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Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

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Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#281

Post by jms »

beachy wrote: post #100
Max_aaa wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually it is wonderful. I work from home and live in a small village minutes from the ocean in New Zealand. Groceries are can be delivered. The only reason to drive to town is the odd meetup.

Ha snap, I live in Northland and do the same. My day breaks are running around a track through the bush, body surfing when the surf is up and checking my traps. Small world.

I'm thinking of doing the same! Living in Sydney at the moment, but am an NZ citizen. Looking at Northland or Taranaki for the kitesurfing :)

Could I ask you a bit more about Northland? My email is in my profile.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#282

Post by nikkwong »

rmason wrote: post #83
ransom1538 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Detroit: If you have a credit card and a want to own an apartment building, it is the place to be. Just needs some elbow grease. There MUST BE opportunity at $5 USD per square foot -- but it is hard to visualize. https://www.point2homes.com/US/Multi-Family-For-Sale/MI/Detr... [I think you can talk this guy down to $10k].

There's a Detroit entrepreneur who is trying to put together a pool of investors to rehab Detroit rental properties. He details every step he's taking on his blog which unfortunately is down right now. Here's the under 2 minute where he shows off the 5 unit apartment building he bought on Craigslist for $13K and yes there are other opportunities out there just like that one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bapcgs1v62…

I think initiatives like the guy this one is taking is incredible, and these types of initiatives are a necessary risk in piecing the city back together. However, there is so much external risk in throwing capital into projects like these. We need the federal government to be on board, we need the local gov to have their heads on straight and to be willing to fight for appropriate legislation that is going to be attractive enough to bring people to the city. So far, I think we haven't seen enough of either. My feelings are therefore mixed. I want to see these localities do well; a rising tide lifts all boats; but the people at the top have demonstrated an ineptitude in being able to create real incentives. You only really see it in the private sector with players like dan gilbert.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#283

Post by mikekchar »

hudibras wrote: post #260
neic wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What reasons do people have for not wanting a perfectly good 20-30 year old house for half the price of a new one?

A couple reasons that don't get much attention are that a.) newly-constructed houses are relatively cheap and b.) mortgage rates are very good. A normal, custom-built house in the suburbs of Tokyo can be constructed for somewhere between $120,000 and $250,000 (source: I'm shopping for a house now) which, at the current Japanese mortgage rates for a 35-year loan, translates into a $400-$800 monthly payment for the hom…

Ha ha. Where I live a lot is about $50K, so I sometimes find it a bit strange that people build a $2-300K house instead of living in the one that was there.

But you are also right about the mortgages. Rates are super low and you can get 20 or 30 year terms. So for example even for a 25 year term, Shinsei bank is offering less than 2%: https://www.shinseibank.com/english/housing/loan_kinri.pdf

It's completely insane. I keep telling my wife we need buy a house just to lock into the nearly free money. On the other hand, if the bank thinks this is a good deal for them, they must be forseeing some pretty bad economy in the future...

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#284

Post by jac_no_k »

wokwokwok wrote: post #273
laurieg wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Japan has strict immigration policies" is often repeated, but I don't think this is tells the whole story. Some of the policies are very permissive: * If you graduated university and have a 'skilled' job in Japan, you are likely to get a visa. There is no cap on the number of these. There is no language requirement. * If you live in Japan for over 5 years continuously you can apply for citizenship, though you must r…

This is misrepresentative. You can apply , but actually getting both permanent residency and citizenship isn’t nearly that trivial. “Working in japan” and “becoming Japanese” are different things, and the latter is very much more difficult. Japan is very happy to have foreign workers who will politely leave once they lose their jobs / get old, but the immigration figures, in absolute terms, are tiny.

/me is a US citizen with a PR (permanent residency) status in Japan. Spouse has naturalized to a Japan citizen.

My anecdote: without fitting into any of the qualifying categories, I was able to get a PR in Japan after residing in the country for 10 years. The rules have changed and with the right qualifications it's possible to apply for PR with only two years residency (work visa).

Further anecdote: My wife recently got her Japanese citizenship. This was difficult, it took over a year and an intrusive investigation. Like getting top secret clearance. The investigation brought up why I wasn't pursuing Japanese citizenship until they discovered my low level of Japanese skills, and it was no longer an issue.

