Take in mind this is just MY idea, feel free to agree or dislike, or even come up with other ideas.

First i want to say that my main idea is from "VAnguard-Saga of heros" this is with out a soubt the best system out there (that fits TESO lore).

The idea:

Not instanced housing...."WHAT..not possible and nooo only instanced works in a AAA mmo" - i hear you say.

The idea is that selected parts of tamriel has land you can buy, where a group of houses are collected in a small area. These plot groups are scattered around Tamriel. they are not cheap so you can’t get a house as lvl 10 unless you have a rich friend.

"but there is not land enough for something like that"...i hear you say

This could be done in several ways:
1: A small island of the coast
2: Some of the small towns we know from Morrowind, Oblivion or Skyrim that are not yet build in TESO, they could be build by players..this would be a cool way to make a player feel like he/she is part of the lore and story.

now...after you buy the land..the land is yours ( think about it...owning a piece of Tamriel..how cool is that). you can wait with building a house, but you have to pay tax/upkeep each week/month, so there will be no ghost houses out there, and you can only pay x weeks in advance. You can then select different types of houses that are different if you are in Morrowind or if its high rock or skyrim. you will need wood/stone ect. to build your house plus tools, so a good money sink here.

You can deco these houses as you see fit with furniture or loot (normal housing system)...but please..not like Lotro..no fixed anchors, so you only can place furniture at fixed spots...we want to place/rotate/raise/lower and so on.

You can then open up a shop where you can show of crafting items that you sell at your own boot, or have crafting stations in the cellar or back yard.

The rest is normal housing stuff like other ..but few...mmo's

But all in all...the idea of owning land in Tamriel, being part of the lore, able to ride through a town and point at a house and say...i live there.....uhuhhhhuhhhhh.

Soo...hope this could give a small idea of how i think housing should be done.

It was done in vanguard, so we know it is possible.

I think they need to combine this idea with instancing, because there will be too many houses to fit no matter how cleverly done you think it can be.

Each town/city/village will have a selection of houses for sale, assuming you have done the quests to unlock them and anyone can buy any of those houses, but the house interiors will have to be instanced. I don't see any getting away from that.