Dreaming of your own slice of Eorzea? Securing a house in Final Fantasy XIV is a coveted achievement that blends patience, strategy, and a hefty pile of gil. From meeting level and rank requirements to navigating the competitive lottery system, this guide unpacks everything you need to claim your personal estate or Free Company headquarters in the bustling world of FFXIV housing. Whether you play on PC, PlayStation, or Xbox, your journey to homeownership starts here.
Before you even bother, though, note that free trial players cannot buy a house.
Below, we detail how to get an apartment and house in FFXIV.
How housing works in FFXIV
Housing in Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) is a feature that allows players to own and customize personal or Free Company estates, providing a unique space for socializing, decorating, and in-game activities like gardening. The housing system includes three main types: personal housing, Free Company estates, and apartments, each with different sizes and costs. Players purchase plots of land in one of five residential districts, each with multiple wards, and must obtain a construction permit to build their house. Due to limited availability, acquiring a house often involves entering a lottery system introduced in patch 6.1, where players bid for plots. Apartments offer a more accessible housing option without outdoor customization but with fewer features. Housing is instanced per server, and only one player or Free Company can own a specific plot at a time, making the market competitive, especially on populated servers.
Once upon a time, housing involved invisible timers and camping out at placards, clicking for hours in hopes you would snipe a plot, but this isn’t the case anymore. Now, if you want a housing plot, you’ll have to enter a lottery system. If you win the lottery, you get your own house to decorate! (More on that below.)
Houses offer a handful of benefits, but you do not need one to play FFXIV. In a house, you can place a personalized chocobo stable in your yard to dye or strengthen your bird, grow rare crops in a garden, and even set up vendor NPCs to sell you basic goods directly from the comfort of your own home.
There are five housing districts you can buy property in:
- The Lavender Beds (Gridania)
- Mist (Limsa Lominsa)
- The Goblet (Ul’dah)
- Shirogane (Kugane)
- Empyreum (Ishgard).
Each district has different visual aesthetics, so you should tour all of the areas to see which one you like the best. If you want to stay in a neighborhood filled with greenery, for instance, The Lavender Beds is probably your ideal spot. If you want an icy winter vibe, though, then you should check out the Empyreum.
Each district has 30 wards, which are effectively just different instances of each other. Each ward looks the same, but it just gives players more plots to attempt to purchase. Each ward has 60 housing plots of various sizes. To save you from the math, that means there are 9,000 plots per server you can try and score.
You can also share ownership of your personal house with your friends, so they can also use your stable, decorate the house, or teleport to it easily.
What to know before buying a house in FFXIV
Before buying a house in FFXIV, there are several key points to consider. First, you must have a character with at least one class at level 50 and be a second lieutenant or higher in a Grand Company to qualify for personal housing. Free Company housing requires the company to be rank 6 or above, with at least four members and 30 days of membership before purchasing a plot. Housing plots are limited and highly competitive, often requiring participation in a lottery system, especially on popular servers. You can only own one personal house and one Free Company estate per character, but you can also own an apartment simultaneously. Prices vary significantly depending on the plot size and location, ranging from affordable apartments to expensive large estates. After purchasing land, you must build a house within 45 days or lose the plot. Additionally, houses and land can be reclaimed if left inactive for extended periods. Finally, relocation options exist but come with item transfer limits, so plan accordingly.
Before you buy a house in FFXIV, you should know that it costs millions of gil for plots of even the smallest size. You should also know that your house will be automatically demolished if you (or your Free Company, if it’s a FC house) does not enter it once every 45 days. If you’re planning on taking an extended break from FFXIV, you may lose your house. If you’re OK with a smaller place to decorate, an apartment may be better suited for your needs.
It’s important to also take a gander at what size house you want. Small-, medium-, and large-sized houses all have different housing layouts in general, and it’s probably worth running into a couple of strangers’ homes to see what it’s like. Small houses only have two floors, medium houses have three, and large houses have three very sprawling floors. Apartments and different-sized houses also have varying furniture limits. Apartments can only hold 100 items, small houses can hold 200, medium houses can hold 300, and large houses can hold 400.
Know that there are lots of small plots to snap up, but medium and large plots are less common and thus have more competition when the lottery for one opens up.
How to get an apartment in FFXIV
To get an apartment in Final Fantasy XIV, you must first reach level 50 with at least one class and achieve the rank of second lieutenant in one of the Grand Companies: the Maelstrom, the Order of the Twin Adder, or the Immortal Flames. Apartments cost 500,000 gil each and are available in apartment buildings located in every residential ward and subdivision. To purchase, visit the apartment complex lobby and speak with the Apartment Caretaker NPC. Each character can own only one apartment, which can be customized with up to 100 furnishings. Apartments include convenient features such as a shared Chocobo Stable, teleport access, and nearby market boards, making them a practical housing option without the upkeep of estates.
