The wards are empty there is no neighbourhood feel. We have FIVE plots taken by FC's in my ward. My FC has a mansion and the others are 3 small houses and 1 medium, the rest is occupied by players that never visit. I see maybe 10 players a week runnin past our house/summoning bell. I have seen mansions unchanged for a year with only ever having new seasonal furniture added.
The wards need to be made into FC housing only, heck even add a "minimum member" requirements for the sizes so 1 person FC's dont take over all the mansions. Make private housing instanced or combine them with the apartment buildings where you can choose S/M/L sizes. Extreme changes yes, but seeing how horrible the system is now it requires extreme changes similar to ARR launching.
Another idea is Instanced Ishgard housing. There are massive biuldings that can have an entrances to private rooms in different sizes similar to apartments.