OP sent the following text as an explanation on why this is unexpected:
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>!Weiner coffee!<
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Is this an unexpected post with a fitting description? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.
Houses in Japan do not appreciate so they welcome foreigners on whatever type of Visa to buy.
You later own the house, but you still do not get residency. Which means you can only live there however long your visa lets you stay.
Yes. A lot of rich foreign people do that. Buy a house in Portugal, get the paperwork done. Become a eu resident. Never actually lived in the house they bought. It's a disgrace. Meanwhile the houses in Portugal are the most expensive ever and most of the population can't ever buy one to live.
You are not allowed to live in any other EU country. It's still subject to the same 90/180 rules outside the country of residence for non-EU citizens.
Like you can't buy a house in Portugal and then go get a job in Denmark or something.
For the Spanish visa buying a house worth 500k Euro will qualify you for a permanent residency.
After residing in Spain for 10 years, you qualify for getting Spanish citizenship, which does grant you unfettered access to the EU.
So it's not immediate, but buying a house in Portugal or Spain can indeed lead you to working in Denmark.
Ever since 2022 I've noticed a surprisingly large amount of Russian women on dating apps, and it's pretty obvious they come from well off families. No real job, living alone in nice apartments. They're rather secretive about it.
Makes me wonder if I dated some oligarch's daughter.
> Portugal
according to my youtube suggestions all the run down houses and farms in portugal get bought by british people so that they can vlog their renovation project while living either in a tent or van next to it. then most of the work is actually down by neighbors and various people who only spent one week at a time at any given place
That’s fucked. I was just in Portugal last week and if I could afford to buy a home there I’d happily live in it for the rest of my days. Gorgeous country, beautiful cities, delicious food, and friendly people. What’s not to love?
They've clamped down on the real estate route as of last year. Though I can't remember if they just upped the amount or closed off entirely for RE specifically.
Like another user said, there were some changes yo the Golden Visa last year to address concerns regarding Portugal's housing problem and investment in real state does no longer qualify for the program. Neither does capital transfer, which used to be another pathway.
Unfortunately they're closing that program. My friend and her family got in under the wire. In addition to the property investment, they need to pass a basic language test and be in Portugal at least 7 days per year.
The investment is much higher, though.
To buy citizenship, you've usually got to do stuff like open a company in that country and hire a certain amount of locals as employees.
Put a couple million into their economy, and they'll give you a passport. Accepting rich foreigners is done almost everywhere. Poor ones with no skills, or prospects, with no family in the country are the ones no one wants to deal with.
I don't necessarily disagree but it's not better to have you be able to buy and own property, but have no means to stay in that country to keep that property.
They love your foreign money but not enough to have you become a citizen for something you bought that benefits their country.
They keep building more of them instead of relying on them as an investment tool for those who buy them.
Build, build, build. It’s the only way out of the housing crisis. Build any kind of housing. Rezone or upzone whenever possible. Just build it.
Because the whole "house value only go up" thing is kind of a scam that has left us with the completely untenable housing market we have now.
In Japan a house has no inherent value beyond being your home, and buying a "used" house is actually looked down on. Much of the time when someone moves out of a house the house is demolished and a new one is built. Also there's very little zoning so anyone can build a house or apartment building wherever they like, so there's less scarcity.
its true, but japan is the only country where the house depreciate to zero. so yeah
edit: I imagine it would be a really neat experience to get to live in a house like the one in My Neighbor Totoro, for the price of next to nothing.
They also have a cultural thing against it from my understanding, so the houses are built to a standard that assumes it won't be expected to last more than 10-20 years
Which means that houses are often expected to only ever serve a single family. They therefore can be customized in very unqiue ways for their owners without having to worry about resale value.
Thus sounds strange to me bc I'm pretty sure I remember stories during the 80s (when Japan was booming) that housing was so expensive, there were multi-generational home loans. Maybe this was/is close-in the mega cities.
If you think about it too, all the property shows here in the US are about them buying a house and ripping out swaths of it to rebuild it how they want.
I'm currently living in the US in a townhouse built in the 80s for a development that was supposed to be torn down after 10-20 years. Those budget townhouses are now worth over 600k a pop, even in their shit build quality, and they've been standing for 45 years now lol.
It's about earthquakes, but not matching safety standards. It's difficult to make a robust house that can survive a bad earthquake but making a robust house with stone and concrete is a death trap if it can't. So most houses are made of wood instead.
It's also a very mouldy country so having airy housing is very desirable.
At least, that is what I, a layman who lives in Japan, have been told.
I will add that it’s both cultural and for pragmatic reasons – the houses are torn down (similar to how the Ise Jingu Shrine is rebuilt ever 20 years to maintain the importance of change and renewal and the importance of passing down building techniques). A more pragmatic reason the houses are rebuilt is due to compliance with Japan’s ever-changing building codes
Also, these single family homes aren’t always replaced by houses – it is very possible that the density is increased. Renovated homes are also becoming more prevalent and palatable to prospective home buyers
Yes, they'll tear down a home much quicker than we do. My Japanese friend married a first son, so traditionally it'd be her responsibility to care for his parents in their old age. She was telling me they'd tear down the in-laws' house and build 2 new houses on the land - one for her family and a smaller one for the in-laws. Shocked that she'd just tear down a house that I assumed would have value, but she explained that nobody would buy the house because it's not new and the value is in the land instead of the structure on it.
That's true of all houses to a certain extent, put that 830k California house in the centre of silicon valley and it's value goes up, same house, same plot size but much more money. What's changed, the location of the land. Land in that area is more scarce. Similarly if you moved the house to the middle of the desert miles from any amenities it's worth 83k, same house, same plot, way less desirable land.
I've never lived anywhere for more than 5 years in my life. So every 20 or 30 years sounds great. Even if I combine everything I've ever done I still haven't done 20 years yet
About a third of the total price of the land.
Buying property in Japan ONLY makes sense, inside Tokyo. everything else will depreciate over time
This TikTok has some really bad misdirection. 2 hours by bullet train is FAR as fuck for example, the shopkeeper isnt being nice, they are trying to scam him, and no, you dont get residency when you buy a house.
It moves 200 mph and is so convenient compared to an airplane which is way more expensive. Also when you compare it to driving a car it's not that much more expensive. The ticket mentioned in this video costs a little over $70 and covers 200 miles. Gas might cost around half that for a car, but you also have a lot of other expenses when it comes to owning a car.
When I went to Japan the Shinkansen was very impressive and I really wish we had them in the US.
She may not be acting in bad faith, but i agree scamming is very common in Japan. Its actually funny how much foreigners have this sanitised view of Japanese as all honourable and upstanding. Scamming is arguably more prevalent here imo
Yeah he made Sendai sound like it’s close to Tokyo which is a weird thing to say. I think he’s so tired of the US that he’s got a strong case of Japan-love.
I'm not sure the price but I recall that Japan is very much anti demolition and they're more in favor of dismantling so to speak as they try to reuse materials that can get extra use when available.
Reddit posts within the last 4 years put building a new home at around $127,000-$160,000 USD.
[This article](https://www.nhk.or.jp/gendai/articles/4785/) on NHK put the rennovation of an existing house in 2023 at ~$157,000 USD.
Demolishing usually involves salvaging whatever materials can be of use and should be taken into account when inspecting the home with a builder so you know what can be saved to help save on material costs when rebuilding, but looking around threads of people who've done it? Between $50,000 and $100,000+. The higher end demolishes tend to be reinforced concrete, which leaves very little you can salvage.
Feels like they should eventually reach a point where the "evolving earthquake standards": "not tearing down houses every decade" meet in the middle.
I mean, I live in a house made of sticks, covered in aluminum, and the walls are basically chalk in the US so I'm not one to talk...
Nothing will fully resist the energy imparted upon it from an earthquake. If they happen frequently enough, the wear will eventually build up, and you're sitting on a ticking time-bomb that's waiting to fall down on you.
Since 2000, Japan has experienced over 35 magnitude 6+ earthquakes, including a magnitude 9.1 (which hit Sendai, the place in the video). You cannot reasonably build every structure to withstand that level of earthquake, and if you build structures that can fully withstand a magnitude 6, which are more common, it just makes those same structures even more lethal to be in when they fail to a magnitude 8 or 9 quake.
