New Use for Akiya houses?

[Wendy]

Here is a share-space concept that I hadn't heard of before reading this article:
https://www.shareable.net/addressing-ja ... aWCgoqVIeA

It isn't clear either in the article or on the website https://address.love/what the owner gets out of the deal, but thought it might interest some people here.

[Zakiyama]

Interesting concept!
It looks like the owners get a cut of the "rent". And I'm sure they are happy their house is being used and cared for.

It seems like as soon as a house is empty, it starts to fall apart. There are so many akiya in our village, but most have gone too long and require major repairs to be livable. The biggest obstacle to people moving here is lack of housing.

[donguri]

That's a new take on the "share house" concept that seems to be popping up in various areas.

In our small mountain town the operator of the local guesthouse has recently rented a second akiya and did some renovation and started a share house. I'm not sure if the minimum term is a week or a month, but you rent a room and share the space with whoever else may be living there at the time. It took her, the guest house operator, quite some time and energy to get approval from the very small neighborhood community, but she did it. Her guesthouse provides a lot of opportunity to meet and talk with people who are potentially interested in living here. The share house gives people who are exploring that option a place that they can live short-term, while they investigate the town, jobs, etc. It's a low commitment/cost way to give life here a try. Other people just use it as temporary lodging for whatever reason. Currently there's a guy who is between jobs and trying to clear his mind and figure out his next step living there as well as another young man who works for the town office and is waiting for the renovations to be completed on his own place. Seems there is some good community happening between some of the lodgers, so that's useful too.

[Zasso Nouka]

Sounds like a really good idea and hopefully will get more widely taken up to provide folk with an easy option to explore countryside living and potential locations to move to.

[no6una9a]

In the article "ADDress-ing Japan’s vacant house issue" mentioned above it is noted that "... Property taxes are a staggering six times higher when a home is demolished ...". Since we would like to live in Japan I often look into akiya house banks. One option would be to buy a used house for renovation. Since there are very old house offered as well another option would be to buy one of these old properties, make use of the ground, demolish the existing house and build a new one.

From what I read in various internet articles property tax (Kotei shisan zei) is raised at a municipal and prefectural level usually calculated on the assessed value of the land or building. Is there a general rule that this tax is incread six times higher after demolishing an old house and building an new one?

[Zasso Nouka]

Is there a general rule that this tax is incread six times higher after demolishing an old house and building an new one?

I must confess to not knowing much about the tax rules on abandoned houses and land so take this with a pinch of salt but perhaps that only applies to land where the house was demolished and not rebuilt. Couple that with the fact that there doesn't seem to be much uniformity between municipalities across Japan with each one interpreting the rules however they see fit. So you could have a situation where one town or city rigidly enforces rules that their neighbouring town ignores for some reason. Ideally you would have to speak to the local council in an area you are interested in and you may even find there are grants or other benefits offered to attract newcomers into the area.