Interesting Properties in Japan

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LeeB
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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

Post by LeeB »

The 管理費 is probably way over the top because the building might be geared towards tourism rather than year round residents. The multi-story nature of the building would also be a reason for lots of routine costs such as elevators and electricity.

When looking at condos/units/mansions for sale you can see all sorts of ranges for the 管理費 and 修繕積立. Buildings in tourist areas seem to have the highest fees for 管理費 and the newest buildings seem to have the lowest 修繕積立. The developer often locks in the high 管理費 as a future profit stream and sets the 修繕積立 too low to entice buyers. Atami has lots of units with ridiculous 管理費 as well.

The biggest drawbacks to these types of properties as I have posted is as they age the need for more maintenance and unforeseen repairs increases and the fall in value over time. The total cost of the monthly fees will often add up to more than the value of the property over a period of time.

As far as reasonableness compared to other countries, I really don't know what is charged here in Australia as, like you, I've never owned such a property here.

Hawaii, a location that many Japanese purchased property back during the bubble days, used to be reasonable for these types of charges. The condo I owned used to charge US$100 a month and that included common area electricity, insurance, and other fees along with water and sewer. And of course, there was a tendency for prices of this type of property to increase over time.

Now it is hard to find a condo in Honolulu or Waikiki that doesn't cost well over US$500 a month for the monthly fees. For example, Discovery Bay, a big condo near the Hilton Hawaiian Village has costs of US$712 for HOA fees, (HOA Fees Include: AC Central, Cable TV, Hot Water, Sewer, Water) lease rent of $US432 a month (you don't own the land under the condo), and property taxes of US$137 a month for a one bedroom unit. The condo costs US$269,000.

If you go further away from Waikiki and out to Kahala, you can get a two bedroom unit (654 square feet) for US$550,000 in Kahala Towers. The costs are HOA fees US$480 per month, Taxes, US$142 a month, other fees $142 a month (repairs or levy to repair or update the building ???). You own the land in this particular building and don't lease it.

The Kamogawa unit is about four times bigger than the Discovery Bay unit, though..............

Mainland USA? I have no idea.

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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

Post by LeeB »

I'll do something a little different in this post.

One property is from Japan and the other is from Australia. A Tale of Two Houses or properties.

The property in Japan is from the Onjuku area again and in particular the planned community at Onjukudai. The property has been listed for sale a long time and was just reduced in price. IIRC the price was reduced by about 20%.

It is a normal size house for Japan (157 square meters) on about the standard 100 tsubo lot (347.94㎡(105.25坪). The price is a whopping 980万円. In US dollars that is roughly US$90,000 or around $120,000 Australia dollars. Yes, it is a ways from Tokyo, but withing reasonable distance of Narita or Chiba.

http://www.nb-home.jp/bukken/c_onjuku/oj0522.html

Not a really good photo of the house on the web site, but here is one:
oj0522_2.jpg
Now for the property in Australia.

https://www.realestate.com.au/property- ... -128370186

It is a newer townhouse on a typical townhouse size lot. In fact the lot is about half the size of the above house at 172 square meters. The townhouse basically fills the lot with a really small courtyard and one car garage. Appliances are included in the property.

The house is about 1 hour and ten minutes by train from the Melbourne CBD and a quick 5 minute drive to the station. (Well that is if and when the trains run and run on time which they rarely seem to do - last week it took an extra 50 minutes for the kid to get back home. Or driving - well I guess it depends but there too it can take at least an hour each way or more like two as it did yesterday.)
Townhouse.jpg
Now for the price..................

The price range is A$590,000 to $A620,000 or in yen about 49,000,000 to 51,000,000. (US$442,000 or so) And just like in Japan we have all sorts of fees and costs when buying a property of which Stamp Duty (inshizei would be the equivalent) is about A$30,000 (2,500,000 yen) payable by the buyer on purchase.

So...............that is what property is like in the wonderful world of OZ.

So which one do you prefer as far as the property is concerned? Lifestyle? Other financial factors?