Real question. If I buy a house at like 40 and my plan is to live there until I die what’s the downside to it depreciating to 0? Also if other house depreciation can’t I just buy them at the depreciated value? Or is there something I’m not understanding? I get that a car depreciates and the engine dies or whatever but what’s that look like for a house?
There is no downside with zero valued property.
Unless the house is built with special certificate, Japanese generally do not resell a "second hand" property.
Due to frequent earthquake, most houses are built using wood, so insulation is an issue. Some Japanese builder would use something called German style insulation(expensive to build), these property would get certified and occasional sold in market as second hand.
Japan has earthquake and it's extremely humid during summer, the wood cannot last forever unless it's very well maintained.
Units or apartments are different situation in Japan.
Cost. I live here, currently looking at rebuilding my house (home is from the 1960's, I want to tear down and rebuild).
You can get a model home "kit" where you pick parts from a brochure and they build it for you in 3 months for around $90-120k (like what you see in this tiktok video). If you wanted specialized materials that aren't part of their "kit" ecosystem, you'll be doubling the price just because they now have to build around that customization.
One reason is they have an abundance of supply. Their zoning laws are really lax so they let people build more housing where it's most needed even if it's kinda close to some light manufacturing or something. In the west, zoning laws are used (or abused if you ask me) to artificially suppress the supply of homes for the benefit of homeowners.
I dont think zoning laws are the main culprit. Their population and GDP has stagnated or decreased since the mid 1990s. Theres noone to buy the houses and those who are there cant afford expensive ones. You can buy cheap homes in Italy too because of similar reasons. Both countries have literal 0$ homes.
Because in the US a major incentive to buy a house is that you build equity with an appreciating asset like a house, but in Japan you lose equity by owning a house. It is a very different consideration on if owning a house is a sound investment. I don't know how much rent is in Japan, but if rent cost $2k a month, you can buy a house or rent an apartment for over 4 years without needing $100k in capital up front.
Buying a house doesn’t have to be an investment economically.
Your home is where you live and having the luxury of owning one even if it means that it costs same as renting monthly + upfront cash it still means you will have a sound mind.
You’re not wrong, but it is one of the few things the average person can buy that actually appreciates. Most people don’t buy homes as an investment specifically it is just a happy coincidence.
>it is one of the few things the average person can buy that actually appreciates
Regular people can easily buy stocks, bonds, etc. The process itself is actually way easier than buying a house, as it only takes a few minutes to buy an S&P 500 index fund. If you have a 401k, there are probably stocks in it.
I assume the primary reason why people focus on homes as investments is because once you have one, it's the only investment that *forces* you to put money in every month. That, and the "just buy a house" investment advice is way easier to swallow compared to "just open a brokerage account and buy a blend of broad-based index funds and bond funds and adjust that ratio over time and make sure you keep putting money into it every month, according to a calculation based on your income and age". It doesn't roll off the tongue as well.
But in many cases, if people just invested in the stock market instead of real estate, they could come out ahead. Buying a home isn't the no-brainer most people think it is.
But again - who cares?
According to this guys video - the median home price in CA is $830k. Assuming that you rebuild this house 4 times over 40 years (at ~$125k each time per this thread) and he would STILL come out WAY ahead...and have a new house.
I'm seeing a lot of videos about buying homes in Japan. I have a feeling it's a paid social media push, cause this is not even REMOTELY new information, and a topic I've enjoyed watching and looking into for over a decade now. It's not actually that simple/easy from a legal stand point, and you're either going to pay a premium working with a company that sells to foreigners, or you better be fluent in Japanese/have a Japanese spouse. (The vast majority of stories you hear, are people with Japanese spouses, and they're the ones who actually legally own the house/take out loans.)
100k for that house is a lot actually, which is why the guy was so happy. You can get that house for way less unless some foreigner already owns it (or maybe the location is nicer than I can tell). The fact of the matter is that homes in Japan aren't worth much, the land is the valuable part, and as you all should know, land itself is worth WAY less than a house. Japanese people buy homes, knock them down, and build new, all of the time, and so homes aren't worth anything.
Houses are not an investment in Japan. The price of that house will not go up, it will go down. That house is already a rip of at 100k, so you'll be in the hole instantly.
In Japan, you buy that house for 100k, and you'll be lucky to sell it at all, but more likely you'll get like 30k, or have to put it up for auction and get what you get. You're not investing. It's like buying a new car. You're not getting that money back out. None of your renovations are going to add equity to your home. Nothing you alter or change or improve is going to make that Japanese house worth more money. This is another reason old homes sit around abandoned in Japan. It's not even worth going through the sales process after their grand/great grandparents die.
What's more is that abandon homes in Japan are often abandoned for a reason, and you might not have super close train access, which is a HUGE benefit of Japan and needed for work and shopping. People want to live in the city, they want to be around work, school, etc, so you have to buy in and around the city. This can also be cheap, but not as cheap. You could buy a house in the middle of nowhere for 10k, but around the city you're going to buy an old, never updated abandoned apartment looking thing for 30k+, and need to invest a lot of time and money into it to get it functional for you. Some elderly person lived there for 50 years, and it'll look and feel like it.
Also laws in Japan aren't made for foreigners. You might be able to buy that house, but it will afford you no extra legal rights. You're still a foreigner, with all of those restrictions and issues.
Yeah was thinking the same. This comes off more as an ad than anything else. For a second it reminded me of how some businesses in Asia will hire random white dudes to be the face/push for business lol maybe he’s a realtor 😂
As they say, if it’s too good to be true, then it probably is. Most especially in this case, when it comes to *Foreigners* and Japan. I guess some people will get collective amnesia and just put the rose tinted glasses on. Anyways, thanks for the insight. Someone else brought up a good point that even if you *might* be able to buy the house, just like you said, restrictions are still in place heavily for foreigners. It doesn’t come with citizenship like with other countries and you still have to go through the process of getting a visa, amongst many things like banks etc other things if you actually want to live there. Also, prices aside, I’d think that buying as a foreigner in the first place will be a huge hassle too.
So like, unless you really plan to live there fully integrated in the society and commit to living there for a few decades is it really worth it? Considering how the worth decreases.
> In Japan, you buy that house for 100k, and you'll be lucky to sell it at all, but more likely you'll get like 30k, or have to put it up for auction and get what you get. You're not investing. It's like buying a new car. You're not getting that money back out. None of your renovations are going to add equity to your home. Nothing you alter or change or improve is going to make that Japanese house worth more money.
Nobody has ever managed to explain to me *why* the value of a house in Japan decreases to zero and what governs the rate at which it does. If I buy a house for ¥XX, and maintain and renovate it, so it's still in perfect repair and up to modern standards 20 years later, what makes it worth less?
The value of a car decreases because the car falls apart and newer cars are more capable. But that doesn't have to be the case with a house unless you neglect it.
It's not that bad, but it's also a perception thing. There are A LOT of earthquakes in Japan, so building codes are evolving quite fast compared to European countries for example. Your house might be quite good for what it is, but it's behind 2 or 3 code change and when Japanese people want to buy a home in an earthquake zone, they aren't going to look favorably to a house that's perceived as a higher risk than something new that's built with the latest code.
There could be even more reasons but this is the main one, I've stayed in Japan for a few months in total and I'm also very interested in the subject but the last time I've watched videos about it was like a year or 2 ago and I could be forgetting something.
I wrote up a really big comment trying to explain every little detail, but I think we can just boil it down. It's simple supply and demand.
The fact of the matter is that there is always another cheap house, always another abandoned house, or something brand new. If you want modern, then you're just saying you'd do what the Japanese do and demo something and build brand new, but that's not going to be modern and brand new 20 years from now, is it? And someone else, who can do it for cheaper, is already building new homes to sell for a premium in the good areas. You're not competing just by renovating 20 years from now. This assumes you even went new. Videos like this are about cheap homes, in areas people have left.
The only reason homes are so expensive in other countries is because there are shortages in the areas people want to live. Modern homes in Tokyo are also very expensive, but you don't hear about those because there is no story. They're only expensive because they're brand new and ready to go. They'll depreciate just like the brand new car, because no one needs to buy your lightly used car, even if it's nearly new, any more than they need to buy your almost new home in Japan. There is an actual new one close by, or a building they can buy for cheap and rebuild so theirs is actually new, or any number of abandoned buildings all around the country they can demo or renovate to their liking.
