Small plots and big misconceptions

[Matsume]

My point is there are only a few large plots and there won't be any new instances added anytime soon. How lame would it be if prices were lower and only a handfull of rich people bought up all the pieces of land.

Unfounded Speculation. Patch Notes disagree:

Each residential district is divided into a number of identical wards. Even if the plot of land you desire has already been purchased in a certain ward, it may still be available in another.

Additional wards will be added as required based on fluctuations in the population and economy of each World.

They can and will add more wards if people buy out all the houses in supply.

[AjoraOak]

Yes most mmos realize housing is for casual players that want something to do when they're RPing/being bored/need a change of pace, instead FFXIV gets hardcore housing that no one will do because they are all gonna wait for the price to go down like smart people would.

[AesirTyr]

Housing is major focus of 2.1. So big they devoted an entire Live Letter to it. This is not some fluff.

They put a lot of work and development time into this, spent a lot of time building up peoples expectations only to lock most of us out behind a giant gil-wall. We care so much because for those of us who don't enjoy running the same dungeons over and over again to get the leetest gear this was the content that we've been most excited for, and now it might as well not exist.

It's even more than that.

YoshiP wrote a forum post on the state of the economy and crafters. He said that they're aware that crafted gear is currently only useful for a small period of time, and the end game gear is not crafted, which means that crafters aren't particularly useful right now, except for a short period of time before players hit end game. He said they weren't going to forget about crafters, and would try to make sure that crafting would be useful.

He mentioned two ways that they were going to improve crafters' situation: PvP gear, and furniture for houses. So crafters were looking forward to housing because it was a way for them to be useful and contribute to their FCs and economy.

But now that housing is so expensive, very few people will be able to actually afford houses. So furniture isn't even going to be a viable market for crafters, because no one will have any use for furniture.

In other words, the primary method that they were going to keep crafting relevant is going to be dead on arrival.

Yes, lots of people are disappointed to not have the opportunity to buy houses. And they've completely undercut their attempt to help crafters stay relevant.