Due to the devastation from Hurricane Helene in North America, and in particular, the United States, the Final Fantasy XIV development team has decided to pause automatic housing demolition for now.
Auto-demolition is now suspended on all servers located on the Aether, Crystal, Dynamis, and Primal Data Centers. The counters have stopped for now and if your estate or land is currently in the process of Auto-demolition, you can actually cancel the process by entering the estate or building one on your land.
The team has done this before after a number of natural disasters and other situations (including the Covid-19 pandemic). Player housing is one of Final Fantasy XIV’s most sought after features, with the team having to institute a lottery-only system and many people still never getting a chance at a housing plot after years. With such a hot commodity, it makes sense that the team would want to make sure that players wouldn't have to worry about the status of their in-game homes. Plus, coming back to your in-game estate might even make you feel a little better if you’re one of those who faced issues due to the weather.
As for how long the pause will last, the team will be keeping an eye on the situation over the next several days. While the damage from the hurricane was mostly concentrated across a few US states, there are still many without power (including some family friends) or without safe passage to their homes. The FF14 team will announce a resumption date after their assessment.