In Animal Crossing New Horizons, you have the freedom to place most every building, tent, and structure wherever you wish - but as you develop your island, you may find that some structures aren't where you really want them to be.
Luckily, Tom Nook will unlock the ability to move almost any building for you - but there are few caveats and things you should know first.
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Don't forget to check out our complete How-To Guides Hub to learn even more about Animal Crossing New Horizons. There we have pages on How to Upgrade Resident Services, How to Unlock Terraforming, and How to Get A 3 Star Town Rating.
How to Unlock Moving Buildings
In order to unlock this feature, you must help Tom Nook in his many tasks until he is ready to upgrade Resident Services from a tent to a bespoke building. This includes tasks like building Nook's Cranny, constructing a bridge, and furnishing three villager homes.
Once Resident Services has been upgraded, Tom Nook will move to a Construction Consultation counter, and help you decide what to build next - or what to move.
How to Move Buildings and Structures
Speak to Tom Nook inside Resident Services and tell him "let's talk infrastructure". When in this list, you can tell him that you "want layout changes". Say you want to move a building, and you'll get to choose from a list of existing structures, including any Villager houses, the Museum, Nook's Cranny, and so-on. You'll then be given a kit to determine where to move the building to.
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Here's what you need to know about the process of moving a building:
- The fee for moving a building is 10,000 Bells, as of Update 2.0.
- You CANNOT move the Resident Services building, the Plaza, or the Airport. These were determined when you chose your island at the start of the game, and cannot be changed.
- If you want to move your own home, you'll need to pick "About my home..." instead of "I want layout changes". Otherwise, the process is exactly the same.
- If you have second thoughts, talk to Tom Nook again BEFORE finalizing where you want to place the building. Return the kit to him, and he'll refund your Bells.
- Once you've placed the plot for a building, you cannot take it back! So be ABSOLUTELY sure you're moving it to the best spot.
- Unlike the process of upgrading the Museum, Nook's Cranny or Resident Services, moving a building will not render it unavailable for a day.
- Your building's destination needs to be at least one tile away from any existing building (including the building you're trying to move in its current position, see below for more)
- The building must also not be close to cliffs, water, rocks, the slope on the edge of the beach and so-on. Do note that you can place buildings on the beach if you want!
- Objects like trees, weeds and furniture will automatically be deleted, but you can find them again inside the recycling box inside Resident Services.
- Keep in mind that not all buildings are the same size. Houses and the Campsite are the smallest, followed by Able Sisters, then Nook's Cranny and the Museum, which are both the largest buildings you can move.
That all leads us to a very important topic:
When choosing to move a building, you cannot place the new building if its touching the existing building you're trying to move. This means if you want to move a structure slightly to the side, you'll first need to move it somewhere else entirely, and then back again - paying two different fees over two days!
After you've placed a building, it will take one day to move. It will remain in its original place and stay fully functional, until the 5am reset where it instantly moves to the spot you determined the previous day.
