The big housing problem, why it isn't the amount of houses

[Zfz]

the wards feel very empty

In my opinion this is the real problem with the way housing content is designed. The devs forsaw a community building experience with neighbours and even wards, so they built the system the way it is built. But because there's so little to actually do in the wards, the whole concept fell flat on its face, just like the real world.

While there are FCs and even LS (or Fellowships nowadays) milling around in the wards, they're the extreme minority.

There's just too little reason for the rest of the playerbase to ever visit the wards. Maybe seasonal events could be held in the wards instead?