Forcing players to pay to keep housing is unfair.

[LineageRazor]

As I've noted in other threads, even if there was plenty of housing for everyone, I'd still support demolition timers. Why? Because people leave the game. It's a natural phenomenon with MMOs; FFXIV won't always hold every player's interest, and many who leave the game don't ever plan on coming back. When these folks leave houses behind, without a demolition timer those houses will be empty forever. I don't want to see wards full of abandoned houses that can never be occupied again.

That said, I disagree with the current system of requiring players to actually enter their house to maintain it. There are many circumstances that might prevent a player from getting online for extended periods of time, such as military deployment or extended hospitalization. Maintaining a subscription should be enough to maintain your house - it shows that you are still interested in the game, and will be back as soon as you are able.

[Keeroh]

snip

I understand the reasoning behind that, but I don't think it would solve much. The price for the subscription is not so high that it's unfeasible that some people could not notice they were unsubbed. For a long time. You would still have the issue of unused zombie houses, who will continue to sit unused on a plot until the card attached to the account expires.
This is gonna seem snarky, but that's not my intention: If you have something important in life that takes you from the game for that long, the house does not matter. This is a luxury asset (housing) within a luxury activity (game) - if you are expecting every business to maintain your luxuries out of altruism, then you have some unrealistic expectations.
The system could be streamlined, but it really shouldn't be changed on a fundamental level.