer to acquire one if you don’t want to pay real money for your new home, as you’ll have to complete deeds for points. I bought mine with a combination of earned LOTRO Points and my free monthly subscriber points.
No Maintenance for VIPs
If you are a VIP (Subscriber) then you do not need to pay upkeep/maintenance on a Premium House. This means you won’t get evicted because you haven’t paid your maintenance crew – while you’re VIP anyway! This is not the case for standard houses where all players must pay upkeep.↑ Section Menu
Eastfold Hills or Kingstead Meadows?
If you want to move into a property in Rohan, the first choice you have to make is which location you want to live in. You have two choices:
Eastfold Hills
In the Forest of the Eastfold Hills
High up in the mountains, hidden away in the forest, are the Eastfold Hills houses. Despite the trees, some properties afford stunning views of the valleys below, so don’t assume you can’t see the world for the trees! See this Foredawn from @Eldalleth, for example. You can almost convince yourself that Middle-Earth is not in dire peril while here. Almost.
Kingstead Meadows
Overlooking Kingstead Meadows
In contrast, this apparently-peaceful homestead location (because, you know, Rohan is still overrun with Orcs – some who roam pretty close to the housing area!) has a country feel to it. Country, as in geographical location, not the music.😉 Catch the gorgeous sunrises and sunsets that bathe the region. Maybe build a farm to help reverse some of the destruction of the Enemy?
If you are below or around L75 and you take a Stablemaster’s Horse taxi here, be warned that it’s possible you might get attacked. As soon as you’re dismounted get the heck into the housing area.
What are the Differences?
Aside from geography/geology, the main differences seem to be around property size. Eastfold Hills houses seem to be, on the whole, larger inside. I visited a few houses in my neighbourhood and I think most had one room, if not two, more than some of those in Kingstead Meadows. The inside layout of some Meadows properties were similar to those in Eastfold too – this may be intentional for a variety of reasons, not least to make sure people who choose one neighbourhood over another are not missing out.↑ Section Menu
House-Viewing
It’s a For Sale Sign. Shocking, I know.
As anyone who rents – and buys (I assume, I’ve never been a position to be able to buy a house in real life) – arranging a viewing is important. So if fancy moving to Rohan, you must visit both locations to see which environment suits you – or your character – best. My choice of the Eastfold Hills was an Role-Playing decision based on my main character’s preferences. Then it’s time to look at a few properties themselves. Thankfully for you, if a house is “For Sale” you can waltz right in – literally, if that’s your thing. Just look for a property with a For Sale Sign.
Peek Inside
For an unoccupied house you can just go in to check the layout. Occupied houses may or may not be open to visitors. You may be able to open the door, “but you shall not pass”, because it depends on the owner’s settings. My house is open, and I’ve put the address in this post for you. Do keep reading, but if you want to have a quick look inside now, then have a look here.
7 Ridge Road Frithenwood Eastfold Hills EVERNIGHT
Finding an Empty Property to View
You could just wander around a housing area and try the doors of both occupied and vacant properties. This is fine for your first scouting mission to take in the area. But after that, do this instead!
Visit the Housing Broker in the area
Click “Purchase House”
Choose an area and property in the left box
Click “Tour House” at the bottom right.
Port to a Vacant House using the Tour House button
No Different Indoor Layouts?
It looks like you only need to peek inside one property per region (i.e. one for Eastfold Hills and the other for Kingstead Meadows). All the (non-Mead Hall) properties I viewed in my Eastfold Hills neighbourhood had exactly the same layout and the same seemed to be true of the Kingstead Meadows homes I visited. Though I think I encountered a couple of minor variations at Kingstead. In Eastfold, this applied to the houses available for 445MC. This does differ to regular housing where there can be radically different layouts. But remember you can use LOTRO housing hooks to place items on different floors and/or rooms, so use your imagination when decorating!
Empty Entrance Room
An empty Entrance Room in an Eastfold Hills house
This is from a different property to mine for comparison.
My Entrance Room
My Entrance Room
View from 7 Ridge Road, Eastfold Hills
Walk Around the Grounds
While I’ve said indoor layouts are fairly similar, the opposite appears to be true of the gardens, fields and paddocks outside. So make sure you take your time looking around the houses – including behind them. See what views you are treated to and make a note of those you prefer.