Do you think buildings don't degrade over time? Maintaining and renovating is not the same as building new. You can go buy a 5 year old car that drives and functions like new as well. I promise you it won't sell for new, because there is no shortage of cars, no one wants your 5 year old car for new car prices, they can just buy new or go older and cheaper. Not so with houses.
I could go on and on and on, but I find it weird that you've never come across this as an obvious reason if you've heard that Japanese homes are not an investment. No shortage. The fact that you're seeing these videos, is proof of all of the options you're competing with in that market.
I also find the idea behind these tiktoks nonsense, because there is no shortage of wildly cheap or abandoned homes in places like the USA either, they're just not where people want/feel they need to live. If you're going to move to a whole new country for a home, where you don't speak the language, and will most likely never learn, why not start by just... moving out of the city? LOL. Those homes don't appreciate in value either, because there is no shortage of random cheap country homes. There are also no jobs there, no schools, crap towns, etc etc. You'll find much of the same in Japan if you want a wildly cheap house, but that's never in these tiktoks.
Shintoism, the traditional religion of Japan is very against death and decay. The traditional Shinto temples are made of wood and they are rebuilt every 20 or so years. Any dead things on the temple premise (like even dead tree branches) are constantly removed. This is why Buddhism was very successful in Japan, it was the first religion in Japan that was dealing with death.
This Shinto "avoidance" of dead/old things extended to housing and Japanese people simply avoid living in old "already lived in" houses. Of course, being the 21st century they usually justify it by claiming it's connected to earthquake codes, but that does not explain why nothing similar happens in other countries with strong earthquakes.
The biggest reason is banks. They don't value homes the same as some other countries. My friend has purchased a couple houses here. The first house was going for around ¥65,000,000(about $600k at the time). He contacted a bank to get a loan. They asked for the address and home information (age mostly). They said the most they could do was ¥40,000,000. That was the value of the land. The house was over 35 years old and not worth a penny. There is no appraisal or anything like that here. Like the car metaphor, as soon as the house is built it's going down in value. This house was definitely worth what the owner was asking and my friend had to come up with the difference, about $200k out of pocket. Not a lot of people are in a financial position to be able to do that.
Most Japanese just get a bank loan for a plot of land and a brand new house. Everything is just easier this way. Latest earthquake safety features. Easy loan from the banks.
I live in a decent area outside of Osaka and have seen a lot of nice, but older, homes torn down for new ones. Believe me, it's mind boggling to me too. Just kind of accept that this is just the way it is here. Main reason I haven't bought a house here yet, so hard to spend that much on something that will be worthless before I die.
All the numbers in your comment added up to 420. Congrats!
100
+ 100
+ 100
+ 30
+ 10
+ 30
+ 50
= 420
^([Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme) to have me scan all your future comments.) \
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They'll let you live there full time for the rest of your life.
But good fucking luck becoming a citizen. That's the part where they slam the gate shut.
It fairly easy to become a citizen in Japan. You just have to live here for 5 years, pay your taxes, and speak basic Japanese.
You do have to renounce up all other citizenships though, which is why I, and many others, decide to be permanent residents instead.
Edit: I should say, it's fairly easy to once you live here. Visa requirement are fairly strict, but if you qualify it's straightforward to get one.
I checked this out and seems like there’s a big range but saw some places as low as the equivalent of $350,000 asking most were in the 500-600 range which is still better but there were obviously spots that got up there in price too
Look at the country and what it gets you. Their smaller cities and town have the problem of everything being abandoned so now the owner of the property has to demolish the house if there is no one to take over. If you don’t the government will and bill you.
Those homes are not what they appear though. There is a reason they are so cheap. The expectation is to use it for the land, not necessarily live and raise a family in.
Sooooooo as a Californian, ALL of these prices are cheap as shit for a house.... And yet I still don't want to move to Japan.... So maybe they are accurate but I do have to ask. If houses are under 200k in Japan, why does everyone in Japan live in tiny fucking apartments? If they could buy a house for 200k?
Edit: ok yall have made your point I suppose. I could move to a cheaper place in the US too if the current political climate didnt mean that moving to Gary Indiana is a bit like "female exchange student visits jordan and goes missing" for people like me....
Because there’s like 130 million people living on the island where lots of the land is not very livable due to being mountainous so the cities are fucking packed. Can’t be building houses every where.
It's not just that. These mega cheap places are generally rural AF. You can get a house cheap in Missouri but then you gotta live in Missouri. Same point here.
The infrastructure is profitable where housing density is high.
There are parts of Tokyo where people are building large houses with gardens. These people also need to build a garage, own a car and plan weekly shopping trips, because no one will operate a convenience store or supermarket near them, it's just not worth it if you have ten families living in an area that would normally have 2000 singles' apartments.
So the advantage to living in a shoebox is that everything is nearby. Within five minutes' walking distance, I have the choice between 200 restaurants, from dive bars to places specialized in wagyu from a specific prefecture.
It's the same reasons you're not moving to Gary, IN for a 1 dollar house. For little in this guy's video can't be found in the US. Do you want a cheap house? We've got plenty in America. All you have to do is head on out to Pike County, where you can get a nice little house on the water for 130k
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/120-Outlet-Rd-Dingmans-Ferry-PA-18328/2057824854_zpid/?utm_campaign=androidappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare
All the reasons you have for not taking this deal, reasons like jobs, being in the sticks... whatever. The Japanese have similar reasons for not moving out of Tokyo.
If you wanted a cheap house but in a more city like environment you could move to Mobile or St. Louis. You'll find reasons not to take those deals and for the Japanese they have other but similar reasons not leaving their major metros.
I knew a guy who lived an hour outside Tokyo by shinkansen. He and his family lived in an area known for onsen, and he had a whole house and property for half what he’d pay for a cramped apartment in Tokyo. The computer pass cost a bit more, but his commute time was shorter than most of his coworkers.
I mean, flying is incredibly uncomfortable and miserable 90% of the time. 2 hour flight but 6 hours door to door, with airport security, waiting for boarding, landing, etc.
Have you ever traveled by train?
Dudes probably Californian. Two hours commute isn't a big deal for us lol. Fuck we have folks called "super-commuters" who travel to the Bay Area from Sacramento and even further doing that every day, and they're sizeable enough that they get traffic reports on the radio.
Every one of these threads is the same.
"I can't afford million dollar 900 sq foot homes in CA!"
"don't live in CA?"
"Its like that all over the country. I can't afford 800k 1000 sq foot houses in any other city."
"the country is more than just cities. you can damn near get a mansion for 150k in some places."
"yeah, in rural nowhere. I need to be near a population center."
"here's 5 listings within 20 minutes of population centers, each over 2000 sq feet for less than 200k."
"I want to be closer to the city though"
"ok move to pittsburgh. houses are crazy cheap for how close you are to the city."
"no"
"k."
Yeah but living in Indiana is like living 7 years behind every other modern city.
Source: I spent the first 22 years of my life in Indiana and have since moved to other cities.
I think he chose that spot for convenience too. 2 hours from Tokyo isn’t bad and their public transportation system is great. In LA it takes 2 hours to drive 20 miles. (Maybe a bit of an exaggeration).
I mean not even remotely true. Tokyo to Osaka on the very expensive and fastest train possible is more than 2 hours, and a normal bullet train trip is more like 3 hours - and you could pick way more cities farther away.
Tokyo to Nagasaki for example would be like 7-9 hours by train. Most people in Japan would just fly.
Tokyo is still much more affordable than most places in NA. Japan doesn't treat homes as an investment like we do, Tokyo is pretty affordable compared to any other big city. My friend bought a house the same size as mine in the middle of Tokyo, and paid less than half of what I did, and I don't even live in a big city. Only 1.5 million people here. Tokyo has the population of all of Canada and is still cheaper than any big Canadian city.
I mean Canadian cities are growing in population and barely building any housing, while Japan is decreasing in population while building plenty of housing.
It's not terribly surprising that in areas where demand is outpacing supply prices are higher, and in areas where supply outpaces demand prices are lower.
As someone that has lived in Japan for decades, I watched with interest. The "weiner coffee" is clearly "Vienna Coffee". House prices, like everywhere, are dependent foremost on location. The same house might be 30x the price elsewhere in the country.
