On the bathroom situation- for the Americans out there, he means one bath/shower, not one toilet. The typical Japanese single family house built these days are two story, with 3 bedrooms, 2 toilets and one bathtub/shower. The bathtub/shower is almost always downstairs, with a separate toilet room on each floor.
There's already easy professional terminology to explain this. A half-bath is one with only a toilet and sink. So it's usually like "2 and a half bathrooms" in listings. Not sure why he didn't just say that
@@busti4552 Have you never lived with a female, even your own mother? Sure men without OCD(not my brother) can shower, shit, and brush their teeth in 15 minutes. But imagine you need to BE somewhere and you have to wait for your mom and your wife to shower and all for 1 hour each first. Good luck not going insane after a few months of that brah!!
@@parasitius I am from Germany and here most rental flats have a single bathroom that combines shower, sink, toilet and laundry into one room. I never saw it as an issue. I can hold my pee for an hour or so if it is necessary.
Another reason for the extremely cheapo building materials is that houses aren't investment tools for families the way they are in North America. There just isn't that much crazy demand to grab a detached home ASAP since rents are reasonable and it's socially acceptable for married couples to move in with elderly parents. Because of that there's no guarantee that the house is going to increase in value 30 years after you buy it, nor that you'll be able to use mortgage refinancing and home equity lines of credit to use your house like a credit card. Homes really are just somewhere to plant your family's butts down, and if it's just an expense then you're going to want to make it as cheap as possible.
They decrease in value when they age. My uncle had a babyboomer house rebuilt in the 70s, he could spend 200K to renovate it and it'd still be a tear down, or he could rebuild for like 300K and he could get something for it.
buildings in japan are always "temporary" thing. they are not expected to last no more than 30-40 years. and taxed accordingly. there are not much reason(and incentive ) to keep old house and building for long time. the japanese government promote new building because newer building much more earthquake and fire resistant.
All Buildings are largely "temporary". That's how we thought of buildings for thousands of years. The Colosseum for example was at various times an arena, a theater, a church, cemetary, an apartment/workshops, a castle, and a quarry. Nowadays in the United States, we consider everything to be somehow permanent and demand that even how we use buildings to be permanent. You have a house? You want to convert it to a shop? well fuck you. We have a shit ton of unused office space since covid but, we can't convert them to apartments because they are zoned for office space. The Real Estate market in the US is weirdly like a planned market, everything is directed by the municipal government. @@fffwe3876
Good info. Our experience designing and building a custom home is pretty much what Alex talks about. Having looked at many pre-owned and new open houses, the average house in Japan is indeed built of low quality materials and terrible design, yet our custom house with triple pane windows, large open rooms, big solar system etc... is significantly less expensive than we would have had to pay in the U.S.
Wow this is great stuff. I’m just discovering your podcast and it’s honestly refreshing to hear mature discussions between people who obviously love Japan but don’t ignore the harsh realities of living here. There are too many influencers out there that glamorize japan instead of focusing on both the positive and negative aspects.
I’m moving closer to the centre of Tokyo now and choosing a rental so this is why the algorithm recommended this video. Very nice and interesting. 20 years in Japan for me (mostly not by choice 🤪- my kids are here etc) but making do and making the best of it. You are right, the best thing about Japan is how everything kind of works.
What makes Japan cheap, especially for people that qualify for a bank loan... the interest rates. You can get loans at 0.15%.... basically free money. An expensive home loan would be 0.75%. I've lived and worked in Japan since 1982.... even with rates as low as they are... buying property in Japan is not a good investment. When you buy a property in Japan... it should be about a place to live and enjoy life, not about making money off of it, because you will not.
And if enough foreign investors try to profit and price out locals, they would probably find it much easier to ban foreign ownership. If real estate investors want to abuse Japanese hospitality, and price out locals, do not expect a good result.
It’s really cheap there too, I haven’t looked in like middle of Tokyo or anything like that but anywhere else it’s cheap. Transit all over the place not like that in USA. Everyone here is greedy, every business the cost of living is terrible here I want out so bad. Also Japanese culture and standards is pretty much as good as it gets, America has none. Sucks you really can’t live there long term or hard to do but even a few months at a time I would be happy, rent is so cheap better off just doing that and going to Indonesia or something similar rest of the time. Western countries are dying and waste of money and to much stress everyone should leave, no one should tell you where you can live and borders really shouldn’t be a thing but that’s another discussion. People who DESERVE to move and can contribute and be a good citizen to a foreign country should be allowed to live there, not like USA getting flooded that’s different there is no plan here for most of these people this country will collapse. But a place like Japan needs people younger people they shouldn’t be so strict, let foreigners buy up the akitas only can help, bring foreign money in I don’t get the stubborness of certain countries but Japan is well run and priced good (even to cheap I argue) so I can’t criticize but aging population needs to be addressed.
I think people commenting don't realize that buying a house in japan for renting investment is not targetted at locals. You target tourists that would pay $200 a night. Easy money.
Recent rise in crime for these cheap houses in rural areas. Vietnamese criminals have been ransacking these houses and even tieing up elderly residents. It's not safe to buy rural houses in japan.
@@Port712 I own 17 houses now. :) How did I do that? I used the money I made off the others etc to buy more. And prices have already gone up. You are basing your info off of propaganda and clickbait article...I am basing mine off of reality, results and experience.
I moved out from Warsaw, cause it was eating 3/4 of my salary for 34m2 and was threating to grab 4/5 with the inflation spike - I am earning somewhere between the median and the average wage depending on the exact moment so it was a shocker... Tokyo doesn't sound "cheap", but it definitely sounds a little more manageable for an average corporate worker - so it has me interested, even if the cost would be the same nominally, but in perspective... ;)
There is no natural housing shortage in the USA. Its all manufactured by zoning laws, parking requirements, minimum lot sizes, set backs, height restrictions, HOAs, permitting processes, growth boundaries, huge car based infrastructure projects, Federal protected lands, etc etc etc.
@@Basta11 US takes more than 1 million immigrants per year plus illegal immigration. That puts continual pressure on housing. How is that hard to understand?
@@HairyPixels more housing is easy to make. These immigrants work hard and earn. Plenty of money to be made providing for their needs. The difficult part is the politics. Again, all the government regulations aimed to limit housing. Remove those, and you’ll have a construction boom, using labor from those immigrants.
4:36 I'm glad TP clarified that, mainly because i wasn't 100% sure myself even after reading a few things on it. Already licensed in my state, but have been looking into the possibility of selling property in Japan.
You plan to sell only to those who plan to live there full time? I don't think japanese want foreign owners or investors pricing them out of their communities.
I think people commenting don't realize that buying a house in japan for renting investment is not targetted at locals. You target tourists that would pay $200 a night. Easy money.
Japan is the safest country I have ever been to, very similar to Taiwan, almost no crime. At Starbucks in BANGKOK college students leave their laptops and wander around the mall and return 15 minutes later… and nobody took it.
Then dont buy propety there unless you want to live there is my advice. They dont need land values being artificially inflated by real estate investors and pushing people into crime to make ends meet. Just my opinion.
