Players whose ranks will drop as a result of the merged servers will be compensated with free equipment, while houses will be made available for everyone to purchase after one or two weeks of waiting so that everyone has an equal shot at getting a new house. Faction balance will remain roughly the same overall, although some merged servers may experience a slight shift. The hope, as always, is that the influx of new people to play alongside will offset the inevitable irritation of dealing with the usual server merge hassles.
Source: Official Site (EU)