Extremely disheartening news.
Don't get me wrong, still hyped beyond words for the game and in fact, it almost feels embarrassing to complain about this but I do believe, for many of us, this would or could have been an essential part of the RPG experience of living in Night City.
I know I might be representing a minority here, but I absolutely love the ability to choose where you want to live in an open world RPG game and when carefully executed, it can become an extremely satisfying part of the narrative.
We know that to some extent, at least, Cyberpunk 2077 is a rags-to-riches sort of story about V making it to the "major league" so there is a huge difference in terms of what that journey feels like when you go through it living in the same apartment, versus when you know that, if you do well and save up, you will be able to move into a penthouse late game. It provides an extra layer of a realistic sort of motivation and planning. So even if they do implement it later in an expansion, it won't make up for that entirely, because it won't happen along the main quest line.
There's still time and I believe there could be a way to implement this before the release in an economical manner that is not too heavy on developers but still satisfies the many fans who have been fantasizing about their Night City penthouses for almost a year.
Pretty please.
Also, I do encourage everyone that agrees to just post a comment on this thread as CDPR is wonderful to their fans and if there's enough interest expressed here it may not be in vain.