Picture this: you spent your teenage years obsessively building the perfect Gielinorian home, grinding Construction to flex on visitors, and throwing house parties that were honestly the social highlight of your week. Jagex just decided that energy deserves a full revival.
Old School RuneScape players and RuneScape veterans alike are getting a serious housing overhaul with the From The Ground Up update, now live as part of the game's ongoing Road to Restoration series tied to its 25th anniversary. This one follows Spring's player avatar visual upgrade and takes direct aim at one of the MMO's most beloved but long-neglected systems: player-owned housing.
What the Homestead system actually changes
The headline feature is Homesteads, a new shared housing setup that lets up to 5 players pool their plots and build a community space together. Residents can move freely between each other's plots and unlock shared benefits just from living together. Public Homesteads are also available for players who want to browse other builds for inspiration, and visitor counts have no hard cap, meaning house parties can scale as big as you want them to.
That last point matters more than it sounds. House parties were a genuine cultural moment in RuneScape's history, and having them back with no visitor ceiling is a direct nod to what made the original system so memorable.
Construction gets a level cap raise and a full rework
Construction has been pushed to level 120, but the bigger change is structural. The old build-and-destroy training loop, where players would spam-build and immediately demolish furniture to grind XP, has been replaced with a proper furniture crafting system. Jagex describes it as providing unlockables as you progress, which suggests a more deliberate, rewarding path through the skill rather than the repetitive grind that defined it before.
On top of that, the customization options are substantial. The update adds over 650 unique pieces of decor and furniture, multiple house styles to choose from, a Weather Vane that lets you control the environment around your homestead, and a Music Box for playing your favorite in-game tracks. It is genuinely the kind of depth that turns a housing system into something players spend real time in.
Showing off and gearing up
For players who have been collecting and achieving for years, the update includes display cases, a Prestigious Cape Stand, and a Skillscape Stand to put your progress on display. Archaeological finds, skill milestones, favorite capes, it all has a home now. Storage gets an upgrade too with new trunks, chests, and an aquarium.
The more combat-focused crowd is not left out either. An Armor Repair Stand, a Gilded Altar, and multiple cauldrons with different buffs mean your homestead can double as a proper pre-raid prep station. The key here is that housing now serves a functional purpose beyond aesthetics, which gives players a reason to invest in it regardless of their playstyle.
A 25th anniversary update that actually feels earned
The Road to Restoration has been building toward something since the avatar update earlier this year, and From The Ground Up is the most player-facing change yet. Housing in RuneScape has always carried a social weight that other MMOs struggle to replicate, and this update leans into exactly that.
Shared Homesteads, no visitor caps, a Construction skill that finally feels worth training properly, and 650 pieces of furniture to arrange however you like. Whether you are returning after years away or have been logging in daily, there is a lot to dig into here.
For help navigating the new Construction progression and furniture crafting system, the Old School RuneScape guides collection is a solid starting point. More broadly, the gaming guides hub has resources across the MMO space if you are jumping back into the genre after a break.
