Young Star
Grandmaster
I am fully aware that it is just "putting lipstick on a pig". The safe zone at the docks was moved to brit bank primarily for appearances too.I think in many places, built houses are just as much problem as empty plots. The difference is that you see an empty plot and think that it is not used - a built house can be just as unused and empty as a empty plot.
It is probably good for the staff to take a day or even just an afternoon to run the map and do some housing cleanup. It is inevitable that the amount of stale houses would become large enough to need some intervention when you have a 3 year old FREE server.