Reason is pretty obvious to me. Strict on crime and living costs are affordable for locals. But i would never leave my valuables out in any city with a housing crisis, too many desperate people who are struggling to make ends meet.
Thank you so much for this video! As an American beginning to do research in an attempt to understand what it would take to move to Japan, this is super helpful. 🙏
i think the reason almost all japanese houses have 1 bath and its almost always on the ground floor is because for many years they used to have wood fired bath tub water heaters. I've been shopping for a house in osaka for over a year and have seen a lot of house listings and its rare to have even a toilet on the floor where the bedrooms are. This is a major pet peeve of mine because in the middle of the night you have to navigate the trecherously steep stairs half asleep to use the toilet. staircases in 3 story houses are the most hideous things i've ever seen in a house. They remind me of the stairs in the old kyoto temples. They're more like a fixed ladder
Remimnds me of what happen in Portugal when they had a glut of empty houses and condos and the govt promoted residency for foreigners to buy it, but it eventually causes housing shortages and rent spirial upward so Portugees protest. So dont expect smooth sailing to own a foreingn homes since govt can change the tax rule anytime.
I know some people from that general area. One of them confirmed foreign investors made portugal unaffordable for many locals. Japan is an island nation and its government is very strict on immigration. At any moment they could change the rules if citizens started complaining. Just what i read.
Been doing my research on Japanese real estate for some time now. It's just such a unique market - hard for me to wrap my head around. This was a really great listen, by the way! Thanks for offering up your insight into housing in Japan.
yeah even my friend who is part Japanese and has relatives who still live in Japan had a hard time getting an apartment. In the end his aunt whose is a Japanese citizen had to vouch for him to secure an apartment. Admittedly he was trying to avoid the "foreigner" apartments.
When I was living in Tokyo, through my colleagues at an investment bank, I heard of a real estate agent that speaks English and specialises in no-key money mansions. She also didn't charge a fee, She got the 1 month commission from the company renting the place and waived the commission from the client (she focused on volume). It was amazing because you normally have to pay a one month renewal fee every two years anyway. Because of that I would move every two years, avoid the one-month renewal and transfer the deposit fee (although, you don't always get it all back). It meant I was able to explore many different neighbourhoods in Tokyo.
YT rec strikes again. Insta-sub for the channel. Interesting things about zoning in JPN. I vaguely remember reading about the residential zoning a few years back, but that was a great refresher. interesting things about rehab permitting and such. I was looking at housing in TYO and found it *somewhat reasonable* outside central TYO. Even Sapporo was fairly affordable.
@57:47 yes you can negotiate. The response maybe a no but with many akiya families want them gone to avoid taxes. Best example I've seen was saying up front you only have XXX JPY and that's it. Seller can decide.
@jimbojimbo6873That and I don't think they would have the slightest hesitation to ban foreign ownership of homes if they started to price out local residents or speculate on property markets in a way that hurt locals.
People always talk about how great Japanese public transit is. After visiting what makes Japanese public so good compared with say Europe or even some US cities is that it is filled with Japanese people. So no one doing pullups on the train, no one singing rudely, no one shitting on the floor while claiming to be the reincarnation of Jesus the Christ. Like you see and would see in the US.
Think Alex was pretty much spot on with everything here. We built our own place - planning took about 6 months and then they had it built in 4. Ours is double glazed throughout with the entire roof as a roof balcony - we have an outdoor sofa, tables and BBQ up there! Building is superbly put together, you can't fault any of it, but yes, the quality of a lot of the fittings is pretty average, even though for most of it we specified the higher end stuff on offer. Considering its a three story building that had to meet the top level fire safety requirements and also needed extra foundations because of risk of land liquefaction, mass damper, and heavy steel construction from one of the top (mainstream) house builders, it really wasn't all that expensive and the whole process of designing everything exactly how we wanted it went like clockwork. Maybe I was lucky, but I never had any problems with being refused rentals because I was a foreigner here - the estate agents would check, but it was always OK.
Japan does have HOAs in mansion buildings. They are typically called maintenance fees, and are used to employ building & cleaning staff. For single family homes, many newer neighborhoods have smaller annual fees called which are managed by volunteers in the community, called “Hancho groups”. They are usually optional, but most people participate for the good of the neighborhood.
What an interesting name for a company. For those that don't know "Blackships" is what the Japanese called American gunboats that forced Japan to open her boarders to trade after 250 years of isolation. This was back in 1865~67. Perhaps Blackship realty will force Japan to be more open to renting to foreigners.
When you know the history of it, it's a horrible name. The blackships forced Japan to open up, and then Europeans and Americans forced Japan to accept foreigner gold at 3x the rate of Japanese gold, it destroyed the Japanese economy, it evolved into hate towards foreigners and a civil war that made the economy even worse. The solution was to return power to the emperor and to build a unified and modern military to create a strong empire so foreigners would no longer be able to coerce Japan, this mindset can be traced up to the Japanese involvement in WWII when the US blocked oil to Japan to try stop Japanese expansion by making Japan weaker which then led them to attack Pearl Harbor. If anything the name just makes me question if the goals of the company benefit the country.
I think you forgot the unequal treaties that came after. Japan spent decades developing to get rid of them and be recognized as a respected nation in their own right. If japan is going to open up to more foreigner renters and working residents, it will probably do it on its own terms. Sorry to burst your bubble.
The word 黒船 (blackship) was created in the 16th century upon the arrival of the first Portuguese vessel. The ships' hulls had been painted with pitch (similar to tar) for water proofing and to resist wood worm.
Except Thailand doesn't allow foreign ownership. Japan will likely do the same if too many foreigners think they can make a profit by pricing locals out of their own neighborhoods. Just my opinion. But if one plans to live there and raise a family, okay. But if one just wants to speculate on their property, please stay away from japanese real estate. Its a nice country, don't mess it up by driving up their living costs over wages.
I just want to put out there, you're starting to see more and more "non-refundable security deposits" in big cities in the US, at least here in Chicago. I think it's coming up with bigger companies buying up a whole bunch of inventory, and they are like, "We're not even going to pretend we're giving you back any of this money, if you want to live on this street/in this neighborhood, you'll pay it." And it sucks.
Even if the buyer is Japanese, Japanese banks often do not grant mortgage when buying cheap empty houses in rural areas. This is because when the mortgage repayments fall due, the bank will take the Akiya house, but it will only lose money for the bank as it has no resell value.
I think the size of homes in Japan is similiar to the size of homes in a lot of places in Europe like Spain. Looking at the numbers in Spanish large cities about 50% of homes are 60-90m2, 25% are smaller than 60m2 and 25% are bigger than 90m2. Housing used to be ridiculously cheap before people from other countries started moving there by the thousands from places like the UK and USA as well as overseas from Latin America.
Very interesting and helpful episode. I am leaning very much towards spending the money for higher end and forgetting about maybe finding a “deal” or renting as a foreigner.