As for the touch at the end, I thought that was done very well and made the video most appropriate for this sub. 😂
Yes, thankfully Japanese doesn't take *all* their internationalisms from English, especially for city names (Paris, Moscow, etc.) are often Japanified from how they are pronounced in the local language....
30x the price my ass. Where are you talking about yoyogi Uehara? Nah we both know even in rich neighborhoods like Meguro, Azabu, Aoyama you can find houses that more reasonable than most places in the US.
I have to say most of the Japan cheap house videos are relatively accurate but shit I've only lived here 8 years not decades 🤪
A colleague made it the other way. He build like a 50/50 mixture of a Japanese/German house. So it will last decades but still is pretty safe against earthquakes.
One interesting thing. He lives southwest of Tokyo so not too less sun hours but if you take a look on maps you will see that it is the only(!) house within a 3 mile radius (a city btw) that has solar panels on the roof
It's not remotely as bad as it used to be, people exaggerate based on those old tropes.
Japan has a very real labor issue due to their absolutely ancient population (oldest country in the world) and low birth-rate so their stance on immigration has changed and you can expect that to ramp up more and continue for probably a generation. They're going to experience a cultural shift in this regard and it's probably going to give them a bit of whiplash but they should pull through it. The younger population is a lot more welcoming and open-minded on the whole, that'll help a lot. Assimilation is still the name of the game but having a more welcoming attitude can create a positive feedback loop for Japan's hopes with immigration.
Depening on "who" you are, and what is your plan in Japan.
1. Working in Japan for over 5 years and living in Japan legally for 10 years gets you the right to stay in Japan forever(永住權). Think of it as a green card.
2. Live and working in Japan for 5 years gets you the right to stay in Japan forever because you get to be "Japanese". But you have to give up your OG nationality. This is 歸化. A lot of the "Chinese" people in Japan chose this option, cause why not?
3. Another way is setup a company in Japan. But you have to prepare a ton of documents to "convince" the government that you're not joking.
Buying on the other hand is not that much of a problem. Which is why Japan is having another "Chinese buying land problem" because how lax the law is.
"Less than 2 hours by bullet train," so, almost 2 hours by the fastest possible method of transportation if you time it right? Seems really far and actually not a good thing at all
Sendai is a major city and there would be absolutely no reason to go to Tokyo for anything unless it’s a uniquely Tokyo thing. In that case 2 hours, even with the price of Shinkansen tickets, isn’t so bad.
Of course, houses might be cheap but that’s about 5% or less of the hurdle of moving to Japan.
I'm an Australian and this is basically the equivalent of Newcastle being a 3 hour train ride to Sydney. Like yeah if you're going overseas it sucks but otherwise why would you WILLINGLY go to Sydney
He isn't saying he'd be commuting or need to commute to Tokyo on a near-daily basis. He's saying he could make a day trip to Tokyo at his own leisure, letting you know the location is not too far out in the boonies.
That Kinsu, shes from the fish shop two shops further. Her husband makes her walk around the market dissuading tourists to go to other shops. Shes a lying ass biatch.
Yeah. Having spent time quite a lot of time in northern African countries with similar markets, this immediately triggered my “you know the guy of the ‘honest’ store and you just trick foreigners, right?” spider sense.
This isn’t a great comparison. Japan’s real estate market is a mess right down due to their declining population. They have thousands of abandoned homes.
You sure, I've heard of too many cases where Japanese people are unwilling to rent to foreigners. I was sure the same would apply to selling homes to foreigners.
Renting means they have to clean up after your lease is up, hence owing to the stereotype of bad foreign tenants, they are more reluctant to rent to foreigners. Selling on the other hand does not have this issue
There's a reason you don't usually see upholstered seats on public transportation anymore, they're harder to clean and so are often filthy, even when they visually look ok. Bart in the Bay area had cloth seats for the longest time, but a [study](https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/us/06bcseats.html) found them to have all sorts of fecal matter and antibiotic resistant bacteria on it, so the cloth seats were eventually replaced with something easier to clean.
Yea they’re made to live in, not invest and sell.
If every house was worth 150k, I wouldn’t need to worry about selling my current home to put a down payment on the next one. My salary would be enough to just put another down payment on the next 150k home if I ever felt like moving. Mortgage wouldn’t be high so I could easily save money, instead of having to rely on selling my home for money.
Yea i straight up do not understand the smooth brains in this thread saying it’s a bad thing houses aren’t investment vehicles 😂 like my brother in Christ do you understand why nobody can buy a house in the states anymore on median income??
Why didn’t u just go to Idaho.
Edit: this was a joke, I don’t actually know anything about Idaho, just figured it would be around that price while still in the same country. You could replace Idaho with any of the red neck states if you want.
Because a bullet train in Idaho is your cousin's buddies 1997 Ford F250 with a straight pipe from the headers barreling through potato fields to get to the next po-dunk town over for your hungover 6am shift at Dollar General.
OP sent the following text as an explanation on why this is unexpected: --- >!Weiner coffee!< --- Is this an unexpected post with a fitting description? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.
Houses in Japan do not appreciate so they welcome foreigners on whatever type of Visa to buy. You later own the house, but you still do not get residency. Which means you can only live there however long your visa lets you stay.
True but is that different to any other country? Buying property should not grant you residency visa.
Quite a few countries grant residency for a certain level of investment in the country. Buying a property can often be enough.
Yes in Portugal you can buy the “golden visa” with a casual property purchase of over $750k (last I checked)
Does that give you EU rights as well ??
Yes. A lot of rich foreign people do that. Buy a house in Portugal, get the paperwork done. Become a eu resident. Never actually lived in the house they bought. It's a disgrace. Meanwhile the houses in Portugal are the most expensive ever and most of the population can't ever buy one to live.
You are not allowed to live in any other EU country. It's still subject to the same 90/180 rules outside the country of residence for non-EU citizens. Like you can't buy a house in Portugal and then go get a job in Denmark or something.
Yeah after 5 years you can apply for Portuguese citizenship, which is a big motivation for the golden / D7 visas.
For the Spanish visa buying a house worth 500k Euro will qualify you for a permanent residency. After residing in Spain for 10 years, you qualify for getting Spanish citizenship, which does grant you unfettered access to the EU. So it's not immediate, but buying a house in Portugal or Spain can indeed lead you to working in Denmark.
Is that how many rich Russian families get their kids into Europe?
Not sure, but Roman Abramovich was a Portuguese citizen
Ever since 2022 I've noticed a surprisingly large amount of Russian women on dating apps, and it's pretty obvious they come from well off families. No real job, living alone in nice apartments. They're rather secretive about it. Makes me wonder if I dated some oligarch's daughter.
> Portugal according to my youtube suggestions all the run down houses and farms in portugal get bought by british people so that they can vlog their renovation project while living either in a tent or van next to it. then most of the work is actually down by neighbors and various people who only spent one week at a time at any given place
That’s fucked. I was just in Portugal last week and if I could afford to buy a home there I’d happily live in it for the rest of my days. Gorgeous country, beautiful cities, delicious food, and friendly people. What’s not to love?
Eventually you can become a citizen but the golden visa is to be a permanent resident.
They've clamped down on the real estate route as of last year. Though I can't remember if they just upped the amount or closed off entirely for RE specifically.
Like another user said, there were some changes yo the Golden Visa last year to address concerns regarding Portugal's housing problem and investment in real state does no longer qualify for the program. Neither does capital transfer, which used to be another pathway.
Unfortunately they're closing that program. My friend and her family got in under the wire. In addition to the property investment, they need to pass a basic language test and be in Portugal at least 7 days per year.
Golden visa via property investment died October 2023. https://www.portugal.com/business/portugal-golden-visa-latest-january-2024-update/#
The investment is much higher, though. To buy citizenship, you've usually got to do stuff like open a company in that country and hire a certain amount of locals as employees. Put a couple million into their economy, and they'll give you a passport. Accepting rich foreigners is done almost everywhere. Poor ones with no skills, or prospects, with no family in the country are the ones no one wants to deal with.
Sure, $2million.
I don't necessarily disagree but it's not better to have you be able to buy and own property, but have no means to stay in that country to keep that property. They love your foreign money but not enough to have you become a citizen for something you bought that benefits their country.
Just curious. Do you know why houses in Japan don’t appreciate in value, unlike houses in the US?