My entire family here in the greater Tokyo area is doesn't quite fit in with the Japanese. We're a bit loud. We're consumerists. We get quizzical looks when filling in applications. We've broken software that expected only Japanese to use. It has it's negatives but the positives of being different in this mostly homogeneous society has it's advantages.

Yes, my situation is a small minority but with the policy changes, it's one less hurdle for people who want to live in Japan. We are what makes the "society".

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#285

Post by skissane »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #253
saagarjha wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic; how does Fortnite demonstrate “infinite growth”?

> how does Fortnite demonstrate “infinite growth”? Fortnite makes money by selling digital in-game goods. Their revenues could grow infinitely without their material footprint expanding one iota. What they demonstrate is not infinite growth, but the capacity for infinite growth in a finite universe. Value, at the end of the day, is subjective. Growth is a measure on this subjective value. It is not a measure on mater…

That's not infinite growth. There are only a finite number of humans on earth who could possibly play the game, and many of those either have no interest or can't afford to do so. And, of all those potential players, each of them only has finite disposable income. So there is a hard upper limit on their revenue, without growth in world population (to increase population of potential players) or growth in the world economy (to increase disposable income of those players). So, Fortnite is subject to the same finite growth limitations as every other business.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#287

Post by NovaS1X »

innocentoldguy wrote: post #229
samstave wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mind sharing what you had to spend? This would be fascinating to do, but would be great to know the actual costs involved. Also, would you share, more in depth, the experience as a whole: Do you speak Japanese, married to a Japanese citizen/are one? What was the biggest unexpected etc... Basically, a blog post about such an endeavor would be great reading... THanks

Sure. I'm an American, I'm fluent in Japanese, and I'm married to a Japanese citizen. However, I think it would be easy enough to find an English-speaking guide to go around with you and look at houses. I could suggest some people, if you're interested. Regarding the houses, there were different requirements depending on the city we looked at. For example, in Sadogashima the cost was about $20,000 for a house, but th…

Thanks for this. I'm Canadian and married to a Japanese. We're starting to think long term about something like this, as I really want the life experience living in Japan and she's not super comfortable where we are now.

Do deals like this happen often? What do you do for work? I'm a sysadmin so I'm worried about work options, but that's a different conversation.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#288

Post by a_wild_dandan »

adventured wrote: post #280
snowwrestler wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree that there is a significant correlation between expanding population and an expanding economy. In fact there are plenty of examples of countries whose economy expanded way faster than their population, which implies that factors other than population dominate economic growth. (If population was the dominant factor in economic growth, we would see a consistent correlation between the two.) Every day we read…

One prominent recent example that destroys the myth that economic expansion is very tightly bound to population expansion, is the US. 2008 pop: 304m people. 2018 pop: ~327m people. A 7.5% increase in population across a decade. 2008 GDP: $14.72t ($17.64t inflation adjusted). 2018 GDP: $20.5t. Approximately a 17% real increase in GDP. The US added an economy close to the size of Germany in just ten years while only ad…

I wonder if the effects of automation, which the previous commenter alluded to, contributed significantly to this phenomenon...

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#289

Post by lenocinor »

rangibaby wrote: post #242
lenocinor wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't explain similar phenomena, though, like the Japanese replacing their cars frequently: https://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/12/world/why-the-cars-in-jap... https://www.picknbuy24.com/column_146.html It makes me wonder if a deeper cultural factor is at work here.

Japanese replace their cars frequently because taxes are structured so that after a few years it becomes worthwhile to buy a new car.

Yes, I agree that this is the factual reason why. But doesn't it seem odd that these are coincidental? I think it might not be a coincidence.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#290

Post by mrhappyunhappy »

nihonde wrote: post #262
neic wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What reasons do people have for not wanting a perfectly good 20-30 year old house for half the price of a new one?

The price is for the land, which can be quite expensive and can go up. The cost of demolition and building a new home is about USD200-300k for a very nice three bedroom home in a typical urban area. Credit is very cheap too. Also, people prefer new things in Japan. If you see a car that is more than a few years old, it will most likely be a mint-condition collectors item.

I'm in Kyushu. Seikisui houses cost 150-300k here on average. The house I personally want (saw at house demo place) is 750k. It's really nice!! In California that might buy a 3br in the outskirts of LA buy it won't be nice. The house I saw, in California would probably go for 1.5-3 mil in southern parts and much higher in SF.
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