Quick suggestion...

... If current efforts with Ishgardian wards and other plots don't solve the problem of housing, would it be possible to simply allow players, for a fixed (if high) amount of gil to buy a personally instanced house that is not in an active ward, but in a solo setting of the player's choice? If the current model of housing is not functioning for the community, especially in the hardlocked servers that we have in this game, this would probably solve the problem.

I know I, for one, would love a plot in a neighborhood. On the other hand, I'd almost prefer my own instance where I could set my own setting, upgrade my plot and house size if I have enough gil, and have a bit more freedom with what I do. I'd probably prefer the latter over the former, given both options. I have no problem grinding gil if I knew what I was grinding it towards.

I understand there may be storage issues. I'd be willing to tack a dollar or two onto my sub for that ability.

This was one of the things roaming around my head while trying to get to sleep last night. Something like in Wildstar where you get your own instanced floating plot of land with your own house where you could decorate the yard and have visitors. There could be a quest chain in sea of clouds (or tie it to the local beast tribe) to earn a floating island of your own and then garner the ability to move the location it's floating at (aka just change the instance scenery). They could even take it a step further and let you purchase land use in a ward if a plot is available and your house would settle on that land, but instead of demolishing the house due to inactivity it would simply detach from the ward and take to the skies awaiting your return.

Even if they add instanced housing it still uses server resources. The current limitations on housing, according to SE, are related to server resources which probably also factors in the costs associated with it.

So regardless of if they add more wards or add instanced housing they're still going to have to allocate more server resources; which is something they are attempting to do in phases with the existing housing structure instead of building an instance system. Again, this is likely tied to demand and infrastructure cost.

Mind you they have mentioned that when they release new wards there might be an apartment style complex coming with it so that's probably as close to instanced housing as you'll get.

That's why I said I'd be willing to tack on a few dollars to my sub for it. I'm not just saying "there aren't enough plots" (though there aren't), but also that the neighborhood format they use is very limiting. If I want a bigger house or plot, I have to buy it all over again, then let a house lapse for 45 days? And I have to get lucky to get one, regardless of whether I'll get it with an environment I like?

I mean, truth be told, I'd prefer an instanced plot I could upgrade and set the environment as I please. Even if it wasn't in a ward, it would be infinitely better for me personally. And I'd be willing to pay for the extra server lines if that were the case. 2 dollars a sub should do it, and many would probably want to be included.

I honestly would prefer instanced housing. There is nothing special about the wards except your house being overrun by neighbors who I sometimes think just do it to annoy the resident. Also why I now have my house locked to outside intrusion. I had to lock our old FC house too because the neighbor FCs would always be in there running around, jumping on the furniture and just being a general nuisance when you are trying to quietly craft.

The only thing nice about wards is the access to a mb which could easily be placed in an instance if we are given an option to have a smaller version.

Basically, yeah. I give SE all the credit in the world. I figure they can do laps around NCSoft, so the idea that they just aren't capable of doing it doesn't occur to me. I'm willing to pay extra for it, and I'd honestly prefer getting the same functionality out of an instanced house I can control access to (in addition to maybe even more things, if they take it seriously).