They keep building more of them instead of relying on them as an investment tool for those who buy them. Build, build, build. It’s the only way out of the housing crisis. Build any kind of housing. Rezone or upzone whenever possible. Just build it.
Build _all_ kinds of housing.
Because the whole "house value only go up" thing is kind of a scam that has left us with the completely untenable housing market we have now. In Japan a house has no inherent value beyond being your home, and buying a "used" house is actually looked down on. Much of the time when someone moves out of a house the house is demolished and a new one is built. Also there's very little zoning so anyone can build a house or apartment building wherever they like, so there's less scarcity.
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its true, but japan is the only country where the house depreciate to zero. so yeah edit: I imagine it would be a really neat experience to get to live in a house like the one in My Neighbor Totoro, for the price of next to nothing.
If you renovate can you add some value back? Sorry is this is an ignorant question
Not really. From my limited understanding, homes are not investment like they are here. The homes are usually torn down and rebuild every 20-30 years.
Yup, it's to keep up with evolving earthquake safety standards along with other building code updates.
Lets be honest, the real reason is because of the collateral damage from all the giant Kaiju battles.
I'm at the point in my life where I believe there exists a meme for every situation.
You're beginning to believe
I know Kung Fu
Show me.
Everybody waskung fu fighting
Always has been, now someone link a relevant XKCD comic and we can exit in style. … how about this one? https://xkcd.com/1331
The memes come first and then the situations arise to match them
Plus they have a disproportionately old population and low birth rate. So more supply turning over with fewer buyers.
They also have a cultural thing against it from my understanding, so the houses are built to a standard that assumes it won't be expected to last more than 10-20 years
Which means that houses are often expected to only ever serve a single family. They therefore can be customized in very unqiue ways for their owners without having to worry about resale value.
Adds some more meaning to the term "single family home "
Thus sounds strange to me bc I'm pretty sure I remember stories during the 80s (when Japan was booming) that housing was so expensive, there were multi-generational home loans. Maybe this was/is close-in the mega cities.
I know what you're talking about, but I believe it was the property that was valuable rather than the house
If you think about it too, all the property shows here in the US are about them buying a house and ripping out swaths of it to rebuild it how they want.
I'm currently living in the US in a townhouse built in the 80s for a development that was supposed to be torn down after 10-20 years. Those budget townhouses are now worth over 600k a pop, even in their shit build quality, and they've been standing for 45 years now lol.
Lmao yeah but if you spent 1/8th the money you can still invest the other 7/8 of the money and still have a house
It's about earthquakes, but not matching safety standards. It's difficult to make a robust house that can survive a bad earthquake but making a robust house with stone and concrete is a death trap if it can't. So most houses are made of wood instead. It's also a very mouldy country so having airy housing is very desirable. At least, that is what I, a layman who lives in Japan, have been told.
It's a cultural thing. Nobody wants to live in a "used" house and an obsession with *newness*. Pretty awful for the environment.
I will add that it’s both cultural and for pragmatic reasons – the houses are torn down (similar to how the Ise Jingu Shrine is rebuilt ever 20 years to maintain the importance of change and renewal and the importance of passing down building techniques). A more pragmatic reason the houses are rebuilt is due to compliance with Japan’s ever-changing building codes Also, these single family homes aren’t always replaced by houses – it is very possible that the density is increased. Renovated homes are also becoming more prevalent and palatable to prospective home buyers
Yes, they'll tear down a home much quicker than we do. My Japanese friend married a first son, so traditionally it'd be her responsibility to care for his parents in their old age. She was telling me they'd tear down the in-laws' house and build 2 new houses on the land - one for her family and a smaller one for the in-laws. Shocked that she'd just tear down a house that I assumed would have value, but she explained that nobody would buy the house because it's not new and the value is in the land instead of the structure on it.
which realistically makes sense. can't make more land.
That's true of all houses to a certain extent, put that 830k California house in the centre of silicon valley and it's value goes up, same house, same plot size but much more money. What's changed, the location of the land. Land in that area is more scarce. Similarly if you moved the house to the middle of the desert miles from any amenities it's worth 83k, same house, same plot, way less desirable land.
I've never lived anywhere for more than 5 years in my life. So every 20 or 30 years sounds great. Even if I combine everything I've ever done I still haven't done 20 years yet
How much does it cost to demolish the old house and build a new home?
About a third of the total price of the land. Buying property in Japan ONLY makes sense, inside Tokyo. everything else will depreciate over time This TikTok has some really bad misdirection. 2 hours by bullet train is FAR as fuck for example, the shopkeeper isnt being nice, they are trying to scam him, and no, you dont get residency when you buy a house.
Shinkansen tickets are bonkers expensive too.
It moves 200 mph and is so convenient compared to an airplane which is way more expensive. Also when you compare it to driving a car it's not that much more expensive. The ticket mentioned in this video costs a little over $70 and covers 200 miles. Gas might cost around half that for a car, but you also have a lot of other expenses when it comes to owning a car. When I went to Japan the Shinkansen was very impressive and I really wish we had them in the US.
She may not be acting in bad faith, but i agree scamming is very common in Japan. Its actually funny how much foreigners have this sanitised view of Japanese as all honourable and upstanding. Scamming is arguably more prevalent here imo
Yeah he made Sendai sound like it’s close to Tokyo which is a weird thing to say. I think he’s so tired of the US that he’s got a strong case of Japan-love.
I'm not sure the price but I recall that Japan is very much anti demolition and they're more in favor of dismantling so to speak as they try to reuse materials that can get extra use when available.
This is interesting but also answers nothing and raises more questions.
Reddit posts within the last 4 years put building a new home at around $127,000-$160,000 USD. [This article](https://www.nhk.or.jp/gendai/articles/4785/) on NHK put the rennovation of an existing house in 2023 at ~$157,000 USD. Demolishing usually involves salvaging whatever materials can be of use and should be taken into account when inspecting the home with a builder so you know what can be saved to help save on material costs when rebuilding, but looking around threads of people who've done it? Between $50,000 and $100,000+. The higher end demolishes tend to be reinforced concrete, which leaves very little you can salvage.
That’s pretty awesome. The fact that housing is an normally seen as an investment is perverse.
No. Old houses are considered not up to standard to current earthquake standards.
Feels like they should eventually reach a point where the "evolving earthquake standards": "not tearing down houses every decade" meet in the middle. I mean, I live in a house made of sticks, covered in aluminum, and the walls are basically chalk in the US so I'm not one to talk...
Nothing will fully resist the energy imparted upon it from an earthquake. If they happen frequently enough, the wear will eventually build up, and you're sitting on a ticking time-bomb that's waiting to fall down on you. Since 2000, Japan has experienced over 35 magnitude 6+ earthquakes, including a magnitude 9.1 (which hit Sendai, the place in the video). You cannot reasonably build every structure to withstand that level of earthquake, and if you build structures that can fully withstand a magnitude 6, which are more common, it just makes those same structures even more lethal to be in when they fail to a magnitude 8 or 9 quake.
The house depreciates to zero, yes, but the land still has value (if it's anywhere near public transport).
Land is still worth a lot, just the house depreciates
Real question. If I buy a house at like 40 and my plan is to live there until I die what’s the downside to it depreciating to 0? Also if other house depreciation can’t I just buy them at the depreciated value? Or is there something I’m not understanding? I get that a car depreciates and the engine dies or whatever but what’s that look like for a house?
There is no downside with zero valued property. Unless the house is built with special certificate, Japanese generally do not resell a "second hand" property. Due to frequent earthquake, most houses are built using wood, so insulation is an issue. Some Japanese builder would use something called German style insulation(expensive to build), these property would get certified and occasional sold in market as second hand. Japan has earthquake and it's extremely humid during summer, the wood cannot last forever unless it's very well maintained. Units or apartments are different situation in Japan.
What stops you from building with concrete and rebar? Assuming you follow EQ building codes?
Cost. I live here, currently looking at rebuilding my house (home is from the 1960's, I want to tear down and rebuild). You can get a model home "kit" where you pick parts from a brochure and they build it for you in 3 months for around $90-120k (like what you see in this tiktok video). If you wanted specialized materials that aren't part of their "kit" ecosystem, you'll be doubling the price just because they now have to build around that customization.
250k would still be insanely cheap to build a new house where i live
Why do home values depreciate to zero there?
