Its not only something I'm used to, its something I actually like and wanted. Despite owning a house and having no intentions of trying to own more than one (plus FC-house).
...or maybe because I own a house. You might ask "But why?", so let me explain:
The sad truth is that people simply stop playing the game, for whatever reason - they lost intrest or the means to play, they dont have time anymore or found another game. It doesnt matter, the point is: They're gone for good. They're not taking a few months-break, they're not coming back, at least not in the foreseeable future. And their homes... they sit there. Sometimes even undecorated, just empty plots. But even if someone bothered at somepoint to put some furniture up, they wont do it again, they wont use the house - the house is as dead as their sub. And thats honestly a sad sight. I found it to be a sad sight even when lots of housing was still available. My old FC used to own a house in Mist and there was another one across the street, owned by a very small FC, nothing done with the garden or any of it. We never saw anyone around and it became very clear to us that those people stopped playing for good. And we used to talk about how nice it would be if the house would get removed from them and purchased by someone who'd actually do something with it.
Maybe the timer could be a little longer - 3 months instead of 1,5, I could get behind that. But the idea was never to take homes from people with multiple plots (how does the timer even achieve that? Someone who cares enough about housing will care enough to keep them all from being demolished) or to provide housing for everyone. It was meant to ensure we dont end up with literal ghost towns - yes, I know that wards already seem empty and dead, but that only gets worse when half the plots are owned by people long gone.
Long story shot: The timer needs to stay and does what its supposed to: Making sure that plots arent being owned by people who left the game.