Adressing the roots of the housing problem

[Darrcyphfeid]

I own multiple houses in a single Ward, I don't mind giving up one or two, but how exactly will this update, force me to keep just one?

According to this comment on Reddit you'll be grandfathered in and will retain all of your current properties. You can apparently freely Relocate any or all of those properties at will without restriction as well, as purchasing and relocating are counted as entirely different things.

When the plots become available on February 6th, FCs without houses* and anyone that currently owns a plot can pick and choose as they please. Everyone else has to wait until personal housing purchases become available and can then pick up the scraps. There's a near-zero probability that any medium or large houses will be available for purchase by then.

* Some extra tomfoolery that, as of January 30th, you won't be able to buy an FC plot if any character you have is in any FC on that world. You can presumably still wind up owning multiple FCs by joining after the fact and having leadership transferred.