8.5m empty homes in rural Japan

The report found 13.6% of Japan's 62.42 million homes were unoccupied. This was particularly pronounced in the prefectures of Wakayama, Tokushima, Kagoshima, and Kochi, all of which recorded home vacancy rates over 18%. [...] Cities like Tochigi and Nagano have "akiya banks." These websites, which are developed by the city or municipal governments, list abandoned homes. Some of them are available for as little as 50,000 yen ($455). The town of Okutama in western Tokyo even hands over aging and vacant buildings for free, per Nikkei. Some new residents have found creative ways to repurpose them, turning them into workshops and eateries.

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Buntaro said:

I read somewhere that the population of Japan decreased by one million people last yeast, which absolutely amazes me.

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thomas said:

By some 420,000 in 2020, according to Nikkei. Some of my friends and acquaintances acquired old farmhouses in Yamanashi and Nagano and converted them into besso and "bicycle stations". Depending on the condition and furnishing, some of them invested less than what a new sedan would have cost them (provided you enjoy frugal weekends in the sticks). With remote work becoming more accepted, it makes perfect sense to move into the country. We live in Kanagawa, on the (semi-rural) outskirts of Tokyo but I'd trade our place for some innaka property without thinking twice.

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• While foreigners aren't excluded from buying akiya, there are a number of hoops to jump through that make owning one expensive if not impossible. Beyond renovation costs, a 1981 update to Japan's Building Standard Law also means these homes are considered fragile enough to require structural work to bring them up to code. Furthermore, property rights make it almost impossible for people to knock down these akiya and start fresh without approval from their (technical) homeowners, despite the fact that they want little to do with the property. Thus, the unwanted homes persist, stuck between renovation and demolition.
• Despite those hurdles, the idea of buying a home and/or starting a business for such a low price has proved too good to pass up for some. With top-level buy-in from the government, there's always the chance that some of the legal obstacles to increasing rural homeownership could fall by the wayside. For now, though, many Japanese urbanites seem to feel that if a $500 home sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

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thomas said:

If you have ever dreamt of owning property in Japan, now is your time: with 8.5 million empty homes (空き家 akiya), some prefectures give them away for free and even offer renovation subsidies. So why not work from home in the Japanese countryside?

There are more than 8 million empty homes in rural Japan, and local governments are selling them for as little as $500 in a bid to lure residents

In Japan, local authorities are giving away renovation subsidies to incentivize people to move into the country's rural areas.

news.yahoo.com

A Guide to Akiya: Vacant Houses in the Japanese Countryside for a Steal | Tokyo Cheapo

Interested in a cheap home in the Japanese countryside? Here's a look at akiya (abandoned houses), how to get one and how much they

tokyocheapo.com

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Japan's Housing and Land Survey in 2018 counted 8.76 million unoccupied houses and the number is set to increase. Many local authorities have websites showing the unoccupied homes for sale to try to stimulate interest and sales. But for anyone looking for a piece of the country's rural heartland it pays to enter with an element of "buyer beware," according to Parker Allen of real estate consultancy Akiya & Inaka, which helps foreign buyers looking to purchase property in the countryside. "Land is the value, not the house," he says. "With a place that is 3 million yen ($25,900) you often need another 5 million yen to get it habitable. The best deals are on existing structures with minimal renovation. The existing structure is the thing that causes the unforeseen problems." Also, not all of Japan's countryside is seen as equal. Hotspots are within two hours of Tokyo or Osaka, making them accessible weekend boltholes. Complications, especially for foreign buyers, tend to arise when trying to secure loans and navigating local regulations around individual properties. Some rules require the home to be inhabited full time, restrict changes to existing structures or come with farmland that requires active use.

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Majestic said:

I've been watching this Australian guy go through the whole process, from purchase to renovation. His whole journey is fascinating. He's in Ibaraki, on the south end of the prefecture, so he is indeed within the hotspot mentioned above. It's tough to go super rural if you are raising bilingual or bicultural kids (I think). Maybe this is getting easier in the age of "remote" everything.

https://www.youtube.com/c/TokyoLlama/videos

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The company, called Everyplan Co., is involved in revitalizing western Japan's Chugoku region by demolishing old traditional homes to prepare the wood for processing. Japan faces major issues because of its aging society and population drain in rural areas. Inside a vacant house in the mountain town of Kawamoto, a two-hour drive from the prefectural capital of Matsue, Motoki Moriyama, 41, of Everyplan looks up at the sturdy pine beams supporting the ceiling. "You can no longer get something of such quality," Moriyama said.

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Millions of yen are needed to demolish an old house. Everyplan pays a portion of the costs, depending on the quality of timber, which is processed into furniture and modern interior building materials. In general, the large pieces of timber are sold as is, and it is still rare for the wood to be milled for ease of use. The company intends to exhibit the products at domestic and international trade fairs and sell them to construction companies. Everyplan sees opportunities to popularize the use of old timber, which was considered expensive until the surge in prices of imported lumber from the so-called "wood shock" caused by a global decrease in supply in recent years.

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The real estate tax for residential land is reduced to one-sixth or one-third of the property's appraised value, depending on the size of the lot. Under the previous system, vacant homes at risk of collapse were designated as "specified vacant home" and lost their eligibility for the tax credit if the municipality advised improvements. Under the new law, municipalities can designate homes at risk of becoming specified vacant homes if left unattended as "poorly managed long-unoccupied homes." Those homes will all lose eligibility for tax credits, just like specified vacant homes. The aim is to encourage owners to promptly provide maintenance on their properties, preventing them from collapsing due to neglect by effectively implementing a tax increase. The land ministry established criteria to determine what constitutes a poorly managed, unoccupied home, including the condition of damaged or deteriorating houses and fences, from the standpoints of safety, hygiene and appearance.

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I went onto a Japanese real-estate site here, and they all basically have access to the same database. I set up the criteria I wanted: less than 10 million JPY (or SD 66,696), to get to Tokyo Station within 90 minutes by train, more than 400 square meters of land, and within a 15-minute walk to a train station. I wanted as much land as possible simply because they're not making any more of it. I live in a little town called Shisui, which is in Chiba Prefecture. I'm right on the border of Narita City, which is one of the major international airports. My house was 6.6 million JPY (or USD 43,941). My neighbours said many people came to look at it, but at the end of the day, I'm the one who ended up buying it. The house had been unoccupied for two years. [...] I'm looking for a new job right now. But because my cost of living is so cheap, $1,000 a month is basically all I need to be happy.

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... $1,000 a month is basically all I need to be happy. ...

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mdchachi said:

Can you buy earthquake insurance in Japan? Is it affordable?

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mdchachi said:

Thanks. How much are you paying for home insurance including earthquake coverage roughly?

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As the key reason for the rising number of vacant homes, the ministry's Statistics Bureau pointed to an increase in cases in which the homes of elderly people living alone become vacant after they die or move to facilities. Of vacant homes, those not serving any specific purposes, including for rent or sale or as second homes, numbered 3.85 million, up by 370,000. They accounted for 42.8 % of the total number of vacant homes, increasing steadily since 2003 when the share stood at 32.1 %.

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