Free Houses for Premium Members?

Does anyone but me think this is a bad idea and will decrease the SL builder's customers or put him out of business completely?

The way it is currently set up - no, I don't think it will hurt the builder and rental businesses. The houses are too small, not customizable, and too many restrictions. I think the majority of the people that get them will develop a desire to have their own place that they can actually do something with, then move on out.
There is one subset of the rental biz that will probably be hurt, though. The ones renting small apartments with low prim limits. I know I've sent people to some of these because they only wanted a place to call home, login/out of, and change clothes. They won't care about the restrictions since they don't actually do much with the place anyway. MAYBE it will give them ideas on more use for homes, maybe not. I don't know how much of the rental property biz is in this kind of small apartment stuff, though.

What Lissa said.

If I sold prefab houses for the starter-home market, I'd be far more worried about all the free ones available on xStreet (though not for much longer, I guess). I've been looking there for stuff I can offer to prospective tenants -- I'm going to target people who've got into the idea of having a place of their own via the Free Homes thing but who're looking for rather more space and freedom than LL are offering ("tier down and give your money to me instead... that way you get a much nicer place and more prims for hardly any extra outlay" and I've been very pleasantly surprised at what I can get for free (or at least under L$100).

i make a better house ..plus give them away ..so i think i'm safe

I do think it will affect the rental business because I think that many people will stay in the houses for quite a long time. My initial opinion was that LL is going into competition in the rental market, and I haven't changed it.

On the other hand, I think that it's excellent for new premium accounts and will encourage people to become premium members. I imagine me signing up for SL as a new user - I would find it to be *very* good.

I have a low opinion of LL management, but I can't really fault them with this move. I think it makes SL *much* more attractive.

I basically agree.

I just hope that it's not part of the LL plan to make those housing areas basically unlivable by tacitly encouraging the use of ban lines, from the premise that people inconvenienced by the ban lines will respond by paying LL more money (by going to regular Mainland and buying a larger parcel and paying tier).

If that is their reasoning, I think it's mistaken. People are much more likely to respond by leaving SL in disgust---and telling all their friends about their awful experience.

Are ban lines allowed there? At least walking will be possible if they are - unlike mainland, where walking can be near impossible.

Exactly.

I haven't been there since the first week that they were letting people move in, but at that time virtually every occupied parcel had ban lines up.

(And despite the fact that the About Land window for those parcels is quite different--more restrictive--than regular Mainland About Land windows, Ban Lines were very definitely permitted.)

Streuth!

I popped over twice and I don't recall any. I suppose we'll suck it and see

I've been building low prim, starter houses for over three years.

I WAS[/] a low prim, starter-house builder for over three years.

I just need the enthusiasm to move onto something new as sales will have dropped below tier next month.