Meanwhile in germany, where there is a significant shortage in housing, the number of zoning laws & bureaucracy keeps increasing more and more. I wounder if there is a connection...nah...there can't be one. Right? :D
In the US zoning laws allow for NIMBY’s to pretty much prevent new development to protect housing values. As a result most new housing has to be “luxury” to even get approved. Only one of the issues though.
We were invited to a New Year’s Day celebration/ party at a friend’s parents older build Japanese house in Fukuoka this year and I was struck by how cold it was inside. The other thing that bothered me was the strong smell of kerosene coming from multiple space heaters.Apparently electricity is super expensive so it’s very common to heat using oil . Reminded me of our oil heaters before my mum had central heating installed when I lived in the uk . We ended up in the kitchen all 20 of us , so it wasn’t too bad in there but it was like being outside and apparently we were experiencing a bit of a heat wave this year in Japan . I was warned how cold it gets in December January but it wasn’t. It did get a lot colder the day we left and it was snowing in Tokyo for weeks.
When I worked in a middle school, in the winter they would heat the staff room using 2 or 3 kerosene space heaters. So we didn't suffocate from the gas emissions we'd have a couple windows open for ventilation. Couldn't have been the most eco friendly system -editor
Is the mentality of not listing or making properties visible to the wider public a client led thing or something that RE Agents initiate so they can hold onto stock? Also, what are some of the reasons why people don't want full access to a market whereby they benefit from more bidding or potential buyers taking an interest in their property?
I agree with the fact that Japanese landowners don't negotiate, even if it hurts them. I found a place in Tokyo, and was willing to rent, but they said that we had to start paying immediately, even though I have to give one month notice for my current place. I decided not to take the place, and if they didn't get someone to rent that place within a month they would have lost out.
Bubble wrap makes for cheap window insulation. Just spray some water and will stick to the window. You want the bubble side against the glass. Probably a good solution if you're stuck with single pane windows.
Yeah, but bubble wraps makes the windows unusable for viewing the outside. Also water then runs underneath creating mold in the corners. We have done this in Japan. It was highly annoying! It always bothered me in Japan how the windows were often some sort of coloured or pattern style of window which would limit the light coming in or me seeing out. I didn’t like this.
It would be nice if we could get affordable apartments going up in the west… the only new buildings that go up are to expensive for the average person… and when people DO leave the affordable places the rent for the same place sky rockets. We need government oversight at this rate to regulate rent prices
If we look at old Japanese houses, they used shoji, which were basically movable walls made from paper, thus, literary, 'paper thin' walls. So compare to that modern construction is like brick wall.
Thank you both for the conversation. Was just wondering, if you buy property is there any way to obtain a VISA so that you can live extended periods of time? Or is it just 60-90 days travel visa ... fly back home, then eventually go again? Cheers!
For anyone whiling to investment in real estate Japan do more research and compare the price and space between Japan and USA look to the amount of land you will understand
Nice talk, I enjoyed the part about Japanese people not liking negotiating prices. It made me laugh. Whenever I buy anything expensive in Japan, I usually ask "Are their any special offers going on this item? (hint hint)" ... I've had mixed success with this.
HoAs definetely exist. Might just be a countryside thing though. I moved to the outskirts of Nikko and a couple of days after moving in I had the business card of the HoA president laying in my mail box.
Ohh... So the seller's agents could hide information from the buyer, unless the buyer goes to the house & checks it first himself/herself. But with seller's agent/s, buyer won't be able to see the body language of the seller to know if he/she is shifty about certain matters, or what kind of person the seller is.
if I came into some money - and I'm talking at least 6 figures large - I would start a strawberry and vegetable farm in Japan and hire a crew of full time employees. Build on site tiny housing and/or barracks along with Male and Female bath houses so they could stay there overnight if they needed to, or even live there.
I respect that. You actually want to contribute to their economy and generate jobs. This is what japan needs, not some speculators or airbnb operators who will just cause the same housing crisis North america is facing. Just my opinion.
We have been discussing spending a year in Tokyo or Osaka next school year and it’s very hard to find a rental that doesn’t have a large key money or guarantor requirement. Any suggestions?
If you're going to school, I guess this depends on which school but they should have housing options for you? When I studied at language school, I didn't need a guarantor or anything because I was paying them money to study there and so they took on that risk. -editor
Long term foreign residents who have a full-time job at a Japanese company can get a loan from Japanese banks, but there are many rules and checks that they will need to put you through before they give you the money. It is possible, but not easy.
Thanks for posting, good stuff. I had the same experience as Alex. Had been to 35 countries outside my native US and only Japan really hooked me. I now have a Japanese wife and plan on moving there.
hard to judge the build quality fully, but Japanese places usually have a lack of air tightness (think insulation not covered up fully). Even with dual pane windows, you'll have aluminum frames which will basically cancel out any gains you get from double pane. Really disappointing.
Excellent interview! Can you describe in some more detail how you secured financing for your house in Osaka?! Curious what bank it was, what exactly the bank was looking for to approve a mortgage for a nonresident foreigner, how much the house cost?
Hi there, thanks for the question. I got my loan through Shinsei Bank. You can find all the details to their loan requirements here: www.sbishinseibank.co.jp/english/housing/ Regarding the amount they can loan you, it is based on your previous year's income, and basically they just have a chart that they look at: you earn X you can get Y. They were actually quite helpful throughout the process, and it overall went very smoothly. :) Tobi
Hmm...I thought it was very much a digital nomad visa. I checked out the requirements and I meet them all (I work a job that is completely remote for a company foreign of Japan and make what is greater than the current equivalent requirement of like $68k/annually. They even allow families to move there with a single person meeting that visa requirement. I think you still have to have private insurance (this makes sense as it's not a permanent residency visa), and the term of the visa is up to 6 months, which is more than any tourist visa. Otherwise, this was a very interesting video and the 1 million yen deposit being carried around in an Ultron lunch pail was very funny (at least, that's how I envision it). I'm also glad they went over the akiya's. It would be interesting to hear his take on areas in TYO that aren't Shibuya, Shinjuku, Meguro, Ginza, Shinagawa, etc... Great video, thank you!
High inheritance taxes contributes to the excess housing. People cannot afford to pay inheritance taxes. Probably more people would claim their inheritance if the laws allowed the tax to be amortized over 10 years.
Great point from Alex bringing up Mori, the new Azabudai Hills is their flagship area, and the rent for the apartment their is like 2-3x average monthly income of a normal Japanese, and then when I see the interior it's such a disappointment.
Haven't watched the video yet, but would the fact that private companies in the US are buying houses (the ones first-time home buyers used to buy) be a fundamental reason houses are so expensive here?
Maybe not fundamental, but it is certainly a contributing factor. A lot of their money comes from pension funds... you might be outbid by your parent's retirement plan.
I wonder if a lot of foreigners buy for holiday homes or small airbnb type business. I've heard there isn't much value so not really an investment but interesting none the less. I am not all the way through the podcast yet so I don't know if this gets mentioned or I missed it.
Please do not exploit their hospitality, and help raise their living costs that could lead to other problems. There are actual foreigners who want to live there and raise a family and work, please do not ruin it for them.
