One of Final Fantasy XIV's many draws has been its housing system, and in patch 6.0 the new Ishgard Empyreum district will be added, as well as a lottery system for obtaining the houses. In FFXIV, houses can offer many great tools to users. Whether an apartment or house, players have various outlets for self-expression. Throughout Eorzea, players can gather furnishing to decorate their homes. Some benefits to housing include gardening, training dummies, and access to Chocobo Stables to raise the Chocobo companion.
Unfortunately, owning a home is not as easy as having enough money for the purchase. Game director Naoki Yoshida and the rest of the development team are trying to facilitate the housing process in two parts: the addition of the Empyreum district and the implementation of a lottery system. Since all land is usually purchased, the only way to get a plot is to wait for an opportunity to become available. Whenever a house is demolished, a random timer that ends anytime from 30 minutes to 24 hours starts before the land can be bought. The housing market in FFXIV is very crowded, so this causes players to sit outside the plot, clicking to refresh, and hoping they can beat everyone else to purchase the land.
According to the Final Fantasy XIV Census conducted in April 2020, the most populated American server, Malboro, had 114,208 characters created. Currently, there are only 17, 280 apartments and 5,760 houses per server. The requirements for buying land and building a house in FFXIV are: Players must have leveled a class to level 50 and obtained a rank of second lieutenant in a Grand Company. Hopefully, FFXIV's 6.0 patch will alleviate some of this stress for players.
FFXIV's Empyreum & Lottery System Should Help The Crowded Housing Market
FFXIV's fifth residential district, Empyreum, will be added in Endwalker. The new area will be designed based on the Firmament in Ishgard. The number of houses that can possibly be built total 1,140. While the ward will be released, players can only tour the Empyreum before land is made available for purchase in patch 6.1. To access the new zone, an Aethernet crystal needs to be accessed anywhere inside of Ishgard. At the same time, a new way to acquire land will also be implemented.
For the lottery system in FFXIV, players can enter to purchase private property for themselves or for their Free Company (FC). When purchasing a private plot, the requirements are the same as purchasing land currently. To purchase a plot for an FC, however, players must have permission to buy land, the Free Company must have at least four members and the FC must be Rank 6 or above. The schedule will be shared across all worlds and districts after it goes live in FFXIV's Endwalker content. The lottery period will occur over several days n which players can view the plot's placard and get a number for one spot in each lottery. The full price must be paid and cannot be withdrawn. For a limited time, unsuccessful players can get a full refund and winners can claim their land. If not claimed, half the purchase price of the winners will be lost. Along with the rollout of the lottery and Ishgard Empyreum housing district, a couple more alterations will be made to the housing system.
New FC members can no longer be given permission to purchase land and can't be made FC Masters after the update. Land devaluation will also be removed from Final Fantasy XIV. The development team is constantly looking at new ways to improve the game for all players, and these are just a few modifications to one aspect of the game in 2022.
Source: FFXIV Census