This article explains the benefits of upgrading your house in Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the Nintendo Switch, including details of what happens at each upgrade step.

Should I Expand My House Animal Crossing?

Expanding your house is one of the main ways to progress in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, so you should always choose to expand whenever possible. You can grow your house from a tiny tent to a three story dwelling with a number of extra rooms, and some useful abilities are also locked behind house upgrades. You’ll have to earn Nook Miles and Bells to pay off each house loan, but it’s well worth the effort.

In addition to simply making your house bigger, expanding your house also grants these benefits:

If you decide your house no longer fits in its original place as you upgrade it, you can move your house by talking to Tom Nook.

  • Placing items on walls: When you upgrade from a tent to a house, you get the ability to place items on the walls in addition to the floor.
  • Nook Miles+: Upgrading from a tent to a house also unlocks Nook Miles+, which is a useful system that lets you earn Nook Miles every day for performing simple tasks like talking to your neighbors and catching fish.
  • Moving your mailbox: When you upgrade your house to add the second room expansion, you also get the ability to move your mailbox wherever you want on your island.
  • Free exterior customization: After you pay off your final loan, you unlock the ability to customize the exterior of your home for free.
  • Extra storage: Every house upgrade also adds to the amount of storage space inside your house. After you’re done adding rooms and floors, you can keep paying more Bells to add four additional storage expansions. This is very useful if you tend to accumulate a lot of furniture and other items.

What Are the House Upgrades in Animal Crossing: New Horizon?

In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you start out with a small tent instead of a house. Tom Nook is happy to take Nook Miles in payment for the initial tent, but upgrades beyond that point require payment in Bells. Each time you’re ready for an upgrade, you need to talk to Tom Nook and request a loan. When you pay off the loan, you can then request the next upgrade.

Each house expansion increases the size of your house by making the ground floor bigger or adding an additional room or floor. Every expansion also comes with some additional storage space for things like extra furniture or bugs that you’re saving up to sell to Flick during his next visit. Some expansions also come with additional benefits, like the ability to move your mailbox.

Here are all the house upgrades in Animal Crossing:

What Is the First House Upgrade in Animal Crossing?

The first house upgrade turns your tent into an actual house. This gives you more floor space, and it also grants you the ability to hang pictures and other items on the interior walls of your house.

What Is the Second House Upgrade in Animal Crossing?

The second house upgrade expands the main room of your house, but it doesn’t add anything else. This is the same size the main room of your house will be throughout the game, and it’s also the size your second floor and basement will share.

What Is the Third House Upgrade in Animal Crossing?

When you get the third house upgrade, you add the first brand new room to your house. This room is the same size as your initial house before you upgraded it, and you access it from the north end of your house.

What Is the Fourth House Upgrade in Animal Crossing?

The fourth house upgrade is one of the more important ones, because it adds a room to the house in addition to unlocking a couple new things. This upgrade adds a room you can access from the left side of the main room. It also unlocks the ability to move your mailbox wherever you want on the island, and it gives you access to the house customization system. At this point, you get the ability to change the color of your roof.

What Is the Fifth House Upgrade in Animal Crossing?

The fifth house upgrade adds another room, which can be accessed from the right side of your house. It’s the same size as the other two additional rooms. In addition to the new room, you get a new customization option. This one allows you to customize your door.

What Is the Sixth House Upgrade in Animal Crossing?

The penultimate house upgrade adds a basement to your house in addition to unlocking new features for house and mailbox customization. You can now change the siding of your house and use custom mailboxes instead of having to stick with the default mailbox design.

What Is the Max House Upgrade in Animal Crossing?

There are two max house upgrades in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The first max upgrade comes when you add the basement floor to your house. That’s the final upgrade you can make in terms of the size of your house, new rooms, and new floors. When you complete that max upgrade, and pay off the loan, you also unlock free exterior renovations.

The other max house upgrade comes later. Once you’ve finished adding new rooms and floors in your house, you may want to turn your eyes to maxing out the storage space. There are four possible storage expansions, with the first three adding 800 new storage slots each, and the fourth adding 1,000 new storage slots. Once you’ve finished with that, there are no more house upgrades available.

What Happens if You Don’t Pay Your Loan in Animal Crossing?

Unlike real life loans, there are no penalties if you decide to not pay off your loan in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Tom Nook doesn’t charge you interest, so you can avoid paying off your loan as long as you like if you aren’t interested in the next housing upgrade.

Storage upgrades are useful, as they give you more room to store crafting materials like iron and hardwood, spare furniture, tools, and more.

Once you’ve added your basement, the only incentive to paying off the final loan is doing so unlocks free unlimited exterior renovations. If you don’t care about exterior renovations, then you never need to pay off the loan.

  • How do I move my house in Animal Crossing: New Horizons?
  • You can move your house once Resident Services has upgraded to a building, which happens once you set up houses for other residents and build at least one bridge. Once the new Resident Services center is available, go talk to Tom Nook and select About my home > I want to relocate. Tom will charge you 30,000 bells (which you must pay immediately) and hand you a building kit. Use the kit where you want your house to move to, and it will be there the next day.
  • How do I get a ladder in Animal Crossing: New Horizons?
  • As your island expands and is ready for new villagers, Tom Nook will ask you to set up lots. Once you’ve chosen spots for the new houses, Nook will give you a list of decorations he wants for their yards. Along with these, he’ll provide a recipe for a ladder, which you can use to scale the cliffs in the upper part of your island. You only need to craft this item once; unlike shovels, nets, and other tools, it won’t break once you’ve used it for a while.

You can move your house once Resident Services has upgraded to a building, which happens once you set up houses for other residents and build at least one bridge. Once the new Resident Services center is available, go talk to Tom Nook and select About my home > I want to relocate. Tom will charge you 30,000 bells (which you must pay immediately) and hand you a building kit. Use the kit where you want your house to move to, and it will be there the next day.

As your island expands and is ready for new villagers, Tom Nook will ask you to set up lots. Once you’ve chosen spots for the new houses, Nook will give you a list of decorations he wants for their yards. Along with these, he’ll provide a recipe for a ladder, which you can use to scale the cliffs in the upper part of your island. You only need to craft this item once; unlike shovels, nets, and other tools, it won’t break once you’ve used it for a while.

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