@@abcdedfg8340 I have no intention to. I'm just curious on the subject. This is already being done by multiple foreigners and they have no laws in place to stop this and with a dwindling population the amount of property is only going to increase with less Japanese to purchase.
@@skullfullofbats I suspect if it becomes a problem, it will not be hard for them to begin restricting foreign ownership of property. I just hope that enough foreigners respect that country so that the bad apples dont ruin it for everyone else.
i think a sub conscious reason they dont want to spend so much on making the house is because of the natural disasters they frequently have and could lose everything in a blink of an eye.
@@sonicase there's a youtuber that actually had his own house build for him, quite a project, although not in Tokyo: ua-cam.com/video/Qaj8X3pxxNM/v-deo.htmlsi=9f_cCKK4n4ysv5Vx
speaking of safety, the same in Taiwan... you can leave your valuables in a public place in Taipei and it will still be there or reported to a police station's lost and found. the people in Taiwan are also more open minded, friendly, helpful, etc.. with the polite face like forced by Japan because of societal pressure and not "real"..
I think it was not mentioned but in regards to why the buildings are boring, or why having small spaces in the big cities is okay for japanese people, another reason I've read and heard is that they focus more on the practical side of the space, mostly because 1. The common salary person's working hours in japan are based on basically living most of your day outside your house and only coming home to sleep, and/or 2. the cities are so active and convinient 24/7 that you don't need amenities in your house because the city can provide it. Not sure if that is 100% true or cover most of the cases, but made sense to me, would like to see how true it is.
55:08 oh, it's Osaka, it's so dangerous. Tennōji on the worst day is still waaaaaaay safer than most so called safe cities in the US on their BEST DAY. Honestly, and I am going to catch flame for this but, in Japan, it's the foreigners you generally have to be careful around because their mindset in not Japanese. There, I said it and FYI, I'm NOT Japanese.
Even the most "dangerous" places in Japan are pretty safe comapred to almost anywhere else in the world. In Japan the worst case scenario - they migh shout at you some nonsense or push you out of the way. Violent crime rates in Japan are very close to zero.
_Relative to income_ America's property prices aren't insane. Property price per m2 to income % it's one of the developed world's most affordable. The affordability ratio is calculated by dividing the average property price per square metre by the average _disposable_ household income. The most expensive is South Korea at 59.4%. Japan is 20.4%. France 16.5%. Australia is 16.2%. Germany at 15.3%. Canada 13.6%. Italy 10.7%. And the US is 6.3%. The US is more affordable than Mexico. Only Turkey is cheaper at 4%. US housing size in square feet has almost doubled since the 1950s. This hasn't in most other countries. You have to pay for those extra materials and labour. New suburban housing after WWII was about 1000 sq ft. New suburban housing today outside the growth cities like Atlanta is well above 2000 sq ft. The median size of new homes was 2,412 square feet in 2018. And the quality of materials used is better. Less linoleum and more tile, stone, and wood. More bathrooms. More bedrooms. Larger garages. And you've lost the draw of cities like Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Milwaukee, Gary, Green Bay, Cincinnati, Baltimore, St Lous, and Pittsburg. Even Chicago is losing population over the years. Boom cities like San Francisco have quite strict housing regulations to protect the historic character, and building new structures to comply with earthquake zoning adds expense - about 15% extra for base isolation of a building 7 storeys high. And the city squeezes the developer to set aside x% for low income. That means the wealthy pick up that cost.
I find the study of Japan very interesting as they have been in a steady population decline for years. And, this is something facing many countries. How has their standard of living been affected?
Another reason for “lower quality” materials, is that the Japanese are always thinking on destruction. The next big Tokyo earthquake is around the corner, so the thinking goes on avoiding expensive stuff that may need replacement soon. All those materials we see in the houses are easy to move around, standardized, and easier to find and fix.
For more on Japanese akiya, check out our interview with Anton in Japan!
ua-cam.com/video/hB55umiwRk0/v-deo.html
How much does the seller or buyer real estate agent makes commission wise on each home percentage wise ?
On the bathroom situation- for the Americans out there, he means one bath/shower, not one toilet. The typical Japanese single family house built these days are two story, with 3 bedrooms, 2 toilets and one bathtub/shower. The bathtub/shower is almost always downstairs, with a separate toilet room on each floor.
What's so bad about just having one bathroom tho?
There's already easy professional terminology to explain this. A half-bath is one with only a toilet and sink. So it's usually like "2 and a half bathrooms" in listings. Not sure why he didn't just say that
@@busti4552 Have you never lived with a female, even your own mother? Sure men without OCD(not my brother) can shower, shit, and brush their teeth in 15 minutes. But imagine you need to BE somewhere and you have to wait for your mom and your wife to shower and all for 1 hour each first. Good luck not going insane after a few months of that brah!!
@@parasitius I think because most often in Japan, the bath is not in the same room as the toilet
@@parasitius I am from Germany and here most rental flats have a single bathroom that combines shower, sink, toilet and laundry into one room. I never saw it as an issue. I can hold my pee for an hour or so if it is necessary.
Another reason for the extremely cheapo building materials is that houses aren't investment tools for families the way they are in North America. There just isn't that much crazy demand to grab a detached home ASAP since rents are reasonable and it's socially acceptable for married couples to move in with elderly parents. Because of that there's no guarantee that the house is going to increase in value 30 years after you buy it, nor that you'll be able to use mortgage refinancing and home equity lines of credit to use your house like a credit card. Homes really are just somewhere to plant your family's butts down, and if it's just an expense then you're going to want to make it as cheap as possible.
They decrease in value when they age.
My uncle had a babyboomer house rebuilt in the 70s, he could spend 200K to renovate it and it'd still be a tear down, or he could rebuild for like 300K and he could get something for it.
buildings in japan are always "temporary" thing.
they are not expected to last no more than 30-40 years.
and taxed accordingly.
there are not much reason(and incentive ) to keep old house and building for long time.
the japanese government promote new building because newer building much more earthquake and fire resistant.
@@fffwe3876 max is 30
All Buildings are largely "temporary". That's how we thought of buildings for thousands of years. The Colosseum for example was at various times an arena, a theater, a church, cemetary, an apartment/workshops, a castle, and a quarry. Nowadays in the United States, we consider everything to be somehow permanent and demand that even how we use buildings to be permanent. You have a house? You want to convert it to a shop? well fuck you. We have a shit ton of unused office space since covid but, we can't convert them to apartments because they are zoned for office space. The Real Estate market in the US is weirdly like a planned market, everything is directed by the municipal government. @@fffwe3876
Funny fact: in Europe we view US houses as "flimsy buildings made out of carton" x) Talk about different perspectives! :D
Good info. Our experience designing and building a custom home is pretty much what Alex talks about. Having looked at many pre-owned and new open houses, the average house in Japan is indeed built of low quality materials and terrible design, yet our custom house with triple pane windows, large open rooms, big solar system etc... is significantly less expensive than we would have had to pay in the U.S.
Did you have to import all that or is there a local supplier of things like triple pane?
