Regarding Apartments and their (lack of) features...

[The_NPC]

200k more for Chocobo stable use without a FC, a FC room minus the FC part, no auto-demolish system, easyest acess to MB/Retainer items (slightly better than Limsa, "Slightly") & u can techically (if u'r rich/collector/whatever) own this, a FC house & Personal house all at once... I'd say worth the 200k on the "no auto-demolish" or "room loss from FC kicked" alone as its a possible 500k u'll never have to re-spend unless "YOU" want to move to a different ward/sub-ward/server

won't say no to a small 5 item outside buyable/unlockable addon as a balcony or something (instanced seperatly or threw a built-in door that auto-exits which ever "Housing item place menu" u were in at the time of u cross the door threshold)

[Beckett]

If they allowed some form of gardening with the owning of an apartment, then I think it would generally give all the benefits of a house...

Technically, they do. You can use pots to grow plants (but since you can't cross breed, it's a fairly useless feature).

[CUTS3R]

It's a great market board and retainer teleport. That's a pretty good feature right there.

We had Limsa for that since the beginning.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

Apartments are not subjected to auto demolition. That beats out FC/Private houses by a malm and then some.

[Alistaire]

We had Limsa for that since the beginning.

Except Limsa isn't 3 cities. If you buy stuff from mb regularly at all, having all 3 cities on cheap tele saves a significant amount of gil over time.

[Balipu]

Exclusive Features:
Cheaper than a house
Doesn't get demolished
Is not dependant on you being in and FC or not.

I'm sorry if you are disappointed, but this is more than enough for me.

[NorthernLadMSP]

The fact it's not reliant on a FC is a huge selling point for me.

[Tsukino]

Consider this - if they had unique features that houses didn't, then everyone who already has a house and personal chamber would be grabbing up an apartment too, completely defeating the purpose.

[Yellow]

It would be nice if it could be slightly longer or wider, with windows that actually look outside. I really wanted a community feeling with the apartments, so I hope SE will take into consideration some of the changes people have requested (like having a mailbox in the lobby).

Also, I'm not convinced by people who say that apartments shouldn't be interesting because they're an alternative for people who don't have housing. If that's the case, then don't let people with housing purchase an apartment.. because I know plenty of people who are still buying an apartment despite already having something.... But since limiting people is not a great idea, it would be nice to have interesting apartments so people who only have an apartment can still make it unique and feel like they're living in an apartment, rather than an empty inn.

[BushWookie]

It absolutely could be bigger. I mean, they're instanced areas, no? They could've set it up on two planes similar to a studio and fleshed it out a little. I mean, they do cost half a mil.