With the content patch 4.2 of Final Fantasy XIV, Square Enix aims to tackle the crisis concerning housing in their flagship MMORPG. This has now led to a surge in the housing market. Some real estate sharks may have panicked.
Strict rules on buying and clearing properties are set to prevent the scarce houses in Final Fantasy XIV from being resold at inflated prices in the future. When a new housing area is implemented, real estate professionals buy properties and resell them at a significant markup.
This will soon no longer be possible.
However, there were some ambiguities in the regulations that sparked heated discussions in the community and a sudden increase in house sales.
Will players be punished retrospectively?
Primarily, players have been wondering what will happen to accounts that own more than just one private or guild house, thus violating the new regulations.
Will they lose their houses?
In the official summary of the producer’s letter, where the rule changes were announced, there was no answer to this question.
Increase in house sales on Reddit
SE’s silence had an interesting side effect. The subreddit /ffxihousingmarket has seen a threefold increase in sales listings per day over the past four days.
This is likely due to two reasons:
- On one hand, patch 4.2 prevents the “flipping” of houses. Therefore, agents need to offload their inventory before 4.2 launches. Otherwise, they will be left with dead capital.
- On the other hand, this wave could be a panic sell-off. Players with many properties fear losing their excess houses with the launch of patch 4.2. They fear expropriation.
However, as it is not allowed in FFXIV to advertise the sale of properties through the group search in-game, the selling frenzy has been moved to an external platform.
Community representative clarifies the situation
To put an end to the debates in the official forums and on Reddit, community representative Clément “Kaposhipi” Ruggeri clarified the situation in his post:
Thank you for your feedback regarding the changes to the private housing system.
I have an update for you regarding your question about what will happen to the housing of players who own more than one private house! It was verbally mentioned in the producer’s letter, but players who own more than one private home will NOT lose their homes after patch 4.2!I hope this information helps you!
Opinions in the community are divided
On one hand, many believe it is unfair to punish players for violating a rule that did not exist “at the time of the offense.”.
On the other hand, many accuse Square Enix of lacking consistency at this point. Especially in extreme cases, when someone owns not one, not three, but a total of 28 houses, some might wish for tougher measures up to expropriation.
However, owners can definitely breathe a sigh of relief. They will be able to keep their property.
To read how bad the housing situation was so far, you can check out our article on it:
Housing in Final Fantasy XIV out of control – 1 billion Gil per house?
