8.5m empty homes in rural Japan

I guess "akiya" will soon join the ranks of other famous Japanese words used and understood overseas. :LOL:

The Architectural Digest answers the following burning questions:
  • Why are there so many cheap, empty houses in Japan?
  • Can foreigners buy akiya in Japan?
  • How much do akiya cost?
  • How do you buy an akiya?

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Your next fairy-tale castle?​



www.architecturaldigest.com

The Reason Japan Has Millions of Empty Houses

And why they’re selling for as little as $23,000
www.architecturaldigest.com www.architecturaldigest.com
 
Here's an interesting piece on the economic impact of akiya: New calculations show that long-abandoned homes in Japan are bringing down the values of surrounding properties, with losses reaching 3.9 trillion JPY (USD 24.7 billion) over the five years through 2023.

The substantial amount highlights the magnitude of an issue causing a downward spiral of decreasing prices and a growing number of unsold homes. This information was gathered by the Japan Akiya Consortium, which comprises 14 companies and a research institution dedicated to addressing the challenge of vacant houses, known as akiya in Japanese. The data is derived from government statistics for 2023 and studies conducted by the University of Tokyo's Center for Real Estate Innovation. From 2018 to 2023, the number of vacant homes not listed for sale or rent yet remaining unoccupied for an extended period rose by approximately 360,000, reaching around 3.85 million. Over 70% of these properties are independent, single-family homes.

The consortium's research found that land prices within a 50-metre radius of abandoned homes were on a downward trend in many cases. Potential causes include a decrease in the number of people looking to move in due to concerns about vegetation overgrowth, pests and public safety. An estimated 80% of the single-family houses that became abandoned in the five years through 2023 brought down the values of surrounding properties by about 3.9 trillion yen. [...] In the case of abandoned condos, which were not included in the estimate, missing owners can mean payments of management and repair fees are delayed, bringing down the asset value of an entire building.
Click to expand...

Paywall alert:
asia.nikkei.com

Japan's abandoned houses wipe $25bn off nearby property value

Safety concerns lead to more unsold homes, exacerbating the problem
asia.nikkei.com asia.nikkei.com
 
We have the other problem here in Maine. Almost no homes for sale. The average price for a home here in southern Maine start at 47,354,850YEN and go much higher for certain locations.
 
Grandpa Frank said:
We have the other problem here in Maine. Almost no homes for sale. The average price for a home here in southern Maine start at 47,354,850YEN and go much higher for certain locations.
Click to expand...
Here in Chicago and it's suburbs as well. The housing prices have gotten insane.
 
The house behind me is a bit bigger and went for 1.2 million a few months ago. The house next to me is an identical twin to mine. It sold for $380,000 last year. I paid just 48 thousand for mine 40 years ago and the woman I bought my house from had paid only 11 thousand. Pretty good appreciation or pretty bad inflation , LOL. My first thought is to sell my house for big profit , but I would probably have to move to Haiti to afford another house to move to.
 
It's really difficult to know what's insane or not. I mean my parents first house was probably $5000 or $10000. The house I was born in was $25,000. They must have felt prices were going crazy in those days too. 50 years later it's worth over $200,000. Definitely inflation has bumped up far more than we've been used to. But it was much higher during the Reagan years. I wasn't in the workforce then so I wasn't really aware of it. I thought %10 interest on savings account was normal. I'm sure my Dad must have been feeling it since Reagan's trickle-down bullshit contributed to him losing his job.
 
@mdchachi Have I got this right?

$25,000 in 1974 dollars is the same as $165,988.10 today. That's the increase due to the changing value of the dollar. The rest of the difference, from there up to $200k, would be due to the increasing value of the underlying asset--the house/land vs all other things.

What is $1 in 1974 worth in 2024?

If I back the date up a little, to 1968, to capture the change in the dollar from 1968 (instead of 1974), I get $226,213.86 --just due to the change in the value of a dollar since then.
 
Here's another English-language website aimed at helping foreigners find abandoned real estate in Japan:

jref.com

AkiyaMart

Akiya abandoned property listing
jref.com jref.com


The founders, Take Kurosawa and Joey Stockermans, first met while visiting Japan as exchange students in college. A decade later, after working for years in the tech industry (in the Bay Area and New York City, respectively), they were disillusioned by the cost of living in the United States. Despite having good jobs, neither of them could afford to buy single-family homes. In Silicon Valley, where Kurosawa worked, a typical house costs well over $1 million. At the same time, they kept seeing photos of charming, cheap akiya on Instagram. When their jobs were both hit by layoffs, they started talking about buying a place in Japan.
Click to expand...

 
If non residents buy these houses I wonder if they keep up with taxes.
 
While sipping my coffee this morning (and reading through @nice gaijin's akiya thread), I watched a feature on vacant properties by NHK World.

www3.nhk.or.jp

Vacant Homes - Japanology Plus | NHK WORLD-JAPAN

*First broadcast on August 17, 2023. In Japan, one in every seven homes is empty. These 8.5 million vacant properties may increase the risk of fire and burglary, or negatively impact local real estate prices. But new ways are emerging to make use of them. In one regional community, empty homes...
www3.nhk.or.jp www3.nhk.or.jp


Filling Needs with Empty Rooms

It's estimated that there are currently about ten million vacant homes in Japan and that number is expected to grow even further. This episode features businesses that are working to fill empty properties with people in need of affordable housing or businesses that can provide a boost to local communities.
Click to expand...


One Japanese real estate agent of a different kind, Matsumoto Tomoyuki, specialises in finding and repairing vacant homes so they can be rented to people in need of low-income housing. He adjusts the rent to whatever his clients can afford, as many are retired and often rejected by regular fudōsan agents.
 
I did watch that last night before bed. Nice one. I like the low income housing, turning some into businesses and even the living with elderly. Nice they covered how some cannot have a house there if torn down must be renovated in place. I had a "used" house originally but my wife wanted a new one, I built her that in 2017 per her specifications (she chose everything from options we had) now she wants a used house in Japan lol.
 

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