To get an apartment, you’ll need to have attained at least second lieutenant rank in your Grand Company. Your apartment will also cost you 500,000 gil. Once you know which housing district you want your apartment in, you can head into the apartment building and talk to the Apartment Caretaker NPC to buy your apartment.
Unlike houses, there are a ton of apartment rooms available. While you may not find one available in the first few wards of your server, you should be able to find a room to purchase quite quickly.
Similar to apartments, if you’re in a Free Company that has a house, you can buy a room or “private chambers” for 300,000 gil by going to the back of the house and clicking on the glowing private chambers entrance. These are functionally the same thing as an apartment, though you won’t have access to a chocobo stable unless your FC placed one outside of the house.
Apartments and private chambers are not subject to automatic demolition, and you cannot share ownership of them.
How to get a house in FFXIV
To get a house in Final Fantasy XIV, you first need to meet certain requirements: your character must be at least level 50 in one class and hold the rank of second lieutenant or higher in a Grand Company. Then, you must find an available plot of land in one of the housing districts-Mist, Lavender Beds, The Goblet, Shirogane, or Empyreum. Housing plots are limited and can be purchased either on a first-come-first-served basis or through a lottery system. To buy, you interact with the placard outside the plot, enter the lottery if applicable, and pay the required gil. After purchasing the land, you must buy a housing permit to build your house on the plot within 45 days, or you risk losing the land. You can also relocate your house to a different plot later, with some restrictions on item transfers. Patience and persistence are key, as competition for housing is fierce.
Individual buyers will need to be at least level 50 and attained at least second lieutenant rank in your Grand Company.
FCs have to be at rank six or higher with four or more members. If you’re buying a house for your FC, you’ll also need the housing permissions and to have been a member of the FC for at least 30 days.
You’ll also need gil to buy a plot. Small plots range from 3-4 million gil, medium-sized plots go for 16-20 million gil, and large-sized plots go for 40-50 million gil.
Once you have all that squared away, you’re ready to try to get a house!
All houses are on a lottery system, and some wards specify what kind of housing you can buy. You can check this info by talking to the NPC who brings you to the housing districts and looking at the emblems at the top. The multiple dots indicate that the ward is for Free Companies and the single person indicates that it’s for individual buyers. Wards can also be set to offer both FC and individual houses, using an emblem that’s a combination of the two of them:
From there, you can put your hat in the lottery for one plot per lottery period. You can do so by interacting with the placard of the plot you want during the entry period for the lottery. You’ll need to pay the gil upfront as a deposit.
After the entry period is over, the results period will begin. Go back to the plot placard to either get your gil back if you didn’t win, or finalize your purchase if you did win!
If you win a plot and you do not claim it during the entry period, then you will lose the plot and it’ll go back into the lottery pool. You will also lose 50% of your deposit.
After you actually win your plot, you’ll have 45 days to buy a housing permit from one of the vendors in the housing wards. If you do not do this within 45 days, you will lose your plot. It costs 450,000 gil for a small plot, 1 million gil for a medium one, and 3 million gil for a large one.
Want to know the secret to winning FFXIV housing lotteries fast
To win FFXIV housing lotteries faster, the key is to focus on plots with fewer bidders and enter your bid late in the lottery period to avoid early competition. Target less popular wards or less scenic plots where demand is lower, increasing your chances. Additionally, consider entering multiple lotteries across different wards to hedge your bets, especially if you have Free Company members helping. Avoid getting emotionally attached to a single plot, as caring less seems to correlate with better luck according to some players’ experiences. Monitoring the number of entries close to the deadline and choosing the plot with the fewest bidders can significantly improve your odds.
How does caring less actually improve my chances in the lottery
Caring less about winning the lottery, including FFXIV housing lotteries, can psychologically improve your experience but does not mathematically increase your chances of winning. The odds in any lottery are fixed and extremely low, unaffected by how much you desire or stress over the outcome. When you care less, you may avoid emotional attachment to specific outcomes, reducing stress and disappointment, which can make the process feel less frustrating and more manageable. This relaxed mindset might help you enter multiple lotteries without getting discouraged, indirectly increasing your overall participation and thus your statistical chances over time. However, the actual probability of winning remains unchanged regardless of your emotional investment.
