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Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

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Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#361

Post by toyg »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #148
sgc wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are houses being given away in Italy? I would love to know of the program.

Rural Italy is beautiful and the food (in the grocery stores and markets) is both great and ridiculously cheap. But there are a few downsides. 100-plus-year-old houses often require significant refurbishment including earthquake mitigation (depending on the area) and they can be expensive to heat unless you spend $$$ on new windows and good seals and insulation. But the biggest problem for a foreigner moving to Italy…

Also, if you do a job that is defined in law (doctor, architect, journalist, etc), the bureaucracy might actually stop you from working until you’ve jumped several hoops - exams, payments, years of practice, and so on.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#362

Post by toyg »

sgc wrote: post #81
mettamage wrote: post #52

So wait, there are places where there are houses being given away (e.g. US, Japan and Italy as far as I know) and I'm a person that has the ability to work remotely. Am I missing something? Is this my ticket to cheap housing and a more stress free life? At what point am I going to be scammed and/or disappointed?

Where are houses being given away in Italy? I would love to know of the program.

I know of a few places with schemes to incentive people to move to dying towns, in the regions bordering with Northern Appennini mountains and in the deep South. The catch is that these towns are dying for a reason: they are far from everything, there are no local jobs (or rather, no jobs most people would do - being a farmer in 2018 is unappealing), and the housing stock is often crumbling and centuries-old. The kids go to school in cities and never go back, so you’re left with a bunch of oldies. Do not expect any help from the State, but do expect hindrance, especially in building matters - Italian laws on paper are the best in the world, but in practice, compliance is hell.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#363

Post by rmason »

nikkwong wrote: post #282
rmason wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 attr…

Guys like Dan Gilbert and Christopher Illitch can get tax incentives, smaller guys cannot. The little guys, even if they have a multi-year proven record of success often cannot even get the backing of banks.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#364

Post by toyg »

refurb wrote: post #212
ska wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US is becoming more like that over time too, if you look at a lot of the new builds in subdivisions it's hard to imagine them lasting that long. I wonder if at some point the cultural attitude to "old houses" will become more like Japan's. [edit]: I find the downvotes curious - I know plenty of people living in ~120 year old houses, and plenty living in 5-15 year old new builds in subdivisions. None of us can really…

I live in a 120 year old house. I would agree they are well built if you’re only measure is “they are still standing”. If it comes down to materials or build quality, no i would not say that 100+ year old homes are better built than newer homes.

That might also be because “120 year old” is now basically the XX century - when people stopped building stuff that lasts, preferring stuff that makes a profit.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#365

Post by crc32 »

philliphaydon wrote: post #357
crc32 wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people bring children that are not their own to fast tack their way through into the country. Or when families lie about their child’s age to loophole the system. Completely citation & evidence free assertions - smells like slander to me.

https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-border-patrol-dna-20180... https://www.foxnews.com/us/migrant-children-being-used-as-co... https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/05/illegal-immigration-e... https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/adults-posing-as-chi... https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/oct/2/illegal-immigr... I Guess cos cnn didn’t talk about it, it must be slander and lies tho.

From your fox news link:

"On Thursday, officials revealed that in seven of 102 cases involving children under 5 separated from their guardians, the adult was determined not to actually be the parent."

So ok, you're only slandering ~95% of those 102. If you don't like the term "slander" how about "generalisation" or "prejudice".

Forgive me if these words have negative connotations, or "trigger feelings" - but what term would you use, to describe declaring 100% of a group to have attributes that only apply to - by your very own research - 5% of that group?

