I'd love to see a source on that Japanese news. If it's just a player forum then it may very well be just some odd person mis-interpreting the devs.
I wouldn't expect housing areas to be added in 3.1 because there will be new players who start from scratch in 3.0, one patch is not enough time for them to make enough money (as a whole---obviously there will be a minority who can make the billions in 3.0, but they are few) and if Ishgard is going to get a housing zone, it'd be at the earliest 3.2. Additional wards in existing zones may very well be implemented by 3.1, though.