buying used houses in japan

[bitteradjunct]

I'm seriously thinking of buying a used house in Japan and had 2 questions I'd like to throw out there.

1) I know the value of most houses drops and becomes virtually 0 after 30 years. But if a 36 year old house was originally well built and maintained well am I right in assuming the structure should be sound (forgetting earthquake standards that have changed over the years). I'm thinking of buying used and reforming.

I'm looking in a fairly expensive city in Kanto in the suburbs of Tokyo. The place I have my eye on is on a plot of land more than twice the size of the Japanese average and has a nice Japanese garden. I can afford the land and to reform the house but not to buy the land and build a new house.

2) A Japan Times article recently had a throw away reference to a 1988 durable housing standard that can be used to evaluate homes for resale. The article only mentioned it was rarely used. Does anyone know more about this standard and more importantly the Japanese name for the standard?

[hypertokyo]

I've never heard of the standard mentioned, though it could possibly be in Japanese 長期耐用住宅基準.
You might want to contact a building inspection company such as
http://www.kensa-shien.com/menu/index.html

[rainbowtokyo]

I wonder how it all turned out for the OP? What sort of house did he buy, was it value-for-money and is he happy with it?

[bitteradjunct]

The used house I was most interested in turned out to be a poorly built piece of junk. Mainly because the second floor and part of the first floor were just added on to the original structure later and I think the contractor took advantage of an old man who knew nothing about construction. None of the other old places I looked at were really worth renovating.

Mrs. Adjunct and I spent about a year looking at used places and empty lots and never found anything (we could afford) that we could see ourselves happy living in for the rest of our lives. Finally, we found an empty lot that was 90% perfect and hired a construction company that knew what insulation was and had a new place built that, with regular maintenance (something Japanese don't seem to know the meaning of), is supposed to last 200 years.

I'm happy I don't live in an icebox anymore, new place is nice and toasty. We'll see what the summer brings though...

[rainbowtokyo]

T hired a construction company that knew what insulation was and had a new place built that, with regular maintenance (something Japanese don't seem to know the meaning of), is supposed to last 200 years. I'm happy I don't live in an icebox anymore, new place is nice and toasty. We'll see what the summer brings though...

Thank you for sharing. What would it cost to construct a well insulated 3br new home in a major city? How long would it take to build something like that?

[bitteradjunct]

A VERY rough estimate for new houses (not including land) would be something like this:

1) A pre-built house on a plot of land probably costs about 1,000万 or sometimes even less. But these things are typically architectural abortions put together with spit and toilet paper and designed to be sold cheap.

2) Getting a house designed and built by one of the big companies starts at around 1,300-1,500万. That is a figure they start with but it WILL go up. Every time you want to put another shelf in a closet or exta electrical outlet the price goes up. If you want a post box and a TV antenna it goes up again. And they will probably really nail you with extras when it comes to doing the outside parking area and flower beds around your house.

You are also really limited in terms of what you can do in terms of siding and fixtures. For example, you usually have to choose the doors, kitchen, lights, baths and toilets from their catalog. I hate the fancy heated toilet seats in Japan, if the toilet wasn't so freezing they wouldn't be necessary. I think they are a waste of electricity and I've read one of those is responsible for about 3% of your electricity bill. But when I spoke to one of the bigger construction companies they were telling me I had to install them because that was all there was in the catalog.

Plus the place is designed to be knocked down in 35 years so it ain't the best quality. All newly built homes in Japan need to have a 24 hour air circulation system installed. This is because toxic chemicals are used in the construction and too many people were falling victim to sick house syndrome, the glue they use to hang the wall paper is apparently a prime culprit. Banning the use of toxic chemicals seems to be too logical.

3) A house with serious insulation, double pane windows, etc etc (I can heat the whole house with one regular wall mounted A/C unit) will probably run you at least 2,000万, depending on the size. My place cost a little more than that (2,100) but I have 3 bedrooms, a study, a Japanese tatami room, hardwood floors, dry wall that is painted instead of the typical wall paper and a wood deck. Plus it is built to last so my childrens children could live in it if I don't sell it to fund my retirement.

But you can really go as high as you want when you build a house. The month we signed the deal with the construction company it had sold 7 other houses. I saw a list of the 7 places and the price. Mine was the cheapest and most were in the 3,000万 range.

There were a couple of delays with my place waiting for materials and for Mrs. Adjunct to make up her bloody mind about the parking lot and garden but it took 4 months to build.

[MuscleT]

Congratulations. I wish you happily living there.
I know the situation in Tokyo or ın Japan so it was reason that I left there.
It is very difficult to earn money in there, but easily spent.
For a salaryman it almost impossible if he works in a city...
icebox seems destiny of most japanese..