Shizuman
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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

Post by Shizuman »

LeeB wrote:

The price range is A$590,000 to $A620,000 or in yen about 49,000,000 to 51,000,000. (US$442,000 or so) And just like in Japan we have all sorts of fees and costs when buying a property of which Stamp Duty (inshizei would be the equivalent) is about A$30,000 (2,500,000 yen) payable by the buyer on purchase.

So...............that is what property is like in the wonderful world of OZ.
Mate the crappy weatherboard jobbie that i grew up in in ringwood is upwards of 700,000AUD round abouts now, good luck to first home owners in Aus!! Its a joke! that and the public transport system is a shambles!

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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

Post by LeeB »

IMO there is really no such thing as 'cheap' property in Australia.

To get 'CHEAPER' property you have to go way, way out from the center of the big cities or move out to the middle of nowhere or Woop Woop and even then you won't find 'cheap'. What you more than likely find is a crappy, old house in a small town kilometers from nowhere with limited jobs and education facilities.

Once you get out of the big cities here and out of the top 15 or so, it really is a different world. The 'doinaka' in Australia is really different than the doinaka in Japan. Examples of recent 'cheaper' houses touted on one RE site here:

https://www.domain.com.au/news/10-of-th ... 05-h037m3/

https://www.domain.com.au/news/the-10-c ... edium=link

And another new listing for a townhouse currently being built:

https://www.realestate.com.au/property- ... -128344242

This townhouse is on a lot with three others and together they split 800 some square meters of land. The price is A$885,000. More crowded than Japan and more expensive too.

Or how about 'cheaper' by the coast:

https://www.domain.com.au/news/how-to-l ... 06-h0tocc/

Yeah, 'cheaper' is right - many of the houses in Nowra look to be over 50 years old and sorry, but look like crap.

Again contrast the with Japan. RE is cheap. Even cheaper than many places in the USA too. Good infrastructure, shopping, transport, and medical facilities. Much safer than the USA or even Australia. The Internet actually works and is fast in Japan. The wi-fi connection in most hotels in Japan is 10 times faster than the internet speed here in Australia. The people are smarter too!!

That is offset by the usual earthquake and typhoon problems and other recent changes to tax, medical, and pensions.

The recent changes to whack foreign residents of Japan with inheritance taxes, reporting of foreign assets, and of course tax on foreign income once the thresholds are met is a real disincentive for people to move there.

The medical system is pretty good in Japan and compared to the USA, very cheap. However, here in Australia routine medical care and emergency care is basically free to most retired people. Yes, routine non-life threatening operations have a huge wait time though and to see a specialist in a public hospital can take ages in these situations.

Pension payments in Japan are now a large cost if you are not retired. Medical costs can be huge. A huge bill if you need major medical services in Japan even with national health insurance which also costs you money every month.

Australia has now also changed the terms under which you can get a pension if you move to a country that has a reciprocal treaty with them.

You can still get your Australian pension if you move to a country with a treaty, but the amount could/will change.

Before the recent changes you only needed 25 years in Australia until your retirement age to retain the full pension upon moving to such a country. Now you need 35 years. Before the benefits would be cut after six months overseas. Now it is six weeks.

For example, if you had 20 years in Australia and retired then moved overseas after six months your pension would be cut to 20 years/25 years or to 80% of the rate after six months. Now under the new rules it would be cut to 20 years/35 years or 57% of the rate - a huge reduction and the reduction will take effect after six weeks. Your also lose the supplements as you are no longer in Australia.

In monetary terms for the new reduction, a retired couple on the full Age Pension would see their income fall from $35,000 a year in Australia to only A$18,000 a year or a loss of A$17,000 or 1.4 million yen a year.

So while there are many advantages to cheap RE in Japan, these have to weighed against other items which may or may not prevent one from moving to Japan.

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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

Post by LeeB »

Not much of anything really interesting in the way of property to put up.

Hope that the summer in Japan has been ok so far although I did read that some places in Hokkaido were already hitting 30 degrees!!

When looking at condos/units/apartments for sale in Japan it never ceases to amaze me at the range of fees and charges people pay. That is one big reason that I think houses are much better.

The usual fees for common areas (管理費等) and maintenance (修繕積立金) are well known, but some others are not. Here are some that I've found.

