I was talking about this in my FC and was told that I should write something up about it.

So basically this is a list of all the features I would love to see added to apartments to make them a viable option compared or even maybe better then home ownership.

1. The ability to purchase addition rooms and floors for apartments for a set amount of gil up to a set number of max rooms per floor.

Example A: Add one small room the (north/south/east/west) of current room for 300k gil.
Example B: Add staircase leading to the (second floor/ basement) and a small room connecting for 800k gil.
Note: Type and size or stairs available dependent on starting room size, small could be base stairs or spiral while large rooms could have a grand stairway
Note: Apartments that have been upgraded could be called Halls and ones purchased by guilds could be called Company Halls.
Note: Additional rooms can only be added a given amount of times west/east, south/north well as up and down however the Hall does not need to be symmetrical allowing in more personalization.

2. The ability to increase an apartments room size for a set amount.

Example A: Change room size to (small/med/large) 150k gil.
Example B: Combine 2 adjacent Large rooms to form one super room for 200K gil.

3. Ability to change a rooms type.

Example A: Set current room as an (outdoor/indoor) space. 200kgil
Example B: Outdoor rooms would have no ceiling on only have walls that are adjacent to indoor rooms giving the appearance of going back inside.

4. Ability to chance the view for the apartment.

Example A: Set apartment to (water/garden/street/river/market) view.
Note: Said view could so activity in the distance like NPC's walking the street, swimming in the water, fishing in the river and ect. These views would be determined by the city state the Hall is located in

5. Unlock special view locations by completing certain special conditions..

Example: Clear HoH under certain conditions to receive "Above the clouds" view.

6. Unlocks special walls ,connectors or rooms conditions.

Example: Watchtower rooms, Zen garden rooms, pool/hot spring rooms, theater rooms, workshop.
Option: Some rooms may give additional effects.

These are most of the ideas I thought up and wish to get out of my head. This id probably nothing but a pipe dream but it would be a wonderful alternative that might even be better and could be expanded into instanced FC airships that could be upgraded and docked at different locations but that rant is for another post.