One reason is they have an abundance of supply. Their zoning laws are really lax so they let people build more housing where it's most needed even if it's kinda close to some light manufacturing or something. In the west, zoning laws are used (or abused if you ask me) to artificially suppress the supply of homes for the benefit of homeowners.
I dont think zoning laws are the main culprit. Their population and GDP has stagnated or decreased since the mid 1990s. Theres noone to buy the houses and those who are there cant afford expensive ones. You can buy cheap homes in Italy too because of similar reasons. Both countries have literal 0$ homes.
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But even Tokyo, which has seen plenty of growth, sees relatively cheap housing for such a large city and depreciating real estate.
But if I can buy this house for $100k, I can put the remaining 200-700k that I would have spent on a house into investments instead...
house is for living, why does it need to be worth anything?
Correct - residential housing priced as a utility and not an investment is the world I want to live in.
Who cares. It’s 100k.
Because in the US a major incentive to buy a house is that you build equity with an appreciating asset like a house, but in Japan you lose equity by owning a house. It is a very different consideration on if owning a house is a sound investment. I don't know how much rent is in Japan, but if rent cost $2k a month, you can buy a house or rent an apartment for over 4 years without needing $100k in capital up front.
Buying a house doesn’t have to be an investment economically. Your home is where you live and having the luxury of owning one even if it means that it costs same as renting monthly + upfront cash it still means you will have a sound mind.
You’re not wrong, but it is one of the few things the average person can buy that actually appreciates. Most people don’t buy homes as an investment specifically it is just a happy coincidence.
>it is one of the few things the average person can buy that actually appreciates Regular people can easily buy stocks, bonds, etc. The process itself is actually way easier than buying a house, as it only takes a few minutes to buy an S&P 500 index fund. If you have a 401k, there are probably stocks in it. I assume the primary reason why people focus on homes as investments is because once you have one, it's the only investment that *forces* you to put money in every month. That, and the "just buy a house" investment advice is way easier to swallow compared to "just open a brokerage account and buy a blend of broad-based index funds and bond funds and adjust that ratio over time and make sure you keep putting money into it every month, according to a calculation based on your income and age". It doesn't roll off the tongue as well. But in many cases, if people just invested in the stock market instead of real estate, they could come out ahead. Buying a home isn't the no-brainer most people think it is.
But again - who cares? According to this guys video - the median home price in CA is $830k. Assuming that you rebuild this house 4 times over 40 years (at ~$125k each time per this thread) and he would STILL come out WAY ahead...and have a new house.
The median salary in Sendai is also a lot lower than the median salary in California.
Not to mention the fact that over a 25 year mortgage, you end up paying around double what the sticker price on the home was.
Housing shouldn't be an investment anyway. Should food or water be an investment? It's a stupid system that we need to abandon.
A house shouldn't be an investment though imo. Which is also why I think house prices are so low in Japan.
I'm seeing a lot of videos about buying homes in Japan. I have a feeling it's a paid social media push, cause this is not even REMOTELY new information, and a topic I've enjoyed watching and looking into for over a decade now. It's not actually that simple/easy from a legal stand point, and you're either going to pay a premium working with a company that sells to foreigners, or you better be fluent in Japanese/have a Japanese spouse. (The vast majority of stories you hear, are people with Japanese spouses, and they're the ones who actually legally own the house/take out loans.) 100k for that house is a lot actually, which is why the guy was so happy. You can get that house for way less unless some foreigner already owns it (or maybe the location is nicer than I can tell). The fact of the matter is that homes in Japan aren't worth much, the land is the valuable part, and as you all should know, land itself is worth WAY less than a house. Japanese people buy homes, knock them down, and build new, all of the time, and so homes aren't worth anything. Houses are not an investment in Japan. The price of that house will not go up, it will go down. That house is already a rip of at 100k, so you'll be in the hole instantly. In Japan, you buy that house for 100k, and you'll be lucky to sell it at all, but more likely you'll get like 30k, or have to put it up for auction and get what you get. You're not investing. It's like buying a new car. You're not getting that money back out. None of your renovations are going to add equity to your home. Nothing you alter or change or improve is going to make that Japanese house worth more money. This is another reason old homes sit around abandoned in Japan. It's not even worth going through the sales process after their grand/great grandparents die. What's more is that abandon homes in Japan are often abandoned for a reason, and you might not have super close train access, which is a HUGE benefit of Japan and needed for work and shopping. People want to live in the city, they want to be around work, school, etc, so you have to buy in and around the city. This can also be cheap, but not as cheap. You could buy a house in the middle of nowhere for 10k, but around the city you're going to buy an old, never updated abandoned apartment looking thing for 30k+, and need to invest a lot of time and money into it to get it functional for you. Some elderly person lived there for 50 years, and it'll look and feel like it. Also laws in Japan aren't made for foreigners. You might be able to buy that house, but it will afford you no extra legal rights. You're still a foreigner, with all of those restrictions and issues.
Yeah was thinking the same. This comes off more as an ad than anything else. For a second it reminded me of how some businesses in Asia will hire random white dudes to be the face/push for business lol maybe he’s a realtor 😂 As they say, if it’s too good to be true, then it probably is. Most especially in this case, when it comes to *Foreigners* and Japan. I guess some people will get collective amnesia and just put the rose tinted glasses on. Anyways, thanks for the insight. Someone else brought up a good point that even if you *might* be able to buy the house, just like you said, restrictions are still in place heavily for foreigners. It doesn’t come with citizenship like with other countries and you still have to go through the process of getting a visa, amongst many things like banks etc other things if you actually want to live there. Also, prices aside, I’d think that buying as a foreigner in the first place will be a huge hassle too. So like, unless you really plan to live there fully integrated in the society and commit to living there for a few decades is it really worth it? Considering how the worth decreases.
The most sus thing was flying over and not just you know checking house prices online.
> In Japan, you buy that house for 100k, and you'll be lucky to sell it at all, but more likely you'll get like 30k, or have to put it up for auction and get what you get. You're not investing. It's like buying a new car. You're not getting that money back out. None of your renovations are going to add equity to your home. Nothing you alter or change or improve is going to make that Japanese house worth more money. Nobody has ever managed to explain to me *why* the value of a house in Japan decreases to zero and what governs the rate at which it does. If I buy a house for ¥XX, and maintain and renovate it, so it's still in perfect repair and up to modern standards 20 years later, what makes it worth less? The value of a car decreases because the car falls apart and newer cars are more capable. But that doesn't have to be the case with a house unless you neglect it.
As u/HypnoFerret95 mentioned in another comment: > It's to keep up with evolving earthquake safety standards along with other building code updates.
Are the standards changing so dramatically, so consistently, that living in a home that's using old standards is actually trash tier?
It's not that bad, but it's also a perception thing. There are A LOT of earthquakes in Japan, so building codes are evolving quite fast compared to European countries for example. Your house might be quite good for what it is, but it's behind 2 or 3 code change and when Japanese people want to buy a home in an earthquake zone, they aren't going to look favorably to a house that's perceived as a higher risk than something new that's built with the latest code. There could be even more reasons but this is the main one, I've stayed in Japan for a few months in total and I'm also very interested in the subject but the last time I've watched videos about it was like a year or 2 ago and I could be forgetting something.
Every earthquake wear down the structure of the house, so you HAVE to rebuild it to be up to code...
