Housing gameplay is unhealthy for the players.

[Theodric]

Housing gameplay is only unhealthy to those who allow it to be unhealthy as nobody (other than a FC) actually needs a house.

Eh, many other MMO's have implemented player housing in a way that allows for every player to own one. In some cases, such as ESO, they're able to own roughly forty different houses of varying shapes and sizes throughout the game world.

It's a core part of the game in FFXIV and something updated with each new content patch. I'd say it's pretty understandable for people not to want to risk losing their house when there's no guarantee they'd be able to get one again in the future.

[Enla]

Eh, many other MMO's have implemented player housing in a way that allows for every player to own one. In some cases, such as ESO, they're able to own roughly forty different houses of varying shapes and sizes throughout the game world.

It's a core part of the game in FFXIV and something updated with each new content patch. I'd say it's pretty understandable for people not to want to risk losing their house when there's no guarantee they'd be able to get one again in the future.

Not to mention that because of how apartments currently work they aren't a good alternative to housing for most people. Not only are they basically a detached FC room with the same number of slots, they also cannot be upgraded, nor can they take full advantage of the various glitches the housing system in this game has to make something extraordinary. There's a Z-Axis glitch in the game that only works by 'inching' the items up that requires having at least a small house to pull off in full due to the access to the basement area. Without that you're kinda hamstrung as to what you can really create because there's also minimum height requirements on most furniture that are at least one player character in height tall. Which must be met if you don't want the furniture to go crashing to the floor.

Really what they have a lot of things they need to do to fix this issue, but the barest minimum would be:
-Make all sales raffle based. You put the money in along with anyone else who wants it and at the end of the timer one person is randomly picked to own the house, with the others being sent back their money.
-Then make apartments actually equitable. A lot of people would stop pining for a house if apartments were a viable alternative. (They'd also act as a good gil sink, which the game desperately needs.)

Even just doing the first would solve at least the issue of people being forced to sit at the plots all day.

[Jojoya]

There's been plenty of discussion about the housing situation in the Housing subforum over the past couple of years. This would have been better posted there since that's where Housing feedback is collected.

It's the player who chooses to engage in an unhealthy behavior trying to get a house. They could always stop by an available plot, check to see if they get lucky, go do other things if they don't then check again later. Instead they're so obsessed with getting a house they choose to camp. Their choice, not something that SE is forcing them to engage in doing.

Plenty of ideas have been tossed out about how to avoid the camping. Lotteries, waiting lists, etc. They all have their pros and cons, with the biggest con of all being that none of them solve the problem of making enough houses available for every player who wants one. The only thing that will accomplish that is SE choosing to adopt what the other MMOs have done - use instanced housing beyond the simple rooms we get with apartments. Anything else is just a band-aid that will continue to leave players who can't get a house frustrated.

Any major changes to the housing system that SE has in the works won't be seen until Ishgard Restoration is completed and housing there made available. Considering we're looking at what's clearly a housing district but with houses already erected instead of just being empty plots, maybe it will be instanced housing. We'll have to wait and see.

It's a core part of the game in FFXIV and something updated with each new content patch. I'd say it's pretty understandable for people not to want to risk losing their house when there's no guarantee they'd be able to get one again in the future.

It's fun and popular but it's not a core part of the game. Nothing mandatory for game play comes from it. Housing could be removed and the majority of players would only feel a minimal impact.

Also, demolition wasn't the issue being discussed. Obtaining a house in the first place is the problem. Demolition actually helps other players get a house by removing them from inactive players who aren't using the house.

There is always the chance to get a house in the future if someone loses their current house. Even with demolition suspended at the moment, a few houses become available each week on each world. But it does require making the decision about how important owning a house is to the individual player compared to the rest of the content in the game.

But again, the player's choice. No one is being forced to camp to get a house if they'd rather be doing other things with their game time.