View from a property in the Kingstead Meadows Housing
At long last we can have some of our mounts in stables, or a field, outside our houses! (My only niggle here is that it’s a Premium House-only feature so players won’t be able to use this unless they invest real money into LOTRO points, or deed like there’s no tomorrow).
How Do You Place a Mount “Decoration”?
To be able to place your favourite horse, or goat, or elk or… pig… mount in the grounds of your home, you’ll need a Steed Halter. You can acquire these a few ways:
“Free” Steed Halters When you first purchase a Rohan property, you’ll receive 5 × Steed Halters as part of the package. And if you purchase a Mead Hall, then 8 × Steed Halters are included.
Curator Whenever the Curator is around at the Bree Fountain (near the other Figments of Splendour vendors) you can trade 2500 Figments of Splendour for 1 Steed Halter.
While Decorating If you don’t have steed halters in your inventory, then you can “Create Housing Decoration” from skill while using a Hitching Post. This costs 20 Mithril Coins
Rohan Housing Set Per the Wiki, if you purchase the Rohan Housing Set from the LOTRO Store, then you’ll receive 3 × Steed Halters.
You can find a detailed guide on creating your mount decoration over on LOTRO-Wiki
Pets as Decorations
I think that Pet Decorations were introduced by LOTRO at the same time as Rohan housing – but are not limited to any house type. It’s worthy of a mention, because there is some overlap with how Steel Halters work. Instead of tying your pet to a post, you need a Pet Harness. Again, you can acquire these for Figments of Splendour (only with the Curator), or for Mithril Coins when you create the decoration.Please see the Wiki for a guide in making a Pet Decoration.
Ambient Lighting
With the introduction of Rohan Housing into LOTRO came a new hook type – Area Lighting. These ambient light hooks create a room aura without having a physical light-emitting object in place. I have provided two screenshots here – the brightest one is from another player’s house and the the darker one is mine, both of which have different Ambient Lighting “decorations”.
Bright Ambient Light from Another Player’s House
Darker Ambient Light from my Rohan House
Ceiling Hooks?
I love the ambient lights – but the immersion/reality person in me cries out to have *something* to emit the light((It’s for this reason I haven’t used any of the more unusual light colours such as deep pink or blue)). A way around this, would be to move the ambience hook over an object that should emit light and doesn’t (some of the candlestands are good examples). But you’ll find that there are very few ceiling hooks – and in the cellar area of my house at least, there are no ceiling hooks. So if you’re RPing the house – make sure you put some free standing or wall-mounted light sources in rooms that need light, then move an Ambience Hook over them.
Buying Ambient Lights
Each housing area has an Ambience Furnisher who sells a wide range of colours and light intensity (brightness/luminosity), for just a few silver. So buy a bunch and try them out.
See the Ambience Furnisher for Area Light Hook Decorations
How Many Hooks?
While you can see this at the Housing Broker, so too can you see the hook information by right-clicking a For Sale Sign. But, for you to see rough rates, here is one from Hills and another from Meadows.
Example of some of the outdoor hooks in the Eastfold Hills
Eastfold Hills
1 Peak Way
Interior Hooks: 142
Interior Lighting Hooks: 17
Exterior Hooks: 31
Kingstead Meadows
1 Colt Road
Interior Hooks: 142
Interior Lighting Hooks: 11
Exterior Hooks: 32
I intend to add some more property comparisons at a later date.
Right, before I dive into issues like cost, other features and the like, here’s a look in and around my Eastfold Hills Premium House in Rohan.
Outside
There are a lot of hooks outside my home in the Eastfold Hills. That said, a fair few are enormous hooks, which currently seem to have few worthy decorations of that scale. Thankfully, I was able to obtain the Windmill deco from the Anniversary Event, which helps a lot out here. And fits the “self-sufficient farm” feel I was going for outdoors.
Outside: Veg Patch and Windmill
Mushroom Tent, Beehives, Chicken Coops
Cow pen and mushroom tent right behind my home.
Front door with High Elven Property Guard and a Luthien statue decoration. The autumnal trees are also my touch.
