They should just let apartments be upgradeable Animal Crossing style, to maybe the size of a Small house. Maybe even in between Small and Medium. Similar-ish to what someone said here. Could even add a cool patio thing, who knows. Also add more wards of course, more houses = less people not having them. But I feel like this would fix the major issue of housing, a compromise for instanced housing and non-instanced housing. If people really wanted a house and there were no plots open, they could get an apartment and work on upgrading it.

I think in a perfect housing world, they would have a few wards be FC only and a few be personal only. Also have whole purchasable wards (not counting towards the public ward limit) that FC's can have all to themselves. FC members could have their individual house and it'd be a neighborhood of just your friends and FC mates. This would obviously never happen, but the idea is really cool. Wards/Neighborhoods are such a neat idea that work out really well when you actually have a house. The problem is actually getting one in the first place though, it's an awful experience to try and get your first house at the moment.