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#366

Post by crc32 »

loveyourmother wrote: post #360
crc32 wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Twice as many unarmed white men are shot by police I visited your link and could not see a matching statistic. Filtering by "unarmed" and hovering over "Race" I got a count of 19 White, 15 Black, 4 Hispanic. I then also had a quick look at the article for "Brett Luengo", [0] (White) which states i.e. "Luengo attacked a woman first..." etc. etc.; I mean it goes on for quite a while. So seems like there's a big varia…

> I visited your link and could not see a matching statistic. I was wrong. Police kill twice as many whites but I shouldn't have included the unarmed qualifier. > I then also had a quick look at the article for "Brett Luengo" He did attack but I think it still qualifies. I personally didn't hear of this one but a google search shows it was covered, even if not very extensively. It was picked up on national news. Even…

Oh right, I guess I thought what you were doing was saying that cases like [0] being "heard about on the national news" is showing some kind of bias, that it's not something to be concerned about because the same is happening regardless of race, and using some statistics to evidence your assertion.

I was trying to say that a) you were massively off about the relative quantities of unarmed shootings and that b) in any case; I would imagine people are more upset - i.e. it's in the national news - about e.g. [0] than; e.g. Brett Luengo, because there's a huge difference in the circumstances surrounding their deaths, something which cannot be interpreted from the statistics you cited.

Further, my admittedly limited & poor knowledge of the situation caused me to infer that the op was talking about this qualitative difference, although you are correct in saying that if you take the statement "we cannot seem to stop shooting unarmed black men" absolutely, strictly, literally; without applying any context whatsoever, then talking about quantities is completely valid.

So - my apologies.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Walter_Scott

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#367

Post by mrhappyunhappy »

mikekchar wrote: post #283
hudibras wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

Nearly free? 58k interest on 240k borrowed over 25 years is not exactly nothing.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#368

Post by icebraining »

13of40 wrote: post #122
ArtWomb wrote: post #2

This is cool. Would not know where to begin with gut renovation in Japan, though. And some of these look quite weathered. In US for example, you can typically sub-contract parts of the renovation to get decent pricing. One team for the basement flooring. One for waterproofing / sump pump installation. And then perhaps install drywall / paint DIY. Of course this is aided by close availability to Home Depot, Lowes, and…

Slightly off topic, but I was in rural Portugal recently, and my impression was that about one in three buildings was in some state of ruin, from otherwise delightful little cottages with holes in their roofs and empty windows, to remains of ancient walls just clinging together by the sheer will of their graffiti. (This isn't to pick on Portugal either - I've seen it in several different parts of Europe.) For the les…

My guess is that the house is inhabited, the owners are probably poor, but have lived there for probably many decades, and have no intention of leaving. Their heirs won't have enough money to fix it up either, unless they emigrated to Luxembourg or something, and may very well keep living there, since they can't afford anything closer to Lisbon.

The problem with Portugal is quite often just a simple one: lack of capital.

By the way, the lower walls may be stone, but the rest is often just brick with terrible cement slapped on top. Water infiltration issues are rampant, especially in a humid area like Sintra. Mold is certainly an issue, and the solution often requires removing all the cement and reapplying it, which ain't that cheap.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#369

Post by mettamage »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #120
mettamage wrote: post #52

So wait, there are places where there are houses being given away (e.g. US, Japan and Italy as far as I know) and I'm a person that has the ability to work remotely. Am I missing something? Is this my ticket to cheap housing and a more stress free life? At what point am I going to be scammed and/or disappointed?

You could probably move to a cheap part of your own country already with much less hassle and fewer integration issues. The reason you don't is that cheap places in rich countries are usually cheap for a reason.

Hmm... in my country it'd only be affordable not cheap (The Netherlands). We're pretty populated over here and the government has every square meter planned out. We have a name for it in Dutch "bestemmingsplan" (literally: destination plan or purpose plan).

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#370

Post by mettamage »

inerte wrote: post #121
sgc wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are houses being given away in Italy? I would love to know of the program.

I upvoted you, expecting that OP might deliver with the relevant article, but decided to do a search of my own and found some stuff. https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=free%20italy%20houses like the first few articles are about free or 1 Euro houses. Seems to be true!

Hmm... I was too lazy to do the Google search, sorry about that. I figured the average HN type would prefer to do a DYOR Google search anyway. I happened to have seen it on a Dutch program (a Dutch couple moved to Italy).
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