Ground Floor
Entrance Hall
My Entrance Room
An expansive open room, with a small cupboard-sized “room” at the back and the central stairs to the upper two floors. To the left and right are smaller rooms, both of which have stairs to the cellar.
Landing 1
One Landing (what I call a room at the top of stairs)
There is a second landing on the opposite side of the Entrance Hall, but I used most of those hooks to place decorations in the cellar! Just to show we’ll never have too many hooks! Also, my apologies for the horrible ambient light glow – I used it for a festival gear shot when it was in-game night time!
Underground
Cellar Dining Area
My Cellar Dining Area
There is technically another “room” between this and what I’ve used as the kitchens. But it’s more of a passageway, so I’ve not featured it here.
Cellar Kitchens
My Cellar Kitchen from a Different Angle
The Cellar Kitchen
I wanted to have more in here than there are hooks, so I used the hooks from the room above to place more in the kitchen.
Above the Ground Floor
There are two floors above the entrance way, with the highest one being the smallest as you reach the apex of the roof.
Main Bedroom
I’ve used the floor above ground level as the main bedroom
The necessity of pillars to, you know, make sure your roof doesn’t cave in, makes decorating this area a little tricky, but I just placed most things against the back wall. I didn’t photograph the top of the stairs as I’ve mostly placed rugs there.
Guest (or Child?) Bedroom
The very small top floor I’ve turned into a guest bedroom
As you can see, this room is small – but that makes perfect sense – small is a description, not a criticism. So it makes it perfect as a guest or maybe a child’s bedroom. A study or a small crafting facility might work here. Just not the forge – they’re enormous and would likely fall through the floor. Just saying.
More Twins Seleflad and Burginda are able to be in multiple places at the same time. Or they have twins. Who knows? So, as well as being in Bree and the housing areas, the Wiki says they can also be found in Snowbourn and Edoras. Great customer service or a bit creepy? I’ll leave that up to you to decide.
The answer to this question depends on the size/location of the property – and payment method(s) you want to use. There is varying pricing even between houses with the same number of hooks. So you’re best having a look around the available properties themselves. The average price seems to be around 500-520 Mithril Coins or 20-22 Housing Writs, but there are houses slightly cheaper and some a bit more expensive too.
Housing Writs
Premium Housing Writs are basically a type of barter currency which you can use either in total, or along with Mithril Coins, when purchasing a Premium House. More on the Wiki
Mithril Coins (MC)
MC is a type of in-game currency that can usually only be acquired through exchange with real-world money. I say “usually” because they are also a rare drop on VIP’s Gold Hobbit Presents. By purchasing Mithril Coins, you can then buy things from in-game vendors, such as outfit cosmetics, mounts – and housing writs. See other things on the Wiki
Which is Cheaper?
That depends on a few factors, such as whether you have obtained, or been granted, housing writs another way beforehand. It will also depend if you have purchased Mithril Coins when they’re on Sale (usually 20% off) or Housing Writs on Sale (25% off). To make this useful and not a page of math(s), I’ve made the assumption you’re only paying in Writs or Mithril Coins, and not a combination of the two.Also, when I’m talking “cost” I’m referring to “LOTRO Points” not real-world currency. That would be too complicated for a post I’m trying to make interesting! LOTRO Points come in various bundles too, with bonus points – and sometimes SSG do a promotion to include more bonus points, so far beyond the scope of this guide to Rohan Housing!
Mithril Coins
To keep this simple, I’m going to work on 525MC being the target value. I did a check that the largest bundle was, in fact, the cheapest per MC and it was. I’ve hidden it below, just in case you’re curious.
If Writs not on Sale (20): 5,000 Points(22): 5,500 Points
If Writs are on sale (20) 3,740 Points(22) 4,114 Points
Housing Writs from Barter
You can barter Mithril Coins for Premium Housing Writs
The last way (I think) you can buy is to first acquire the mithril coins, then convert those to housing writs. When you barter for them from the Housing Broker, they cost 25 Mithril Coins per Writ.
20 Writs: 25 × 20 = 500MC
22 Writs: 25 × 22 = 550MC.
On the whole this works out at about the same cost as buying Mithril Coins with LOTRO Points directly (because the average of 500 and 550 is 525). I guess, if you have some MC already and writs are on sale, then it will work out cheaper, assuming you have enough MC to pre-buy some writs.
