New player looking to buy a house

[Ogmion]

So I joined FF XIV a few months ago, and I've finally reached one of my goals by saving up enough to buy a house... except there are none for sale? Did I simply join the game too late to be able to buy a house, or is there something I'm missing that I have to do before I'll have the option to buy one?

I absolutely love looking at all the different houses people have put together, and I'm feeling really discouraged right now being unable to figure out how to get one for myself.

[Shougun]

Depending on your server it can be legitimately impossible to get a house at this point. Be sure to check all the housing areas (there are four) and all the districts (there are many). The housing system, imo, is not good - the decorations are great, the system itself is not lol.

However, there are two moments to look forward to from now.

A. [5.0+] We will probably have Ishgard soon, it sounded like it at least. So give it time for that one, and then get lucky and nab a house then. (Technically unconfirmed I think, but heavily hinted at).

Source:

End-game content for Disciples of the Hand and Land. The Restoration of the Holy See of Ishgard! Possibly Ishgardian Housing coming as well, as it was strongly hinted based off of players constantly wishing to be able to live there… Fishers will be included in this end-game content, and there will be something like user-controlled farms. (Farmer is NOT one of the new jobs).

B. [4.5~] We will soon have free server transfers and a system to move around servers in a data center freely. In this way you can spot a server with low population and take up a house there (you need to have your "home server" be in the place you'll buy a house so keep that in mind, same thing for FC buffs and such).

I really really hope they can make a system that allows /every single/ player and FC that wants their own customizeable space to be able to have one.

[SturmChurro]

I've heard there are guilds that buy up all the houses in a district.

[Shougun]

I've heard there are guilds that buy up all the houses in a district.

This is confirmed ;/, they use them for the garden and airship/submarine like personal retainers.

[Penthea]

There are a limited amount of plots in the game. Every server has the same amount of plots but the population of the servers themselves can be anything from dead to overcrowded.

If there are no plots left on your server then it's likely that your server has a moderate to high population. You will have more luck finding open plots elsewhere. Some servers always have some small plots available.

SE are adding world visiting in 4.5 (early next year). World visiting allows players to visit other servers in the same data centre. However you will only be able to buy a house on your home server. When world visiting is introduced there will also be free server transfers.

What you can do is make alts on other servers and check out the housing situation there and later use the free transfer to get a house. Or you can stay on Siren and grab a plot someone else leaves behind.

The data centres are also getting split which means servers will be redistributed. The below image shows what that redistribution will be. World visiting can only be done within the same data centre, so if you have friends on Siren you still want to play with be sure to choose a server that will be in the same Data Centre.

[Vidu]

There is only a limited number of houses for each sever - and that limited number is nowhere close enough to provide everyone with a house.

You have a few options here:

1) Wait til a plot opens up - houses have an auto-demolition-feature, so if the owner of the hosue (or any FC-member in cases of FC-houses) doesnt step into their home within 45 days, the house gets demolished and the plot goes back onto the market. Note that there will be a random timer in place that prevents the plot from being purchased right away (it is there to stop "house-flipping", aka, people selling houses by basically argeeing to giving up the plot in exchange for gil). So if you cant purchase an open plot, its most likely because of that. You should also not be picky here - you can try to relocate later. The Goblet seems to be the least popular housing area, so I'd check there. Remember to check subdivisions aswell!

2) Transfer to a server with open plots - smaller servers often have open plots; we have a sub-thread in the housing-forum, where people report the amount of open plots on their server from time to time. Goblin seems to have open plots all the time. If housing is important to you, this might be an option.

3) Settle for an apartment. In each ward (+subdivision) is an apartment-building and you can buy an apartment for 500k here. Please note that its only one (rather small) room - exactly like the room you can purchase in an FC-house. It also has no outdoor-space, but the apartment-building will provide you with a stable for your chocobo at least. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for them to expand on the size of apartments some day... but for now: its only a small room (might be worth getting one just to store all the event-furniture. In this context: If you like certain event-furniture, make sure to stock up in it during the event, because you wont be able to get it again, except for paying for it with real money on the mogstation next year)
Unlike a house you cant lose your apartment through autodemolition, so even if you dont step into your room for 45 days or longer, you wont lose it.

4) Obviously, you can wait for them to add more houses in some way - they might do so come 5.0, they might not. Housing is a bit of a mess in this game... so good luck on your journey!

[ChaoticCrimson]

Yeah, plot availability definitely varies by server. I'm not sure what the population is like at Siren, but I know in Adamantoise there seems to be a relatively decent amount of open plots in most districts, though Shirogane tends to stay pretty full. I went through a ward in Mist a few weeks back and it seemed like at least a good quarter of the plots were for sale there.

[Melichoir]

You just have to be paying attention to when a plot opens up. If no ones said this so far, unlock the teleport from a capital cities aetheryte to the related housing district so you can more quickly see if there are open plots or not. From there, just have the money on hand and a bit of luck that no one else is paying attention or that youre faster than most other people.

As for housing, I typically see plots open up 2-3 times a week across Limsa, Uldah, and Grid broadly on Sarg. Just be on the lookout for them and you can get one with enough time and patience.

[Anarnee]

I play on Siren too, there are houses open from time to time. There was one open across from mine a month ago, it's already been snatched up though. Make sure you check the wards all the time.

Right now the auto demolition is off though, cause of the awful fires, so unless someone relinquishes one, plots won't be opening.

[galbsadi]

If you play on Diabolos (or transfer there when the free server transfers come up), you're more than free to try and get my house in Kugane. (I'm planning on moving to Leviathan at that point.)