The Final Fantasy XIV housing market is a bit like the real-world U.S. market right now: lots of demand and not nearly enough available supply. The Square Enix MMORPG has had a housing problem for years, with new plots selling within seconds of going up for sale.

That's not to mention how expensive FFXIV's housing is; buying one is only really feasible for Free Companies and players with an absurd amount of gil. As more and more players flock to Final Fantasy XIV, the number of houses available per player gets lower, even with smaller housing options added by the developer.

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It's clear the game has started cracking under the stress of its player numbers. The digital version of FFXIV somehow sold out on Square Enix's website, and director Naoki Yoshida recently addressed server congestion, even seeking fan help by asking them to avoid character creation at peak congestion times. As the server load continues to increase, more questions arise, including how the development team will address the housing situation with all these new players.

New Worlds Could Help FFXIV's Housing Crisis

FFXIV Housing Plots

There's likely no way for Square Enix to fully meet the demand for housing in FFXIV. There are currently four housing locations in the game: The Mists in La Noscea, The Lavender Beds in The Black Shroud, The Goblet in Thanalan, and Shirogane in Hingashi. In total, these contain 5,760 housing plots per server - a fraction of the players on each one. If a player doesn't access their FFXIV housing plot for an extended period, it will be reclaimed, the house demolished, and the plot put back up for sale. But when this happens, there's no smooth system for getting it into the hands of the next buyer. The plot gets a countdown to its sale period, requiring players to camp at its sign and spam the interact button to try and buy it when it pops up.

As announced at the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest, a new data center will be opening in Oceania, giving players in Australia and New Zealand new, more stable servers to join. Not only will this help improve connectivity for players in those areas, but it could also help alleviate server congestion on the other data centers, as players in Oceania can now move from the North American and European data centers to the new one. This, in turn, means more overall housing plots available across all servers and data centers.

None of this will be a quick process, however, and it's likely going to be a while before Final Fantasy XIV receives any new servers outside of Oceania. The Oceania data center is planned to go up "sometime" around the release of 6.0 and the Endwalker expansion, according to the Final Fantasy XIV website, which also says Square Enix will "then work to have new servers or data centers prepared for 7.0." Being generous with the timeline, that means new servers will likely arrive around the end of 2022, at the earliest.

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As noted in Yoshida's post, a few major issues have prevented the team from adding extra servers by now. The COVID-19 pandemic, of course, restricted travel, preventing the server infrastructure team from doing the actual construction of anything. At the same time, a global semiconductor shortage has made getting the parts for servers a problem. Still, it's clear the FFXIV team has plans for adding extra servers, eventually meaning more housing plots and options available.

For new players, it might be frustrating, but housing will eventually become at least somewhat more available to anyone who sticks with Final Fantasy XIV long-term. Patch 6.1 will add a new housing area, Ishgard, as well. But while eager homeowners await new servers, they'll just need to follow some of the real estate tips laid out by fans on Reddit.

Next: FFXIV: Endwalker’s New Sage Class Explained