Yes we want housing to cost Gil.

The main reason being that in order to balance out the economy, rich players need to be brought closer to new/poor players in order for a good economy to thrive in 2.0. Otherwise rich people will always be rich, and new/poor will have a much harder time.

This is why gil was reduced to 1/10th (giving new/poor players an advantage to make money) and also why housing will start off expensive, and drop in price over time. Evening out the economy. (assuming rich people will buy large houses)

Rather than just remove everyone's gil in 2.0 to make it 'even" (and pissing everyone off in the process) SE is giving us things to buy (housing) to make it seem like our money is going towards something useful.