No to taxation. It's bad enough we can lose our houses and furniture while paying a sub, no way would I endorse making the system even more punitive.
It would definitely encourage RMT and honestly I cannot see any benefit except to a handful of richer players.

FIX THE SUPPLY
That's the real issue, there are simply not enough houses for the player base.

Dig into that a little further and it turns out that desirable houses are in even shorter supply. Houses near the Market Board and Retainer bell with nice views are not exactly plentiful. Many plots in the wards would probably go unsold if it wasn't for the fact that housing is so scarce (looking at you, Goblet) but the poor design of the wards is something most of us overlook because getting any house is an achievement in itself.

If the devs can give everyone their own little instanced island, then they definitely had the resources to give us instanced houses. I can see no reason why instanced houses shouldn't be introduced alongside the wards, that way everyone's happy. The people who don't care about neighbourhoods can get an instanced house and the people who love the wards can continue with the system we have.