Buying property in Japan

[Shouganai]

This topic is very interesting. I am planning to move with my wife to Japan in 2017, and we are looking at housing options. First we will rent, but once we are in a better position, we would like to own something. Since my wife is very reluctant to buy a pre-owned house that is older than 10 years, the idea it to buy a small piece of land somewhere near a train station to commute to Osaka. On that land we want to put a prefab house, and I was wondering if anyone has any experience with this, or could point me towards a website where prices of the prefab models are shown?

There are land lots close to station, and some further away foreclosed, you can look at websites that handle those sales, as well as govt websites. The courts handle the process.

 

[Shouganai]

Agree entirely with your view that buying a new house in Japan is a massive waste of money. A couple of points though.

1) First, land prices are going up in Tokyo, albeit slowly, and there are some hotspots where they are rising quite rapidly. I doubt this will continue as Tokyo's population starts falling after 2020, which may be an argument to buy as close to the centre as you can afford to.
2) Secondly, I'm a bit dubious as to your comment about the high quality of Japanese houses. If they were so good, why are so many pulled down after 30 years? I think there's a difference between earthquake-resistance and quality, to be a bit facetious, a cardboard box has excellent earthquake resistance but you wouldn't want to live in one!.

Tokyo's population is rising, albeit slowly. I think its 1-1.5% as people move from the rural areas, or smaller cities to the 'big city', as well as the cities attracting tourists and foreign skilled workers. There is a movement from outer Tokyo to central Tokyo, but some outer areas actually retain people, and attract rural folk from Niigata or Aichi because they are similarly rural, but with access to jobs, big city on a 'discretionary basis'.