A method, system, and computer usable program product for buffer-aware routing in integrated circuit design are provided in the illustrative embodiments. The design has cells, and the circuit includes buffers and wires. A route is received from a set of routes. The route couples a first point in the circuit to a second point in the circuit and including at least one buffer between the first point and the second point. A determination is made whether the route violates a set of hard constraints for a part of the circuit, where the set of hard constraints includes a reach length constraint. In response to the route not violating any hard constraint in the set of hard constraints, the route is selected as a buffer-aware routing solution between the first and the second points in the circuit.