Local. I used Hebel Haus and it is a standard option.@@jryanp
What company did you use? If you don't mind sharing
Hebel Haus
@@karensurgery3845
Wow this is great stuff. I’m just discovering your podcast and it’s honestly refreshing to hear mature discussions between people who obviously love Japan but don’t ignore the harsh realities of living here. There are too many influencers out there that glamorize japan instead of focusing on both the positive and negative aspects.
I’m moving closer to the centre of Tokyo now and choosing a rental so this is why the algorithm recommended this video. Very nice and interesting. 20 years in Japan for me (mostly not by choice 🤪- my kids are here etc) but making do and making the best of it. You are right, the best thing about Japan is how everything kind of works.
Hope you find somewhere nice!! : D
-editor
Love Alex´s videos. He needs to make more of them, I have already watched them over and over!
What makes Japan cheap, especially for people that qualify for a bank loan... the interest rates. You can get loans at 0.15%.... basically free money. An expensive home loan would be 0.75%. I've lived and worked in Japan since 1982.... even with rates as low as they are... buying property in Japan is not a good investment. When you buy a property in Japan... it should be about a place to live and enjoy life, not about making money off of it, because you will not.
And if enough foreign investors try to profit and price out locals, they would probably find it much easier to ban foreign ownership. If real estate investors want to abuse Japanese hospitality, and price out locals, do not expect a good result.
It’s really cheap there too, I haven’t looked in like middle of Tokyo or anything like that but anywhere else it’s cheap. Transit all over the place not like that in USA. Everyone here is greedy, every business the cost of living is terrible here I want out so bad. Also Japanese culture and standards is pretty much as good as it gets, America has none. Sucks you really can’t live there long term or hard to do but even a few months at a time I would be happy, rent is so cheap better off just doing that and going to Indonesia or something similar rest of the time. Western countries are dying and waste of money and to much stress everyone should leave, no one should tell you where you can live and borders really shouldn’t be a thing but that’s another discussion. People who DESERVE to move and can contribute and be a good citizen to a foreign country should be allowed to live there, not like USA getting flooded that’s different there is no plan here for most of these people this country will collapse. But a place like Japan needs people younger people they shouldn’t be so strict, let foreigners buy up the akitas only can help, bring foreign money in I don’t get the stubborness of certain countries but Japan is well run and priced good (even to cheap I argue) so I can’t criticize but aging population needs to be addressed.
I think people commenting don't realize that buying a house in japan for renting investment is not targetted at locals. You target tourists that would pay $200 a night. Easy money.
@@abcdedfg8340 yes we need this all over the world. I fully support this.
Recent rise in crime for these cheap houses in rural areas. Vietnamese criminals have been ransacking these houses and even tieing up elderly residents.
It's not safe to buy rural houses in japan.
Japanese real estate is very reasonable. I own 13 houses here and enjoy doing DIY etc.
@@KickAssets That wouldnt even be one on the coast of NSW.
Enjoying wasting your money on the houses that have no resell value!
@@Port712 I own 17 houses now. :) How did I do that? I used the money I made off the others etc to buy more. And prices have already gone up. You are basing your info off of propaganda and clickbait article...I am basing mine off of reality, results and experience.
this was very informative and entertaining thanks for the great content
I live in Tokyo and rent eats up 50% of my net salary, for 43 sqm. I'm sure there are cheaper places, but its not "incredibly cheap" if you ask me.
I moved out from Warsaw, cause it was eating 3/4 of my salary for 34m2 and was threating to grab 4/5 with the inflation spike - I am earning somewhere between the median and the average wage depending on the exact moment so it was a shocker... Tokyo doesn't sound "cheap", but it definitely sounds a little more manageable for an average corporate worker - so it has me interested, even if the cost would be the same nominally, but in perspective... ;)
There is no natural housing shortage in the USA. Its all manufactured by zoning laws, parking requirements, minimum lot sizes, set backs, height restrictions, HOAs, permitting processes, growth boundaries, huge car based infrastructure projects, Federal protected lands, etc etc etc.
You forgot immigration which is a government policy. You can never build enough houses if you're inviting in the world.
@@HairyPixels Like Dubai. Yeah. Lots of homeless immigrants there. Not.
@@Basta11 US takes more than 1 million immigrants per year plus illegal immigration. That puts continual pressure on housing. How is that hard to understand?
@@HairyPixels more housing is easy to make. These immigrants work hard and earn. Plenty of money to be made providing for their needs. The difficult part is the politics. Again, all the government regulations aimed to limit housing. Remove those, and you’ll have a construction boom, using labor from those immigrants.
@@Basta111 in 10 people in the US are illegal - over 35 million people. The US is in total collapse but it’s not yet being broadly acknowledged.
Great talk here once again on a booming topic! Sasuga toby and the unpacking Japan crew- keep up the good work!
4:36 I'm glad TP clarified that, mainly because i wasn't 100% sure myself even after reading a few things on it. Already licensed in my state, but have been looking into the possibility of selling property in Japan.
You plan to sell only to those who plan to live there full time? I don't think japanese want foreign owners or investors pricing them out of their communities.
This interview was well structured by the host. The interview itself was insightful. Well done.
So glad you enjoyed it!
I think people commenting don't realize that buying a house in japan for renting investment is not targetted at locals. You target tourists that would pay $200 a night. Easy money.
While land value in cities is still high, the building depreciates a lot. The property cost to land value ratio is much wider here
key money - most apartments around me (Chicago) have gotten rid of security deposits and only have a move in fee (non-refundable)
Japan is the safest country I have ever been to, very similar to Taiwan, almost no crime.
At Starbucks in BANGKOK college students leave their laptops and wander around the mall and return 15 minutes later… and nobody took it.
Until nature decides to have some fun
Then dont buy propety there unless you want to live there is my advice. They dont need land values being artificially inflated by real estate investors and pushing people into crime to make ends meet. Just my opinion.
I never understood this idea that people stealing laptops at coffee shops is assumed to be "common" in the U.S. It really isnt.
I wonder why that is...
Reason is pretty obvious to me. Strict on crime and living costs are affordable for locals. But i would never leave my valuables out in any city with a housing crisis, too many desperate people who are struggling to make ends meet.
You had me at "Freedom Units." 🤣🤣🤣 Great podcast! Thank you for this!
Thank you so much for this video! As an American beginning to do research in an attempt to understand what it would take to move to Japan, this is super helpful. 🙏
i think the reason almost all japanese houses have 1 bath and its almost always on the ground floor is because for many years they used to have wood fired bath tub water heaters. I've been shopping for a house in osaka for over a year and have seen a lot of house listings and its rare to have even a toilet on the floor where the bedrooms are. This is a major pet peeve of mine because in the middle of the night you have to navigate the trecherously steep stairs half asleep to use the toilet. staircases in 3 story houses are the most hideous things i've ever seen in a house. They remind me of the stairs in the old kyoto temples. They're more like a fixed ladder
This was excellent, thanking the UA-cam algorithm for the recommendation :)
Glad you enjoyed it! Please consider subscribing 😄
I remember a book I used to read as a child when your mom spoke about being found by the river. The book is Momotarusan.
