Quote Originally Posted by Arkevorkhat View Post
The housing system in this game was designed to be a status symbol; the lack of sufficient housing is not a mistake, it is intentional.

The goal was always for people to have something to say "I got this thing, look at me, I'm cool". That's why Relocation exists, so people who already have status as a member of the landed gentry are able to upgrade at will, ignoring the restrictions us serfs and peons must contend with.

Free Company housing contributes to this in a really pernicious way, creating a massive source of extra demand, while there are no plans to increase supply, thus making the status symbol even more sought after.
SE wouldn't bother adding more wards if it was intended solely as a status symbol. We'd still be back at the original 5 wards (and no subdivisions) per district. Instead they kept adding wards and there are periods in the game's history where many plots were left unsold on the majority of worlds. Many JP worlds almost always have some available houses because their populations are so much lower than the populations on the NA and EU worlds.

If you're thinking of the original house prices, SE has said multiple times the original prices were intended to help drain the remaining massive amounts of legacy gil from the game.

No, the sticking point has been SE never anticipated the massive growth of the player base and the resulting demand for housing. They haven't been able to keep up with adding the needed hardware to operate enough wards. It doesn't help that world populations vary wildly but they designed the system so the number of wards has to be the same on every world.

If people want a house badly enough, they can transfer to one of several JP worlds to get one for minimum price but honestly no one should be expected to give up playing with friends to get access to game content that's supposed to be available to all. It would be better if SE did something to meet demand at the regional level.