Getting a house has always been an awful experience in FFXIV, but with the addition of the new Empyreum housing area in Ishgard, the developers added a couple of changes to the housing system. Our FF14 housing guide explains how to sign up for housing lotteries and hopefully get a house in the new area.
Update (May 16): We’ve updated this guide with new information now that housing issues have been fixed.
What is different with FFXIV housing?
Before patch 6.1, all new housing areas were first-come first-served. Any housing plots that were previously occupied required new home buyers to sit and wait for an invisible timer to expire before you could actually buy the plot. This means you would have to sit at a lot for a random amount of time (which could take over 20 hours, if you were unlucky) while clicking a placard to try to buy the house.
According to Square Enix, “At the release of Patch 6.1, all land available for purchase will be subject to the lottery system.” In the future, some wards may still use the first-come, first-served (old) system, but for now, everything will be using a lottery.
How does the lottery system work?
Each character can select one house for which to join the lottery. Houses will take lottery entries for five days. After that, a winner will be picked, and the winner will have four days to claim the plot. If it goes unclaimed, a new lottery will begin for that plot.
To enter the lottery, click the placard in front of the empty plot you want to sign up for. You need to pay the full price of the housing plot up front, but it will be returned to you if you don’t get the land. You’ll need to revisit the same placard to get your refund.
If you win the lottery but do not claim the plot after winning, you’ll lose 50% of the deposited gil.
How do I get a house for myself?
Head to the Empyreum housing ward in Ishgard with the amount of gil your desired house size costs. (Smalls cost 3-4 million gil, mediums cost 16-20 million, and larges cost 40-50 million.) Click the placard of the lot you want, deposit the gil, and pray for the best.
To qualify for a house, you need the following:
- At least one class must to be level 50 or higher
- Grand Company rank second lieutenant or higher
How do I get a house for my Free Company?
To get a house for a Free Company, it’s pretty much the same thing. Click the placard at the desired lot to sign up for the lottery. Note that you can only enter one housing lottery at a time, so if you’re signed up for a personal house, you can’t sign up again for a Free Company house.
Each member of a Free Company can sign up for the lottery as long as they meet the requirements. This means your FC can have several entries on one lot if your FC mates all apply for the same lot.
To qualify for the Free Company housing lottery, you need the following:
- Your Free Company must be at least rank 6.
- Your FC has to have at least 4 members.
- You need the permission within your FC to buy land.
- You need to be in the FC for at least 30 days.
What about housing outside of Ishgard?
Many players who have homes in other areas will likely enter the housing lotteries in the Empyrium to get better spots or bigger houses, so this means that lots of housing plots in the other areas will open up after the first lottery period ends.
Square Enix has confirmed to us via email that all plots will use the lottery system in patch 6.1 until further announced, even if they open via relocation.
That being said, after the first nine-day lottery period ends, a new one will begin.
The next lottery will start on May 26 and continue the nine-day cycle, where yet another lottery should start on June 4.
What big problem happened during the first lottery?
A ton of houses were able to successfully use the lottery system, leading to purchased plots. However, a bunch of them also said that the winning number for the lottery was 0, a number that nobody was assigned. This means that a bunch of plots bugged out and nobody was able to win them, even if they were the only player who had a lottery entry on that plot.
According to Square Enix, the lottery worked as intended, but the results were not displayed properly. The servers still had the lottery data, and Square Enix drew numbers from the first set of lottery pools again after a maintenance period.