Yes, Momotaro, the Peach Boy! I grew up loving that story and even still have my copy on the bookshelf.
Interesting balcony. I mean video. Tokyo is such an interesting restaurant. I mean city. The speaker is very Alex. I mean articulate.
Loved the interview, seen so many of his videos and guest experiences. So glad to hear a deeper perspective.
Just stumbled on this interview. Great, great interview. Really helpful, thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
-editor
Remimnds me of what happen in Portugal when they had a glut of empty houses and condos and the govt promoted residency for foreigners to buy it, but it eventually causes housing shortages and rent spirial upward so Portugees protest. So dont expect smooth sailing to own a foreingn homes since govt can change the tax rule anytime.
I know some people from that general area. One of them confirmed foreign investors made portugal unaffordable for many locals. Japan is an island nation and its government is very strict on immigration. At any moment they could change the rules if citizens started complaining. Just what i read.
Been doing my research on Japanese real estate for some time now. It's just such a unique market - hard for me to wrap my head around. This was a really great listen, by the way! Thanks for offering up your insight into housing in Japan.
Alex is such a great speaker : D
-editor
yeah even my friend who is part Japanese and has relatives who still live in Japan had a hard time getting an apartment. In the end his aunt whose is a Japanese citizen had to vouch for him to secure an apartment. Admittedly he was trying to avoid the "foreigner" apartments.
VERY IMPORTANT VIDEO !!! Thanks both for the info and all the best in life and business !!!
Glad you enjoyed it!!
-editor
When I was living in Tokyo, through my colleagues at an investment bank, I heard of a real estate agent that speaks English and specialises in no-key money mansions. She also didn't charge a fee, She got the 1 month commission from the company renting the place and waived the commission from the client (she focused on volume). It was amazing because you normally have to pay a one month renewal fee every two years anyway. Because of that I would move every two years, avoid the one-month renewal and transfer the deposit fee (although, you don't always get it all back). It meant I was able to explore many different neighbourhoods in Tokyo.
YT rec strikes again. Insta-sub for the channel.
Interesting things about zoning in JPN. I vaguely remember reading about the residential zoning a few years back, but that was a great refresher. interesting things about rehab permitting and such.
I was looking at housing in TYO and found it *somewhat reasonable* outside central TYO. Even Sapporo was fairly affordable.
absolutely fascinating!!! Alex is great!
Such an informative and interesting show. Love the glimpse into a completely different life experience.
@57:47 yes you can negotiate. The response maybe a no but with many akiya families want them gone to avoid taxes. Best example I've seen was saying up front you only have XXX JPY and that's it. Seller can decide.
i wish we allowed density and public transit like japan does
@jimbojimbo6873That and I don't think they would have the slightest hesitation to ban foreign ownership of homes if they started to price out local residents or speculate on property markets in a way that hurt locals.
People always talk about how great Japanese public transit is. After visiting what makes Japanese public so good compared with say Europe or even some US cities is that it is filled with Japanese people. So no one doing pullups on the train, no one singing rudely, no one shitting on the floor while claiming to be the reincarnation of Jesus the Christ. Like you see and would see in the US.
I reckon people in Tokyo would love to have Japanese population density. Japan is 340 people per square kilometre but Tokyo is about 20 times that.
Think Alex was pretty much spot on with everything here. We built our own place - planning took about 6 months and then they had it built in 4. Ours is double glazed throughout with the entire roof as a roof balcony - we have an outdoor sofa, tables and BBQ up there! Building is superbly put together, you can't fault any of it, but yes, the quality of a lot of the fittings is pretty average, even though for most of it we specified the higher end stuff on offer. Considering its a three story building that had to meet the top level fire safety requirements and also needed extra foundations because of risk of land liquefaction, mass damper, and heavy steel construction from one of the top (mainstream) house builders, it really wasn't all that expensive and the whole process of designing everything exactly how we wanted it went like clockwork. Maybe I was lucky, but I never had any problems with being refused rentals because I was a foreigner here - the estate agents would check, but it was always OK.
Japan does have HOAs in mansion buildings. They are typically called maintenance fees, and are used to employ building & cleaning staff.
For single family homes, many newer neighborhoods have smaller annual fees called which are managed by volunteers in the community, called “Hancho groups”. They are usually optional, but most people participate for the good of the neighborhood.
Too bad HOA in the US is getting terrible reps for forcing people to sign up and not providng good service.
Yea I had to pay 10,000yen for the year in HOA even though I rent
What an interesting name for a company. For those that don't know "Blackships" is what the Japanese called American gunboats that forced Japan to open her boarders to trade after 250 years of isolation. This was back in 1865~67. Perhaps Blackship realty will force Japan to be more open to renting to foreigners.
When you know the history of it, it's a horrible name.
The blackships forced Japan to open up, and then Europeans and Americans forced Japan to accept foreigner gold at 3x the rate of Japanese gold, it destroyed the Japanese economy, it evolved into hate towards foreigners and a civil war that made the economy even worse.
The solution was to return power to the emperor and to build a unified and modern military to create a strong empire so foreigners would no longer be able to coerce Japan, this mindset can be traced up to the Japanese involvement in WWII when the US blocked oil to Japan to try stop Japanese expansion by making Japan weaker which then led them to attack Pearl Harbor.
If anything the name just makes me question if the goals of the company benefit the country.
I think you forgot the unequal treaties that came after. Japan spent decades developing to get rid of them and be recognized as a respected nation in their own right. If japan is going to open up to more foreigner renters and working residents, it will probably do it on its own terms. Sorry to burst your bubble.
The word 黒船 (blackship) was created in the 16th century upon the arrival of the first Portuguese vessel. The ships' hulls had been painted with pitch (similar to tar) for water proofing and to resist wood worm.
@@abcdedfg8340no you didn’t burst my bubble😂.
@@gagamba9198 didn’t know that! I guess people just called things the obvious way.
In Thailand, it's factory, hotel, condos, cafe, optician shop, houses with porch all in 1 alley.
Except Thailand doesn't allow foreign ownership. Japan will likely do the same if too many foreigners think they can make a profit by pricing locals out of their own neighborhoods. Just my opinion. But if one plans to live there and raise a family, okay. But if one just wants to speculate on their property, please stay away from japanese real estate. Its a nice country, don't mess it up by driving up their living costs over wages.
Who are the lucky ones who live beside the abattoirs?
I just want to put out there, you're starting to see more and more "non-refundable security deposits" in big cities in the US, at least here in Chicago. I think it's coming up with bigger companies buying up a whole bunch of inventory, and they are like, "We're not even going to pretend we're giving you back any of this money, if you want to live on this street/in this neighborhood, you'll pay it." And it sucks.
Even if the buyer is Japanese, Japanese banks often do not grant mortgage when buying cheap empty houses in rural areas.
This is because when the mortgage repayments fall due, the bank will take the Akiya house,
but it will only lose money for the bank as it has no resell value.
