How did we get here?

[Jojoya]

Limiting estates to FCs wouldn't work because FCs only give a select few housing and gardening permissions. That leaves the rest of the FC members who might want to do those things out in the cold.

All you end up with is players making dummy FCs to get around the FC restriction, exactly as we're seeing right now with the personal moratorium in effect. To make such a restriction effective you'd also have to put conditions on what the FC has to do to retain the housing, not just purchase it.

Apartments/FC member rooms get a lukewarm reception because they're small spaces with a door in the worst possible place that are hard to decorate with housing items that are frequently bulkier than they need to be.

If you really want to lower demand for estates to those who would actually use them, you need to attach a monthly fee to them as opposed to increasing the one time cost. People are unlikely to get something that requires a monthly fee if they aren't really using it.

[Mikki]

I think the major issue is the price being something most people can afford, along with the fact that there is literally no meaningful gil sinks in this game apart from housing itself. People are sitting on huge piles of gil and housing is one of the most attractive ways to spend it. Having the gil but the resource being too scarce that no amount of gil will get you what you want is frustrating. But I remember back in the day when full wards were empty and no one really cared because it was too damn expensive like you said.

If the prices were higher and were there more and better gil sinks, people would be less angry. Some would complain about the ridiculous price, sure. But it's even more frustrating when you have the money and still can't buy it.

Well, my post is ignoring the fact that the biggest issue of all is the lack of supply. But that's a different story... if they won't create adequate supply then the next place to look (after the rightful move of restricting housing to 1 personal and 1 FC house per server per service account) would probably be to increase price and create more gil sinks. Most people can more or less afford a small home just through doing the main scenario quests. Personally, while I do believe everyone should have the opportunity to get a house... I think there should be a sense of working for it and achieving it. The prices should be higher. But I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with me.

[ChameleonMS]

I would love to see a return to the higher prices for housing. I remember when it first came out, our smallish FC could only afford a Small plot after it had dropped in price from the timer. Then, months later, we upgraded to a medium. Eventually, we got a mansion but that was after the price reduction from SE (not the timer reduction).

I do not think private housing was a mistake. The mistakes I see were:
1. Lowering the price of housing to make it too accessible. It is luxury item and should remain that way. You put in the time, you get the reward. Just like everything else in this game that is rare.
2. Having no fair priced alternative to housing (partially fixed with apartments, more space / instance housing would be a true fix)
3. Allowing multiple players in a FC to purchase multiple houses (fixed as of 4.2)
4. Allowing multiple characters for the same service account to purchase houses (fixed as of 4.2)
5. Not allowing all characters for the same service account access to a private house (still unfixed)

FYI, I do not have a personal house nor any ambition to get one because I just do not care about housing glamour that much.
I fully participate in my FC housing projects and gardening but I pretty much never decorate anything.

[Raven2014]

Some would complain about the ridiculous price, sure. But it's even more frustrating when you have the money and still can't buy it.

And this is the heart of a problem. I had played plenty MMO, and a house (or a guild hall) exist as an exclusive guild/FC feature. Yes, there are always complain, or more accurately said "wishful thinking" that such feature can be own privately. But for the larger part, most of the players base will move on with their life accepting it as a fact of life. Opening ward to private housing is like opening a can of worm, once you give the players a taste, they will not take no for the next answer.

Also the price, like I said even after private was made available, small cottage was the heart and dream of most, most "accepted" the fact that they will never own a mansion, or even a medium. The price was too much for personal reach, and again, because such was the way most people accepted that fact and was happy enough with the cottage. But the price neft put everything in reach. I'm not implying anyone a beggar here, just use the saying as a reference, but it says "a hungry beggar will only wish for a piece of bread. But give him a basket of bread and he will wish to have some ham, give him a load of ham and he may fantasize about some wine to go with it".

3 years ago, seeing this many cottage still remained open on the most popular server would be nothing but blasphemy. Right now I don't think anyone can complain there is not enough house to meet FC demands, we moved from not having enough house to not having enough BIG house. How SE see this as a problem, or even a problem at all to be seen. After all I think their current goal "people can get a house", and not "people getting the house they want".

[Sesera]

If the prices were higher and were there more and better gil sinks, people would be less angry.

Quite the contrary in fact.
People are mad because they wanted a house but since there were no plot available due to sad circumstances then they announced new house/plots/wards for 4.2 and people were happy because at long last they could get a house.
But a week before 4.2 was released they said "Nope sorry only leftover for you, if there is any that is."
So if people had to put even more effort to get an higher amount of gils just to get their hopes crushed they most likely to be even more angry.
Sure less people angry but the people who farmed enough won't be that's for sure.

[Alyanna_Elingval]

I always figured SE never meant for housing to be something every player got., but more of an achievement. Don’t thInk making it private was a mistake. If an individual could afford it at the old prices I see no reason why they shouldn’t be allowed to buy a house.

If you’re a heavy crafter like me you have nothing to spend Gil on because you can make pretty much anything you need. If I was unable to buy a house, or didn’t have a goal of owning a mansion it would have taken away from my expierince so far. Last Tuesday I was dancing in my yard when I got my large because I had accomplished a big goal I set for myself.

[Zojha]

I think there should be a sense of working for it and achieving it.

I concur. And to that end, gil gained via the market board should not be usable for purchases.

You can get a lot of money on the market simply by getting lucky with drops or with relatively little effort if you're a crafter, even if you just do lower level housing items/glamours. That diminishes the idea of "working for it" and "achieving it". Instead, make only money gained from leves and selling to vendors applicable for housing so people really need to work hard for it and can't rely on abusing supply shortages or arbitrage for easy money.

And then we'll see how many people are still on board with "working hard" and how many people think standing next to the MB and selling crafts at 100% markup equals "hard work". Let_there_be_grind, lul.

(No, not an honest suggestion. It's a terrible idea, just finally get started on better instanced housing)

[Alyanna_Elingval]

Quite the contrary in fact.
People are mad because they wanted a house but since there were no plot available due to sad circumstances then they announced new house/plots/wards for 4.2 and people were happy because at long last they could get a house.
But a week before 4.2 was released they said "Nope sorry only leftover for you, if there is any that is."

I don’t agree with this type of comment. I’m pretty sure most peopls who relocated, or have larger homes started out in cottages, and probably not their ideal location. I bought the first house I saw because I just wanted to have a home and was happy I got one. Then I bidded my time until something else opened up.

So when I see comments like leftovers, or just general crapping on cottages in general it just rubs me the wrong way. Do you want a house or not? Plenty of people didn’t get their dream home on their first house, this is not something new.

[NanaWiloh]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who considers personal housing a mistake.

Personal housing is not a mistake, the mistake is how SE handle it. The interior of the houses are handled by a housing server. While the outside is handled by another server; this is where the problem occurs has that the outside area is constantly loaded. They have litterly created there own self imposed limit too how many player homes they can add. Players have mentioned removing the wards and putting a menu in place to select just the interior portion, but the Dev team has stated BS reasons as to why they can't do it. Put balantly they dont want to remove the ward system.

[Sesera]

I don’t agree with this type of comment. I’m pretty sure most peopls who relocated, or have larger homes started out in cottages, and probably not their ideal location. I bought the first house I saw because I just wanted to have a home and was happy I got one. Then I bidded my time until something else opened up.

So when I see comments like leftovers, or just general crapping on cottages in general it just rubs me the wrong way. Do you want a house or not? Plenty of people didn’t get their dream home on their first house, this is not something new.

I want a house at a place I find beautiful not somewhere just to say I have a house.