I can't agree with this since SE stressed when apartments were added to the game that they would never be subject to demolition. That players could take long breaks from the game and return to find their apartments with everything stored inside of them intact. Players made their purchases in good faith and placed their items in them in the belief they would never lose them.
I especially can't agree with it when I can return to a game like RIFT 4 years after I stopped playing and find all my housing there still intact (which I did just before EW release). If a game like RiFT that is now owned by a company fairly notorious for its practices of stripping games to get every last cent of profit retains instanced housing for it's long time inactive players, then it would look really bad if a much larger and more successful game like FFXIV won't. Not can't - clearly it is possible when other games have no problem doing it - but won't.
I don't see SE going down the demolition path.
SE needs to fix their supply problem not just with apartments but with houses. It's partly the fear of missing out that drives up demand. "I may not want this now but if I don't get it it won't be available when I want it later." It's greed for profit that drives up demand. "I'll be able to resell for more than I paid to someone desperate when they're not otherwise able to get one."
If players were able to get what they wanted on demand, demand itself would die down because there would be no FOMO, no opportunity for profit.