Be careful when talking about "one bedroom" in the Japanese context. There's 1R, 1K, 1DK, 1LDK that are all technically "one bedroom" apartment.
true!
DK is donkey Kong?
only room for one donkey kong
-editor
brilliant interview
I think the size of homes in Japan is similiar to the size of homes in a lot of places in Europe like Spain. Looking at the numbers in Spanish large cities about 50% of homes are 60-90m2, 25% are smaller than 60m2 and 25% are bigger than 90m2. Housing used to be ridiculously cheap before people from other countries started moving there by the thousands from places like the UK and USA as well as overseas from Latin America.
Very interesting and helpful episode. I am leaning very much towards spending the money for higher end and forgetting about maybe finding a “deal” or renting as a foreigner.
Permanent residency subjects you to inhertiance tax, so not necessarily a bad thing to not have it.
Meanwhile in germany, where there is a significant shortage in housing, the number of zoning laws & bureaucracy keeps increasing more and more. I wounder if there is a connection...nah...there can't be one. Right? :D
In the US zoning laws allow for NIMBY’s to pretty much prevent new development to protect housing values. As a result most new housing has to be “luxury” to even get approved.
Only one of the issues though.
Great video, lots of useful information for anyone interest how real estate in Japan works.
We were invited to a New Year’s Day celebration/ party at a friend’s parents older build Japanese house in Fukuoka this year and I was struck by how cold it was inside. The other thing that bothered me was the strong smell of kerosene coming from multiple space heaters.Apparently electricity is super expensive so it’s very common to heat using oil . Reminded me of our oil heaters before my mum had central heating installed when I lived in the uk . We ended up in the kitchen all 20 of us , so it wasn’t too bad in there but it was like being outside and apparently we were experiencing a bit of a heat wave this year in Japan . I was warned how cold it gets in December January but it wasn’t. It did get a lot colder the day we left and it was snowing in Tokyo for weeks.
When I worked in a middle school, in the winter they would heat the staff room using 2 or 3 kerosene space heaters. So we didn't suffocate from the gas emissions we'd have a couple windows open for ventilation. Couldn't have been the most eco friendly system
-editor
Is the mentality of not listing or making properties visible to the wider public a client led thing or something that RE Agents initiate so they can hold onto stock? Also, what are some of the reasons why people don't want full access to a market whereby they benefit from more bidding or potential buyers taking an interest in their property?
Impressive video. Keep at it. Japanese real estate videos is un-tapped content on youtube (Tokyo Portfolio only does luxury property).
I agree with the fact that Japanese landowners don't negotiate, even if it hurts them. I found a place in Tokyo, and was willing to rent, but they said that we had to start paying immediately, even though I have to give one month notice for my current place. I decided not to take the place, and if they didn't get someone to rent that place within a month they would have lost out.
Bubble wrap makes for cheap window insulation. Just spray some water and will stick to the window. You want the bubble side against the glass. Probably a good solution if you're stuck with single pane windows.
Yeah, but bubble wraps makes the windows unusable for viewing the outside. Also water then runs underneath creating mold in the corners. We have done this in Japan. It was highly annoying! It always bothered me in Japan how the windows were often some sort of coloured or pattern style of window which would limit the light coming in or me seeing out. I didn’t like this.
It would be nice if we could get affordable apartments going up in the west… the only new buildings that go up are to expensive for the average person… and when people DO leave the affordable places the rent for the same place sky rockets.
We need government oversight at this rate to regulate rent prices
Very interesting and informative
time to move to japan!
I too did "things" in college to make ends meet lol.
If we look at old Japanese houses, they used shoji, which were basically movable walls made from paper, thus, literary, 'paper thin' walls. So compare to that modern construction is like brick wall.
Great interview!
Thank you both for the conversation.
Was just wondering, if you buy property is there any way to obtain a VISA so that you can live extended periods of time?
Or is it just 60-90 days travel visa ... fly back home, then eventually go again?
Cheers!
As far as I know, no visa tied to purchasing property, but Alex talks about a digital nomad visa towards the end of the interview!
-editor
For anyone whiling to investment in real estate Japan do more research and compare the price and space between Japan and USA look to the amount of land you will understand
Nice talk, I enjoyed the part about Japanese people not liking negotiating prices. It made me laugh. Whenever I buy anything expensive in Japan, I usually ask "Are their any special offers going on this item? (hint hint)" ... I've had mixed success with this.
HoAs definetely exist. Might just be a countryside thing though. I moved to the outskirts of Nikko and a couple of days after moving in I had the business card of the HoA president laying in my mail box.
Do you need to pay key money besides agent fees..?
You haven’t mentioned the building code re: earthquake. I’m sure that these old properties are not structurally sound.
Ohh... So the seller's agents could hide information from the buyer, unless the buyer goes to the house & checks it first himself/herself. But with seller's agent/s, buyer won't be able to see the body language of the seller to know if he/she is shifty about certain matters, or what kind of person the seller is.
if I came into some money - and I'm talking at least 6 figures large - I would start a strawberry and vegetable farm in Japan and hire a crew of full time employees. Build on site tiny housing and/or barracks along with Male and Female bath houses so they could stay there overnight if they needed to, or even live there.
Where you going to get those employees? Japan has a labor shortage and that sounds like a terrible job and life, living on site in barracks.
@@susie2251 who the fuck asked you
I respect that. You actually want to contribute to their economy and generate jobs. This is what japan needs, not some speculators or airbnb operators who will just cause the same housing crisis North america is facing. Just my opinion.
We have been discussing spending a year in Tokyo or Osaka next school year and it’s very hard to find a rental that doesn’t have a large key money or guarantor requirement. Any suggestions?
If you're going to school, I guess this depends on which school but they should have housing options for you? When I studied at language school, I didn't need a guarantor or anything because I was paying them money to study there and so they took on that risk.
-editor
can i get a mortgage? or do i have to pay cash in Japan? is it possible to find a property (decent shape for under 150K USD)
thanks
Long term foreign residents who have a full-time job at a Japanese company can get a loan from Japanese banks, but there are many rules and checks that they will need to put you through before they give you the money. It is possible, but not easy.
1:07:59 sponcer your own visa?
Thanks for posting, good stuff. I had the same experience as Alex. Had been to 35 countries outside my native US and only Japan really hooked me. I now have a Japanese wife and plan on moving there.
tokyoportfolio is a fun channel
he's great
49:09 In Hongkong gibt es wohl nur lease-Hold. Also man besitzt das Gebäude aber das Land ist nur gepachtet.
If there was more than one bathroom it would be even colder in the winter to have 2 windows open all the time 🥶🥶🥶🥶
Thanks for the info. Can't say I like the guy. Typical real estate or car sales person.
The key money really isn't a big deal if you just consider it as part of the rent and add it to your budget
It feels like a double agency fee
hard to judge the build quality fully, but Japanese places usually have a lack of air tightness (think insulation not covered up fully). Even with dual pane windows, you'll have aluminum frames which will basically cancel out any gains you get from double pane. Really disappointing.