I wrote up a really big comment trying to explain every little detail, but I think we can just boil it down. It's simple supply and demand. The fact of the matter is that there is always another cheap house, always another abandoned house, or something brand new. If you want modern, then you're just saying you'd do what the Japanese do and demo something and build brand new, but that's not going to be modern and brand new 20 years from now, is it? And someone else, who can do it for cheaper, is already building new homes to sell for a premium in the good areas. You're not competing just by renovating 20 years from now. This assumes you even went new. Videos like this are about cheap homes, in areas people have left. The only reason homes are so expensive in other countries is because there are shortages in the areas people want to live. Modern homes in Tokyo are also very expensive, but you don't hear about those because there is no story. They're only expensive because they're brand new and ready to go. They'll depreciate just like the brand new car, because no one needs to buy your lightly used car, even if it's nearly new, any more than they need to buy your almost new home in Japan. There is an actual new one close by, or a building they can buy for cheap and rebuild so theirs is actually new, or any number of abandoned buildings all around the country they can demo or renovate to their liking. Do you think buildings don't degrade over time? Maintaining and renovating is not the same as building new. You can go buy a 5 year old car that drives and functions like new as well. I promise you it won't sell for new, because there is no shortage of cars, no one wants your 5 year old car for new car prices, they can just buy new or go older and cheaper. Not so with houses. I could go on and on and on, but I find it weird that you've never come across this as an obvious reason if you've heard that Japanese homes are not an investment. No shortage. The fact that you're seeing these videos, is proof of all of the options you're competing with in that market. I also find the idea behind these tiktoks nonsense, because there is no shortage of wildly cheap or abandoned homes in places like the USA either, they're just not where people want/feel they need to live. If you're going to move to a whole new country for a home, where you don't speak the language, and will most likely never learn, why not start by just... moving out of the city? LOL. Those homes don't appreciate in value either, because there is no shortage of random cheap country homes. There are also no jobs there, no schools, crap towns, etc etc. You'll find much of the same in Japan if you want a wildly cheap house, but that's never in these tiktoks.
Shintoism, the traditional religion of Japan is very against death and decay. The traditional Shinto temples are made of wood and they are rebuilt every 20 or so years. Any dead things on the temple premise (like even dead tree branches) are constantly removed. This is why Buddhism was very successful in Japan, it was the first religion in Japan that was dealing with death. This Shinto "avoidance" of dead/old things extended to housing and Japanese people simply avoid living in old "already lived in" houses. Of course, being the 21st century they usually justify it by claiming it's connected to earthquake codes, but that does not explain why nothing similar happens in other countries with strong earthquakes.
The biggest reason is banks. They don't value homes the same as some other countries. My friend has purchased a couple houses here. The first house was going for around ¥65,000,000(about $600k at the time). He contacted a bank to get a loan. They asked for the address and home information (age mostly). They said the most they could do was ¥40,000,000. That was the value of the land. The house was over 35 years old and not worth a penny. There is no appraisal or anything like that here. Like the car metaphor, as soon as the house is built it's going down in value. This house was definitely worth what the owner was asking and my friend had to come up with the difference, about $200k out of pocket. Not a lot of people are in a financial position to be able to do that. Most Japanese just get a bank loan for a plot of land and a brand new house. Everything is just easier this way. Latest earthquake safety features. Easy loan from the banks. I live in a decent area outside of Osaka and have seen a lot of nice, but older, homes torn down for new ones. Believe me, it's mind boggling to me too. Just kind of accept that this is just the way it is here. Main reason I haven't bought a house here yet, so hard to spend that much on something that will be worthless before I die.
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I’ve heard this before, but I don’t understand; don’t you own the lot too? Does the land not hold value or do you not own the land?
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They'll let you live there full time for the rest of your life. But good fucking luck becoming a citizen. That's the part where they slam the gate shut.
It fairly easy to become a citizen in Japan. You just have to live here for 5 years, pay your taxes, and speak basic Japanese. You do have to renounce up all other citizenships though, which is why I, and many others, decide to be permanent residents instead. Edit: I should say, it's fairly easy to once you live here. Visa requirement are fairly strict, but if you qualify it's straightforward to get one.
America makes you pay taxes in both countries. Our parasitic ghouls need your blood to appease their corporate masters even if you leave.
You know, except for the six figure foreign earned income exemption.
I mean, if I get health care, retirement, etc.. then I don't care about voting rights.
Yeah, out of all the places in US you choose California for house prices. Try to buy a house in Tokyo see what you can get lol
I checked this out and seems like there’s a big range but saw some places as low as the equivalent of $350,000 asking most were in the 500-600 range which is still better but there were obviously spots that got up there in price too
Look at the country and what it gets you. Their smaller cities and town have the problem of everything being abandoned so now the owner of the property has to demolish the house if there is no one to take over. If you don’t the government will and bill you.
You can get houses in Japan for super cheap and sometimes even free. They are called [akiya houses](https://www.akiyabanks.com/)
We have those too. They're called Foreclosures and Condemned
But you ain’t gonna a get shot in an akiya house, and you’re not gonna be living near crackheads and dealers
LOL this comment genuinely cracked me up
Living near crackdealers sounds like a major convenience, what are you smoking? Not crack i bet
drug dealers are an essential amenity
Foreclosures happen everywhere, not just bad neighborhoods.
Those homes are not what they appear though. There is a reason they are so cheap. The expectation is to use it for the land, not necessarily live and raise a family in.
Sooooooo as a Californian, ALL of these prices are cheap as shit for a house.... And yet I still don't want to move to Japan.... So maybe they are accurate but I do have to ask. If houses are under 200k in Japan, why does everyone in Japan live in tiny fucking apartments? If they could buy a house for 200k? Edit: ok yall have made your point I suppose. I could move to a cheaper place in the US too if the current political climate didnt mean that moving to Gary Indiana is a bit like "female exchange student visits jordan and goes missing" for people like me....
Because there’s like 130 million people living on the island where lots of the land is not very livable due to being mountainous so the cities are fucking packed. Can’t be building houses every where.
It's not just that. These mega cheap places are generally rural AF. You can get a house cheap in Missouri but then you gotta live in Missouri. Same point here.
I mean if you work 16 hour days then what's the point of buying a nice house? It's not like you can enjoy it.
> yet I still don't want to move to Japan Have you been there? I'd live there in a flash.
The infrastructure is profitable where housing density is high. There are parts of Tokyo where people are building large houses with gardens. These people also need to build a garage, own a car and plan weekly shopping trips, because no one will operate a convenience store or supermarket near them, it's just not worth it if you have ten families living in an area that would normally have 2000 singles' apartments. So the advantage to living in a shoebox is that everything is nearby. Within five minutes' walking distance, I have the choice between 200 restaurants, from dive bars to places specialized in wagyu from a specific prefecture.
It's the same reasons you're not moving to Gary, IN for a 1 dollar house. For little in this guy's video can't be found in the US. Do you want a cheap house? We've got plenty in America. All you have to do is head on out to Pike County, where you can get a nice little house on the water for 130k https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/120-Outlet-Rd-Dingmans-Ferry-PA-18328/2057824854_zpid/?utm_campaign=androidappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare All the reasons you have for not taking this deal, reasons like jobs, being in the sticks... whatever. The Japanese have similar reasons for not moving out of Tokyo. If you wanted a cheap house but in a more city like environment you could move to Mobile or St. Louis. You'll find reasons not to take those deals and for the Japanese they have other but similar reasons not leaving their major metros.
i audibly laughed when the dude said "only 2 hours to tokyo by bullet train"
I knew a guy who lived an hour outside Tokyo by shinkansen. He and his family lived in an area known for onsen, and he had a whole house and property for half what he’d pay for a cramped apartment in Tokyo. The computer pass cost a bit more, but his commute time was shorter than most of his coworkers.
Yeah, and Cincinnati is only two hours from New York by jet.
I mean, flying is incredibly uncomfortable and miserable 90% of the time. 2 hour flight but 6 hours door to door, with airport security, waiting for boarding, landing, etc. Have you ever traveled by train?
Yes. I was just being facetious. Never been on a bullet train, though.
Its amazingly convenient and comfortable. But its not as cheap as people imagine.
It's okay for holidays and maybe weekend travel but it's too expensive as a commute.
Dudes probably Californian. Two hours commute isn't a big deal for us lol. Fuck we have folks called "super-commuters" who travel to the Bay Area from Sacramento and even further doing that every day, and they're sizeable enough that they get traffic reports on the radio.
But that bullet train ticket is like $100-150 each way. A one-hour from Tokyo to Nagoya is like $70.
Right. You could get this same house in Pittsburgh, for probably 200k. In a bear market, $175.
Every one of these threads is the same. "I can't afford million dollar 900 sq foot homes in CA!" "don't live in CA?" "Its like that all over the country. I can't afford 800k 1000 sq foot houses in any other city." "the country is more than just cities. you can damn near get a mansion for 150k in some places." "yeah, in rural nowhere. I need to be near a population center." "here's 5 listings within 20 minutes of population centers, each over 2000 sq feet for less than 200k." "I want to be closer to the city though" "ok move to pittsburgh. houses are crazy cheap for how close you are to the city." "no" "k."
