Our FC spent 722.5mill on all the bids to win the mansion we bid on. We won. Bigger FC wins the bigger house, makes sense to me. Other FC have known far in advance new housing was coming, you had the time to farm the money out and you didn't.

For my alt's FC I was prepared months in advance and had friends willing to loan some gil and also place an extra bid.

Still, I hope for instanced housing. Not being able to access a game feature as fun as housing due to limited supply is nonsense. If I could have an instanced large I would give my goblet mansion to an RP venue. Let the RP'er make more use of the ward.