When will houses be available to private owners?

[Jojoya]

They really need to be. The functionality of a house for an FC is much greater than for a personal, both in literal in game functions (workshop, place for the FC to congregate) and soft ones (showing that you're serious about your FC). Housing was originally designed for FCs and only released to individuals during a time when there were legions of unsold houses rotting away.

On top of this, the "neighborhood feel" only really works in FC neighborhoods. 30 random gamers will not create a neighborhood. 30 random FCs will. I see and interact with my neighbors all the time at my FC house. I think I've spoken two words to someone in my personal ward once.

And yet I have apartments in a FC only ward for my characters without a personal house and for all the time I spend running between my apartments and the Curious Crop exchange, I never see anyone.

While the ward has a few smalls left unsold, most plots have been sold. Among the sold plots only two are open to visitors. One of those FCs has 3 members. The other 18.

The rest of the sold plots are locked, share the exact same default housing skin and are not decorated outside at all (not even a Mini-Aetheryte) unless it's been hidden within the house skin. The FCs have between 1 and 9 members.

Even if all those plots were owned by active FCs with 9 members each, that would still only be a little over 200 players sharing the ward. The chances of running into another player would still be very small.

It's a mixed bag. Certainly an all FC ward has the potential to feel more alive but that does not mean it will be. It depends on what FCs have obtained houses there. If they're mostly large, active and social FCs then you're in luck. If they're mostly 1-2 player FCS, or FCs that log in to raid only, your ward is still going to end up dead.

That's why I'd love to see the wards become the portals to an improved instanced housing system. The more players that have reason to travel through the same area on a regular basis, the more chances there are for player interaction that would make the wards feel alive. We know the wards themselves are capable of holding a fairly large number of players concurrently thanks to some of the huge venue events. Imagine how lively wards would feel if even half that number could own housing within the same ward/subdivision instead of the current 30.