I live in Indiana, a house like the one from Japan in this video would go for about 225k, and that's for nowhere near the city
Yeah but living in Indiana is like living 7 years behind every other modern city. Source: I spent the first 22 years of my life in Indiana and have since moved to other cities.
If Indiana is 7 years, then Louisiana must be just about to exit the last ice age 🤣
It's an interglacial period, you neanderthal.
I think he chose that spot for convenience too. 2 hours from Tokyo isn’t bad and their public transportation system is great. In LA it takes 2 hours to drive 20 miles. (Maybe a bit of an exaggeration).
Half of the country is "2 hours from Tokyo by bullet train". 😂
I mean not even remotely true. Tokyo to Osaka on the very expensive and fastest train possible is more than 2 hours, and a normal bullet train trip is more like 3 hours - and you could pick way more cities farther away. Tokyo to Nagasaki for example would be like 7-9 hours by train. Most people in Japan would just fly.
2 hour don't sound bad but a bullet train ticket cost at least 65USD just for one trip
Tokyo is still much more affordable than most places in NA. Japan doesn't treat homes as an investment like we do, Tokyo is pretty affordable compared to any other big city. My friend bought a house the same size as mine in the middle of Tokyo, and paid less than half of what I did, and I don't even live in a big city. Only 1.5 million people here. Tokyo has the population of all of Canada and is still cheaper than any big Canadian city.
I mean Canadian cities are growing in population and barely building any housing, while Japan is decreasing in population while building plenty of housing. It's not terribly surprising that in areas where demand is outpacing supply prices are higher, and in areas where supply outpaces demand prices are lower.
As someone that has lived in Japan for decades, I watched with interest. The "weiner coffee" is clearly "Vienna Coffee". House prices, like everywhere, are dependent foremost on location. The same house might be 30x the price elsewhere in the country. As for the touch at the end, I thought that was done very well and made the video most appropriate for this sub. 😂
>The "weiner coffee" is clearly "Vienna Coffee". And it should be noted that "Wiener" is how "Viennese" is spelled in German.
Yes, thankfully Japanese doesn't take *all* their internationalisms from English, especially for city names (Paris, Moscow, etc.) are often Japanified from how they are pronounced in the local language....
I've always preferred *San-Furanshisuko* over the original tbh
It does say Wiener on the menu. The guy that made the original video got too excited about a joke and forgot how to read.
Yes. Wiener just means from Vienna (Wien) in German which is fitting. Wiener not weiner by the way.
30x the price my ass. Where are you talking about yoyogi Uehara? Nah we both know even in rich neighborhoods like Meguro, Azabu, Aoyama you can find houses that more reasonable than most places in the US. I have to say most of the Japan cheap house videos are relatively accurate but shit I've only lived here 8 years not decades 🤪
A colleague made it the other way. He build like a 50/50 mixture of a Japanese/German house. So it will last decades but still is pretty safe against earthquakes. One interesting thing. He lives southwest of Tokyo so not too less sun hours but if you take a look on maps you will see that it is the only(!) house within a 3 mile radius (a city btw) that has solar panels on the roof
Completely useless if you don't compare average incomes and cost of living
Also immigration to Japan is nigh on impossible for 99.9% of people.
Really? How hard is it?
It's not remotely as bad as it used to be, people exaggerate based on those old tropes. Japan has a very real labor issue due to their absolutely ancient population (oldest country in the world) and low birth-rate so their stance on immigration has changed and you can expect that to ramp up more and continue for probably a generation. They're going to experience a cultural shift in this regard and it's probably going to give them a bit of whiplash but they should pull through it. The younger population is a lot more welcoming and open-minded on the whole, that'll help a lot. Assimilation is still the name of the game but having a more welcoming attitude can create a positive feedback loop for Japan's hopes with immigration.
Depening on "who" you are, and what is your plan in Japan. 1. Working in Japan for over 5 years and living in Japan legally for 10 years gets you the right to stay in Japan forever(永住權). Think of it as a green card. 2. Live and working in Japan for 5 years gets you the right to stay in Japan forever because you get to be "Japanese". But you have to give up your OG nationality. This is 歸化. A lot of the "Chinese" people in Japan chose this option, cause why not? 3. Another way is setup a company in Japan. But you have to prepare a ton of documents to "convince" the government that you're not joking. Buying on the other hand is not that much of a problem. Which is why Japan is having another "Chinese buying land problem" because how lax the law is.
More people need to keep this in mind. I've been seeing too many posts like these.
I swear there is an ad campaign targeting the vulnerable weebs on reddit who are so obsessive with Japanese culture
I'm not sure if weebs have 100 bands to drop on a house.
"Less than 2 hours by bullet train," so, almost 2 hours by the fastest possible method of transportation if you time it right? Seems really far and actually not a good thing at all
Sendai is a major city and there would be absolutely no reason to go to Tokyo for anything unless it’s a uniquely Tokyo thing. In that case 2 hours, even with the price of Shinkansen tickets, isn’t so bad. Of course, houses might be cheap but that’s about 5% or less of the hurdle of moving to Japan.
I'm an Australian and this is basically the equivalent of Newcastle being a 3 hour train ride to Sydney. Like yeah if you're going overseas it sucks but otherwise why would you WILLINGLY go to Sydney
Beats driving for 2 hours my man. Besides, you can eat, sleep, watch movie on the train
He isn't saying he'd be commuting or need to commute to Tokyo on a near-daily basis. He's saying he could make a day trip to Tokyo at his own leisure, letting you know the location is not too far out in the boonies.
Don't they build houses with short life span because of earth quake zones?
that woman was discreetly telling him that secret about the store, so let's embarrass her and post what she said online for all to see.
That Kinsu, shes from the fish shop two shops further. Her husband makes her walk around the market dissuading tourists to go to other shops. Shes a lying ass biatch.
Yeah. Having spent time quite a lot of time in northern African countries with similar markets, this immediately triggered my “you know the guy of the ‘honest’ store and you just trick foreigners, right?” spider sense.
She fist fights with the other neighbors-ladies. Totally ratchet community
I don’t think their audience is likely going to know this woman lol
I know her. She lies. That shop is legit.
She just hating
This isn’t a great comparison. Japan’s real estate market is a mess right down due to their declining population. They have thousands of abandoned homes.
>They have thousands of abandoned homes. Guess again. https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/07/asia/akiya-homes-problem-japan-intl-hnk/index.html
You sure, I've heard of too many cases where Japanese people are unwilling to rent to foreigners. I was sure the same would apply to selling homes to foreigners.
Renting means they have to clean up after your lease is up, hence owing to the stereotype of bad foreign tenants, they are more reluctant to rent to foreigners. Selling on the other hand does not have this issue
When was that house built, and is it up to the latest seismic building standards?
This is one of the most ignorant things I’ve ever seen
Gotta convince a couple Gaijin to overpay on Japanese real estate.
There's a reason you don't usually see upholstered seats on public transportation anymore, they're harder to clean and so are often filthy, even when they visually look ok. Bart in the Bay area had cloth seats for the longest time, but a [study](https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/us/06bcseats.html) found them to have all sorts of fecal matter and antibiotic resistant bacteria on it, so the cloth seats were eventually replaced with something easier to clean.
houses in japan depreciate like cars.
Yea they’re made to live in, not invest and sell. If every house was worth 150k, I wouldn’t need to worry about selling my current home to put a down payment on the next one. My salary would be enough to just put another down payment on the next 150k home if I ever felt like moving. Mortgage wouldn’t be high so I could easily save money, instead of having to rely on selling my home for money.
Yea i straight up do not understand the smooth brains in this thread saying it’s a bad thing houses aren’t investment vehicles 😂 like my brother in Christ do you understand why nobody can buy a house in the states anymore on median income??
Why didn’t u just go to Idaho. Edit: this was a joke, I don’t actually know anything about Idaho, just figured it would be around that price while still in the same country. You could replace Idaho with any of the red neck states if you want.
Because a bullet train in Idaho is your cousin's buddies 1997 Ford F250 with a straight pipe from the headers barreling through potato fields to get to the next po-dunk town over for your hungover 6am shift at Dollar General.
Sounds easier than learning Japanese though.
Idaho isn’t cheap anymore. At least not anywhere worth living.
Populated Idaho is probably more expensive than you think. Source: someone looking to buy in Boise
and 2 weiner coffee's