Alex is a pretty cool guy, amazing people skills
Excellent interview! Can you describe in some more detail how you secured financing for your house in Osaka?! Curious what bank it was, what exactly the bank was looking for to approve a mortgage for a nonresident foreigner, how much the house cost?
Hi there, thanks for the question. I got my loan through Shinsei Bank. You can find all the details to their loan requirements here: www.sbishinseibank.co.jp/english/housing/
Regarding the amount they can loan you, it is based on your previous year's income, and basically they just have a chart that they look at: you earn X you can get Y.
They were actually quite helpful throughout the process, and it overall went very smoothly. :)
Tobi
Hmm...I thought it was very much a digital nomad visa. I checked out the requirements and I meet them all (I work a job that is completely remote for a company foreign of Japan and make what is greater than the current equivalent requirement of like $68k/annually. They even allow families to move there with a single person meeting that visa requirement. I think you still have to have private insurance (this makes sense as it's not a permanent residency visa), and the term of the visa is up to 6 months, which is more than any tourist visa.
Otherwise, this was a very interesting video and the 1 million yen deposit being carried around in an Ultron lunch pail was very funny (at least, that's how I envision it). I'm also glad they went over the akiya's.
It would be interesting to hear his take on areas in TYO that aren't Shibuya, Shinjuku, Meguro, Ginza, Shinagawa, etc...
Great video, thank you!
High inheritance taxes contributes to the excess housing. People cannot afford to pay inheritance taxes. Probably more people would claim their inheritance if the laws allowed the tax to be amortized over 10 years.
Great point from Alex bringing up Mori, the new Azabudai Hills is their flagship area, and the rent for the apartment their is like 2-3x average monthly income of a normal Japanese, and then when I see the interior it's such a disappointment.
Haven't watched the video yet, but would the fact that private companies in the US are buying houses (the ones first-time home buyers used to buy) be a fundamental reason houses are so expensive here?
Maybe not fundamental, but it is certainly a contributing factor. A lot of their money comes from pension funds... you might be outbid by your parent's retirement plan.
Corporate ownership of houses in the US is barely 1%.
That and too much immigration.
I wonder if a lot of foreigners buy for holiday homes or small airbnb type business. I've heard there isn't much value so not really an investment but interesting none the less. I am not all the way through the podcast yet so I don't know if this gets mentioned or I missed it.
Some really rich people have vacation homes here. I think Life Where I'm From recently did a video on this
-editor
Please do not exploit their hospitality, and help raise their living costs that could lead to other problems. There are actual foreigners who want to live there and raise a family and work, please do not ruin it for them.
@@abcdedfg8340 I have no intention to. I'm just curious on the subject. This is already being done by multiple foreigners and they have no laws in place to stop this and with a dwindling population the amount of property is only going to increase with less Japanese to purchase.
@@skullfullofbats I suspect if it becomes a problem, it will not be hard for them to begin restricting foreign ownership of property. I just hope that enough foreigners respect that country so that the bad apples dont ruin it for everyone else.
The younger version of Mr. Burns 😂
i think a sub conscious reason they dont want to spend so much on making the house is because of the natural disasters they frequently have and could lose everything in a blink of an eye.
hmmm, now thinking about building a crazy house in japan
What would be a crazy house? 🤔
@@unpackingjapan i mean, like more of a uniquely architecturally designed house
@@sonicase there's a youtuber that actually had his own house build for him, quite a project, although not in Tokyo: ua-cam.com/video/Qaj8X3pxxNM/v-deo.htmlsi=9f_cCKK4n4ysv5Vx
We just had Dogen sensei on the podcast!! ua-cam.com/video/_-AUcStkTwI/v-deo.html
I lived in Japan for 17 years. Wish I had known the difference between apa-to and mansion!
speaking of safety, the same in Taiwan... you can leave your valuables in a public place in Taipei and it will still be there or reported to a police station's lost and found. the people in Taiwan are also more open minded, friendly, helpful, etc.. with the polite face like forced by Japan because of societal pressure and not "real"..
I think it was not mentioned but in regards to why the buildings are boring, or why having small spaces in the big cities is okay for japanese people, another reason I've read and heard is that they focus more on the practical side of the space, mostly because 1. The common salary person's working hours in japan are based on basically living most of your day outside your house and only coming home to sleep, and/or 2. the cities are so active and convinient 24/7 that you don't need amenities in your house because the city can provide it. Not sure if that is 100% true or cover most of the cases, but made sense to me, would like to see how true it is.
31:00 Are they behind Kamurocho Hills?
54:55 It was probably in cash so the agency can hide the money to be untaxed. straight into their pockets.
55:08 oh, it's Osaka, it's so dangerous. Tennōji on the worst day is still waaaaaaay safer than most so called safe cities in the US on their BEST DAY.
Honestly, and I am going to catch flame for this but, in Japan, it's the foreigners you generally have to be careful around because their mindset in not Japanese. There, I said it and FYI, I'm NOT Japanese.
Even the most "dangerous" places in Japan are pretty safe comapred to almost anywhere else in the world. In Japan the worst case scenario - they migh shout at you some nonsense or push you out of the way. Violent crime rates in Japan are very close to zero.
Its almost as if U.S. regulations for single-family zoning are keeping our housing prices insane.
_Relative to income_ America's property prices aren't insane. Property price per m2 to income % it's one of the developed world's most affordable. The affordability ratio is calculated by dividing the average property price per square metre by the average _disposable_ household income.
The most expensive is South Korea at 59.4%. Japan is 20.4%. France 16.5%. Australia is 16.2%. Germany at 15.3%. Canada 13.6%. Italy 10.7%. And the US is 6.3%. The US is more affordable than Mexico. Only Turkey is cheaper at 4%.
US housing size in square feet has almost doubled since the 1950s. This hasn't in most other countries. You have to pay for those extra materials and labour. New suburban housing after WWII was about 1000 sq ft. New suburban housing today outside the growth cities like Atlanta is well above 2000 sq ft. The median size of new homes was 2,412 square feet in 2018. And the quality of materials used is better. Less linoleum and more tile, stone, and wood. More bathrooms. More bedrooms. Larger garages.
And you've lost the draw of cities like Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Milwaukee, Gary, Green Bay, Cincinnati, Baltimore, St Lous, and Pittsburg. Even Chicago is losing population over the years. Boom cities like San Francisco have quite strict housing regulations to protect the historic character, and building new structures to comply with earthquake zoning adds expense - about 15% extra for base isolation of a building 7 storeys high. And the city squeezes the developer to set aside x% for low income. That means the wealthy pick up that cost.
I find the study of Japan very interesting as they have been in a steady population decline for years. And, this is something facing many countries.
How has their standard of living been affected?
"freedom unit" LMAO
Another reason for “lower quality” materials, is that the Japanese are always thinking on destruction. The next big Tokyo earthquake is around the corner, so the thinking goes on avoiding expensive stuff that may need replacement soon. All those materials we see in the houses are easy to move around, standardized, and easier to find and fix.
Nice man bun. I used to have one
Thanks 😁🙏