So Which is Actually Cheaper?
Depends on what is on sale!
If Mithril Coins are on Sale, then MC is always cheaper, even if Writs are also on sale.
If Writs are on sale but MC is not, Writs are cheaper.
If neither writs nor MC are on sale, paying with Mithril Coins is cheaper.
If I have these calculations wrong, please feel free to DM me on Twitter. I’ll then correct it and credit you for the correction, thanks!↑ Section Menu
Rohan Housing Dailies
A unique aspect to Rohan Housing is the inclusion of dailies available from the Housing Broker in the housing area. These quick, fun quests also build reputation in the area. From clearing leaves from the path, to delivering pies (good ones, not sourced from the Shire, I promise) to skimming stones on a pond with the children, the dailies are a light-hearted way to spend a few minutes.
Rewards
While there is no reputation vendor (which is a pity), as you increase in reputation you earn titles and decorations. These are the ones from the Eastfold Hills, the Townsfolk of the Eastfold Neighbourhoods:
As we live in an imperfect world, nothing anywhere is perfect. First off I’d like top point out that I have no regrets using my earned LOTRO points to make my Rohan house whatsoever. However I would like to input some ideas and also some thoughts on what could improve.
Small Cottages for Gold: Many people in Rohan live in small cottages, not to dissimilar in size to the Bree-land homesteads. I think it would be lovely to give all players the option to live in cottages in Rohan. It may even give them a taste of the region as they push on with content.
Ceiling Light Hooks: Especially in the cellar area, one or two hooks per room would really help here.
Editable Cellar Walls: You can only set a floor texture and colour in the Cellar. You can’t even whitewash the walls. Please consider adding this.
Reputation Rewards: While I’m glad for a couple of free decorations, as many of the decos available from the vendor in the area relate to Mead Halls, please add some decos for us plebs. They can be items already available elsewhere in the game, just to Rohanify the interior more.
Unstick the Mounts a Bit: most animals found in the wild have a “roaming area”. Could the horses have a bit of freedom to turn, walk a few paces, move their heads a bit so they feel a bit more alive, please?
Halters and Harnesses: the Curator appears so rarely that it would make more sense to add these to a regular Motes/Figments vendor. As these have to be earned, for example, through deeds or festivals, people still have to engage with the game to earn them – and could increase engagement rate in festival wrappers.
Example of a small cottage or house during the rebuilding of Hytbold
Rohan Housing is something I’ve wanted since I saw how stunning the regions of Rohan are – and I am very glad to have invested in a home here. The houses are pricey, but they make up for that with the number of hooks, additional stables and ambience hooks, amazing views and other features. I would love for these neighbourhoods to grow to include smaller properties available to people who don’t have loads of LOTRO points, so the hard work in creating the Eastfold and Westfold homes is shared by more people. I hope you’ve enjoyed this guide and to have a nosey in my house (7 Ridge Road, Frithenwood, Eastfold Hills, Evernight). Take care, friends.
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Premium Housing Writs are basically a type of barter currency which you can use either in total, or along with Mithril Coins, when purchasing a Premium House. More on the Wiki 
MC is a type of in-game currency that can usually only be acquired through exchange with real-world money. I say “usually” because they are also a rare drop on VIP’s Gold Hobbit Presents. By purchasing Mithril Coins, you can then buy things from in-game vendors, such as outfit cosmetics, mounts – and housing writs. See other things on the Wiki 
Mithril Coins when they’re on Sale (usually 20% off) or Housing Writs on Sale (25% off). To make this useful and not a page of math(s), I’ve made the assumption you’re only paying in Writs or Mithril Coins, and not a combination of the two.Also, when I’m talking “cost” I’m referring to “LOTRO Points” not real-world currency. That would be too complicated for a post I’m trying to make interesting! LOTRO Points come in various bundles too, with bonus points – and sometimes SSG do a promotion to include more bonus points, so far beyond the scope of this guide to Rohan Housing!
LOTRO points, so the hard work in creating the Eastfold and Westfold homes is shared by more people. I hope you’ve enjoyed this guide and to have a nosey in my house (7 Ridge Road, Frithenwood, Eastfold Hills, Evernight). Take care, friends. 