Maybe people can put some others as well:

CATV(定額料金):750円/月、
防犯カメラシステム費(月):500円/月
RB使用料(月額):1,200円/月 (RB = Roof Balcony or a large roof terrace - this one really gets me - you have to pay extra to use your own property!!)
エレベーター使用料(月額):5,300円/月
水道料:5,337円/月
駐車場 有 10,000円/月
温泉使用料:17,928円/月

I think most of the above are self explanatory.

In Hokkaido many places also charge a heating fee which changes by month. I'll try and find some for the next post.

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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

Post by Zasso Nouka »

That must be pretty sweet having a spa you can use whenever you want but all those charges together can probably soon mount up.

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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

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While looking at various properties for sale in japan I've noticed that there are apartment blocks for sale. Over the past year or so it seems that more are coming on the market and that they seem to relatively cheap.

Well, they may be 'cheap' for a number of reasons.

Here is a typical property just chosen at random.

http://www.nb-home.jp/bukken/b_sanmu/sm1002.html

For only 1,490万円 you can become a landlord and own 8, yes, 8- 2DK apartments conveniently located only 900 meters from 日向駅 on the JR 総武本線.
The building has 5 parking spaces with it.

Supposedly when full the building will return 22.9%.

Comments:

I wonder what the market is like for small apartments like this in a small city. The yield is ridiculous which should give you a good idea that the building probably has a vacancy problem. Plus the lot is quite small at only 115坪 which would limit any future uses. I'd pass on this one.

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Eric in Japan
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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

Post by Eric in Japan »

Open an English school and use the apartments to house your teachers.
"... so, the cucumbers said to the cabbage, `Lettuce Go.`"

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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

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Well it has been a while since I posted on this topic.

After looking at the various Japanese real estate web sites over the past couple of months there hasn’t been much of anything that is really interesting. Here are a couple of properties with a few comments.

How about a cheap house near the beach with a pool? The pool comes with a special feature: green water!!

http://www.nb-home.jp/bukken/b_sanmu/sm1048.html



Seriously, 850万円 for 95 坪 of land near the beach!! Well we all know why it is cheap: your lifespan would be very short in the event of a tsunami that hit the area. Luckily here in the Melbourne area we are probably fortunate to be spared something like that. A similar property near the beach here would run you well over A$1 million or more. The cheapest block of land that size in my area is 5 times that price. Land, no house!!

Next a couple of mansions in Chiba.

http://www.nb-home.jp/bukken/d_chiba/cb1054.html

A nice mansion of 95 square meters with a price tag of 1,630万円. Not bad. Fees are a ‘reasonable’ total of 23,600 yen per month.

http://www.nb-home.jp/bukken/d_ichihara/ih0649.html

Another mansion with a huge area of 142 square meters and a price of 1,750万円. Fees are a little more at about 29,000 yen per month. This one has a nice layout and a nice roof top balcony.

The condition of both properties inside are unknown as no photos of either were shown.

I still find the price differences between real estate in Chiba and other areas around Tokyo amazing.

It is cheap, cheap, cheap in Chiba.


Another is that the size of units/condos/mansions have really increased since I lived in Japan. Now you can find numerous properties like the above that exceed 100 square meters in size and many much bigger than that with some being over 150 square meters and having reasonable price tags.

However, as I have stated in previous posts, the high cost of fees negates these prices. One property even had a charge for using the elevator!!

If you told someone in Australia that you could buy a 140 square meter condo about 1 hour outside of Tokyo for a little over A$200,000 or a beach side condo for under A$30,000 they would think you are nuts.

One fact to keep in mind about prices in Australian dollar terms is that since hitting well over 100 yen per Australian dollar a number of years back, the Australian dollar now only buys about 80 or so.

For a change, a nice house in Kamakura:

https://myhome.nifty.com/chuko/ikkodate ... _87839154/

Cost is ‘only’ 1億8500万円.

House is nice, but the land around it is basically useless.

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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

Post by Zasso Nouka »

That Kamakura house is spectacular but the wall paper in the study type room is truly horrific, the stuff of nightmares :eek:

I liked the comment on the green water pool "Cleaning is necessary" :lol:

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