As we all know, there is a serious shortage of housing in game. There are simply not enough houses to go around, and there are loads of complaints on the forums about this. However, the insufficient number of housing plots is only half the problem. The other half of the problem that is rarely mentioned is this: The prices are capped to be artificially low, at 3 to 3.75 million gil for a small plot, depending on plot grade.



The blue vertical line represents a fixed supply, 4320 plots per realm. If Square Enix were to add new wards, or an Ishgard housing district, the blue line would shift to the right, mitigating the shortage, but not solving the problem completely on high population realms.

The red line represents the demand. The higher the price, the fewer housing plots demanded. Higher population realms will shift the demand line up and to the right, shifting the equilibrium point (Where the supply and demand lines intersect) up, resulting in a higher market value.

However, the price is arbitrarily capped below the point of equilibrium, and is represented by the horizontal green line. The result is the shortage and the situation we have now with people camping placards for hours on end.

The solution to deal with the shortage and placard camping would therefore be simple: Uncap the prices, and set them dynamically based on the market value for each given realm and district. If every new plot is selling within seconds of being made available, increase the price. If there are lots of vacant plots that aren't selling, lower the price.

The result would be that, yes, houses would become more expensive, but it would be far better for players to spend time earning gil in game, rather than spend that time mindlessly clicking a placard in the hopes of actually getting a house.