Houses confirmed for Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown – but not until July 2026

Ask a Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown player what their most requested feature is, and there’s a good chance they will say houses and real estate.

Buying luxury houses and storing cars in swanky garages has been a staple of the series since the first Test Drive Unlimited launched in 2006.  

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown was a departure, with players residing in the Solar Crown Hotel. While you can meet other players and store cars, it’s no substitute for owning your own property, and there are no options to personalise your space.  

Houses confirmed for Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown in Season 8

First, the good news: KT Racing has announced that houses and real estate will make a triumphant return to Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown as part of the game’s Year 2 seasonal updates.

The bad news: it’s going to be a long wait, because houses won’t be added until Season 8 in July 2026. That’s one year away at the time of writing. If it doesn’t suffer another delay, we’ll be playing Grand Theft Auto VI before we can buy houses in Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown.

Asking players to wait another year for what is undoubtedly Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown’s most requested feature seems like a tall order. But KT Racing is confident it will be worth the wait.

“This is a highly requested feature coming in Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown,” Nacon’s Racing Content Manager Alexander Arthur, aka Alex VII, teased during a media briefing attended by Traxion.

“Although it’s the last season of Year 2, it’s going to be worth it. It’s going to have a lot more depth compared to what we had planned in previous instalments.”

Like previous Test Drive Unlimited games, players will be able to purchase houses in various sizes with in-game currency, invite friends to spaces and store cars in garages or gardens, as well as personalise interiors with furnishings and decorations.

“You’re going to notice they’re a lot more improved compared to what they were in previous instalments. We want to evolve what TDU was and improve the DNA,” says Arthur.  

Among the featureset for real estate, it is claimed that you’ll be able to walk around a real estate agency to pick property, or find them by driving around the map. The ability to invite friends and see their in-game cars, should also be possible alongside customising the interiors.

Prior to the Season 8 launch, the areas where homes are set to appear will look to be “under construction” too.

Given the strong demand, you would think that adding houses would be KT Racing’s highest priority. Delaying this long-requested feature until July 2026 seems baffling.

Why houses weren’t in Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown at launch

However, according to Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown’s Creative Director, Alain Jarniou, who worked on the previous two games, Test Drive Unlimited 2’s players spent surprisingly little time in houses. This influenced the decision to omit houses in Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown and prioritise other features. 

“At some points, we have to make choices in terms of what we can do in the game,” Jarniou explains, as houses are a “big part of a game.” 

“It means if we do houses with the time and money we’ve got, there are other things we can’t do. So, it was a choice.

“When we saw the statistics of TDU2, it was not a place where people spent much time. It’s a cool feature, but very expensive. So, we made the decision to concentrate on the gameplay and the island and all the stuff we had to do first when we do a TDU. And houses had to come, I would say, in a second time.”

Since the launch of Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown, it has become clear that players view houses and real estate as a core part of the series’ identity.

“Seeing the reaction from the community on that point, it became obvious that we have to do houses,” says Jarniou. 

“That’s why we have to make choices when you do such a game, and the houses, even if it’s a very cool thing and an important part of the lifestyle, we think it was a better idea to focus on gameplay, and the island and a new TDU. That’s a choice we made for the production.”