Quote Originally Posted by Elim View Post
House prices really aren't that bad if you're a crafter, sell carries or buy/sell "hot" items.
....and if you're not, you shouldn't even think about wanting a house, because you're just a scrub and scrubs should be glad for just being able to play the game at all, right? Point is: too many people are not in any of those groups.

SE really screwed up the housing system, on several levels. Lumping it together with FC housing was really a huge letdown. Availability has been and will forever be way more than simply "inadequate". Prices have been ridiculous, and it doesn't really matter that they aren't anymore, because there are no plots left to buy - it doesn't really matter that they aren't anymore, because current owners can and do ask outrageous amounts of gil just to give up their plots, which then also have to be bought, of course. The fact that there is no restriction whatsoever on how many plots someone can buy up is incredibly bad. The fact that there is no proper ownership transfer system is hilariously awful. The fact that abandoned plots don't get automatically relinquished is incredibly stupid.

Yes, they are putting some band-aids on the whole housing system in patch 3.1 - how much time after the feature has been out? A year? Or even more? Yes, it's a good thing, better than nothing for sure - but the fact remains: it's way too late. The damage is done, and the whole thing has bled out more times than once by now, it's like kissing the dead princess and hoping she'll live once again.

Is housing the main reason for people buying gil? Probably not. Is it one of the main reasons? For sure. Save for carries in current end-game content, it is the single most expensive feature in the game. People don't need tens of millions of gil for other things, and that's another fact.