Lack of housing plots are a huge factor in the buying / selling of Gil.

[TatsuyaSumaru]

When private home owners or those who are no longer interested in leading their FC try to sell their plots, they usually ask for an incredibly unfair and illogical number to just relinquish the land. Usually close to the price of the actual plot itself. Depending on the plot, a buyer will have to spend nearly double the actual plot price. I hate to make assumptions but I truly believe that the vast majority of the players in this game do not have 50m or more to just drop like that. I have been playing for almost a year and have saved 30m solely waiting for a plot to open. But every time I try to negotiate a plot price, it's always 20-30m just for the relinquishing of the land.

The fact that the plotting crisis is basically just players squatting on plots to try and double their money is really sad for those who genuinely want to have a home.

This just encourages players to buy GIL in large quantities. And thus, you have a never ending cycle of tainted gil flooding the markets.

[Blood-Aki]

People buy gill because they are lazy and are unable to actually play the game without needing everything handed to them, housing is simply one of the excuses.

[TatsuyaSumaru]

Not disagreeing that players are lazy, but the fact that housing is not only extremely expensive but nearly impossible to get makes it even worse. Even for players who have genuinely earned the price to buy an actual plot, players try to charge even more.

[AskaRay]

Well, of course they do. Some items get destroyed if you pick them up, and those can be worth millions...so there would be an incentive to move.

[Elim]

House prices really aren't that bad if you're a crafter, sell carries or buy/sell "hot" items. Also a group of crafters/sellers (a FC) can easily raise enough gil for a house(even to buy it from another player). I don't know anyone who buys gil and I doubt it's as common as you think. I'm sure once in awhile a lazy player buys gil for housing... but if they're lazy then they'd probably do it for all kinds of reasons, not just housing.

[Sicno]

House prices really aren't that bad if you're a crafter, sell carries or buy/sell "hot" items. Also a group of crafters/sellers (a FC) can easily raise enough gil for a house(even to buy it from another player). I don't know anyone who buys gil and I doubt it's as common as you think. I'm sure once in awhile a lazy player buys gil for housing... but if they're lazy then they'd probably do it for all kinds of reasons, not just housing.

That applies for normally buying a house. OP is talking about house re-selling, which happens at exhorbitant prices because there are normally no available plots, they're way more expensive than the regular prices (I saw someone at Adamantoise trying to sell a small house for about 8-10M in party finder). And then the buyer has to pay the real price of the plot on top of it.

But I agree with Blood-Aki, lazy people are gonna buy gil just because they're lazy and they want as much help as can get handed to them. Housing is just one of the many things they must spend their money on, it's not the core of the problem.

[Elim]

That applies for normally buying a house. OP is talking about house re-selling, which happens at exhorbitant prices because there are normally no available plots, they're way more expensive than the regular prices (I saw someone at Adamantoise trying to sell a small house for about 8-10M in party finder). And then the buyer has to pay the real price of the plot on top of it.

But I agree with Blood-Aki, lazy people are gonna buy just because they're lazy and they want as much help as can get handed to them. Housing is just one of the many things they must spend their money on, it's not the core of the problem.

It also applies to re-selling. I'm not sure why it wouldn't? If you know how to make gil, buying from another player isn't that bad. I bought a plot from antoher player, and I've also sold plots. I agree that the lack of plots suck though. I just don't agree that housing, or re-selling plots, play a big factor in RMT.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

It also applies to re-selling. I'm not sure why it wouldn't? If you know how to make gil, buying from another player isn't that bad. I bought a plot from antoher player, and I've also sold plots. I agree that the lack of plots suck though. I just don't agree that housing, or re-selling plots, play a big factor in RMT.

Anything that requires a big amount of money plays a factor in RMT.

Especially crafted gear, because its better.

[Colorful]

snip

How do people afford those carries anyway? Last I heard, A1 Savage goes for 30 million+ gil. On Reddit there are plenty of run sellers who claim that their clients don't even have a single one of their crafters leveled up, so it's likely a lot of people who buy runs also buy gil (other than crafters or those who have found a niche item to profit from). If buying gil wasn't so common I don't know how the people operating the bots would be able to afford new accounts to bot their gil, or spam their RMT. Some of them may be hacked accounts, but I doubt people are getting their accounts hacked willy nilly (unless they're really stupid when it comes to downloading files and whatever).

I'm glad that I'm on a JP server, I don't even remember the last time I got a PM from a gil seller (if I've even got one since moving here).

[BreathlessTao]

House prices really aren't that bad if you're a crafter, sell carries or buy/sell "hot" items.

....and if you're not, you shouldn't even think about wanting a house, because you're just a scrub and scrubs should be glad for just being able to play the game at all, right? Point is: too many people are not in any of those groups.

SE really screwed up the housing system, on several levels. Lumping it together with FC housing was really a huge letdown. Availability has been and will forever be way more than simply "inadequate". Prices have been ridiculous, and it doesn't really matter that they aren't anymore, because there are no plots left to buy - it doesn't really matter that they aren't anymore, because current owners can and do ask outrageous amounts of gil just to give up their plots, which then also have to be bought, of course. The fact that there is no restriction whatsoever on how many plots someone can buy up is incredibly bad. The fact that there is no proper ownership transfer system is hilariously awful. The fact that abandoned plots don't get automatically relinquished is incredibly stupid.

Yes, they are putting some band-aids on the whole housing system in patch 3.1 - how much time after the feature has been out? A year? Or even more? Yes, it's a good thing, better than nothing for sure - but the fact remains: it's way too late. The damage is done, and the whole thing has bled out more times than once by now, it's like kissing the dead princess and hoping she'll live once again.

Is housing the main reason for people buying gil? Probably not. Is it one of the main reasons? For sure. Save for carries in current end-game content, it is the single most expensive feature in the game. People don't need tens of millions of gil for other things, and that's another fact.