Interesting Properties in Japan

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LeeB
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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

Post by LeeB »

Well I haven't put an up 'interesting property' for a while.

It is a gray, rainy, cloudy, and a cool day here in the 'lockdown' capital of Melbourne.

With all the crap going on all over the world it looks like any future international travel plans are off the table for the foreseeable future.

Did you people in Japan know that Australians are actually BANNED from leaving Australia? Makes you lucky if you have two passports in this kind of situation if one wanted to leave.......


Wonder if and when we'll get to use our 'INfrequent flyer' miles or if they will have any value left?

So at least using the Internet one can have a virtual trip and wonder what it would be like to be sitting on the beach in a different part of the world.

Well here is one property that would let you do that and it has also been for sale for a long time.
How about a nice ocean front property out in the middle of nowhere in Mie Prefecture?

https://www.athome.co.jp/kodate/6965692 ... ist_simple

The property is a "保養所" or I guess what one would call 'retreat' or 'resort'. The property is located 20 kilometers from 鵜方 (Ugata) station on the Kintetsu Shima Line (近鉄志摩線) which is located two stops before the end of the line at Kashikojima (賢島).

The property is a huge 9LDK and given that is a retreat has all the facilities and space one would expect of such a property. Upkeep and cleaning the place would take a lot of time too. The land is a whopping 11,431 square meters or about 2.75 acres in the 'old measurement'. The property has beautiful views and location.

The property must have cost a fortune to build and to buy the land. Although one can not be certain just from the photos as they are at least 6 months old , the property looks to be in good shape inside.

One aspect of the property would need to be investigated with respect to it is the ownership status of property on the coast in respect to where the property lines actually start/stop with regard to the beach/ocean.

Here in Australia there are very few properties that actually own the beach that they next to/are on with probably 99.99999999999% of them having zero ownership at all and some of them only owning up to certain water levels. In Hawai'i there are a few properties that actually own the beach as well and they have huge prices on them.

And now the question you've been asking................the price for this outstanding ocean front paradise.....

2,900万円.

That's right not even 3,000万円 and I'd guess that if you offered a lower price you'd get it cheaper too.
However, one thing I would be wary about is the 'value' the property is carried on the tax books which I would guess would be multiples of the selling price and therefore you'd be up for a huge amount of tax when buying and yearly as well which may be why the place hasn't sold.

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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Interesting property LeeB. That's a lot of toilets, don't think you'll ever get caught short while staying there :lol:

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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

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Continuing the ocean/beach theme, here is another 'interesting" property, well strange is more like it. The first time I saw it I though about all those quonset huts the US has and one that I had an office in many many years ago.

How about living in a metal barrel?

This property is located near the beach in Kamogawa City in Chiba Prefecture. You also have the 'benefit' of having a river, the Fukurogura River, running near your property as well.

The land size is a small 164.61m² and the total area of the building is 107.22m², but given the structural form of the building, I'd guess that it would seem a lot smaller. The price is 780万円.

Anyway, I'd pass on this one. This has also been for sale for at least six months.

https://www.athome.co.jp/kodate/1049742 ... ist_simple

And the photos:

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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Crikey Lee,

How do you find these places ? This one looks like you'd be living inside of some sort of spaceship. The location is quite nice and the beach access is fantastic but the house is as weird as f*ck.

Kamogawa is not a bad place to live, kameda hospital nearby is pretty good should you ever need medical facilities and the city itself has a lot to offer if you don't need big city life plus fresh seafood is always going to be easy to buy.

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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

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"How do you find these places ?"

I just browse a couple of real estate web sites in Japan that have properties for sales in areas that I am interested in. I used to look at whole bunch of them when we had thoughts of moving back to Japan, but now it is just a 'hobby' and only scan a few.

In some of the cases such as the above one in Mie, the properties in Sapporo, Yokohama, and parts of Chiba are places that I've visited in Japan. Would never go back to live in Nagoya as the prices there are over the top and most are quite small.

Lot's of time to waste as well while doing other things on the computer such as reading the news or playing 'free' poker too.

Had we moved back to Japan there are a couple that I would have been really interested in buying such as the nice one in Onjuku. The condo near Nakajima Park in Sapporo had a great location, was new, and the feees were cheap. However, the penthouse in Yokohama and the high floor condo in downtown Sapporo while both nice would have been a stretch especially with the fall in the value of the Australian dollar against the yen.

I could have seen the familiar theme expressed by many here on the site between themselves and the better half about 'living in the middle of nowhere' (Onjuku) versus Yokohama...........

In reality we probably would have ended up buying two properties: a house somewhere near a big city and then a condo in Sapporo to escape to during the hot summer.

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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

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Well we had a decent afternoon here today in Melbourne with sun coming out and the temp hitting 19.5 C after a cloudy and rainy start.

THis morning I was able to get out and cut a few branches that were hanging over the fence from the neighbour's house that were hitting my roof before the rain started. One of the few things that I haven't been able to do over the past several months and one that I really hate doing. Pretty much wiped me for the rest of the day.

Anyway, as most people here are interested in country properties, I thought I'd put up one. I still find it amazing that one can find cheap properties In Chiba with loads of land. This is just one example.

This property is listed on a number of sites and is in Mobara City. It is about half way between Nagata Station and the beach. So, basically, by Japanese standards, it's in the midde of 'nowhere'!! The web site states it is an 82 minute walk to the station...........

The house is some kind of brick two-story job with a total floor space of 155 square meters so not that small and not that big. Unfortunately it appears that the balcony is really narrow. There is a big wood stove in the living room. It also appears that there is a well on the property. The entrance to the property looks nice as does the outside of the house.

As I said the house is listed at two sites that I know of and one of them has a video tour of the house:

https://www.homes.co.jp/kodate/b-1329930000491/

In it you can see that the inside walls of the house especially in the living and dining room have something on with them. There appears to be some kind of stain, dirt, or whatever on the walls. You'd probably need to totally replace the paper or covering. (Still photos from the above site.) Hopefully it isn't some kind of mould or a water leak. IMO you'd probably need to do a lot of work on the inside of the house. The kitchen is crap too.

If you look at the still photos from the other site, this is not quite as apparent:

https://www.athome.co.jp/kodate/1093930 ... ist_simple

The land area ofthe property is 1574 square meters and it looks like the land might be reaosnably flat, but much of it is overgrown and you can't reall tell. There is a river that runs near the property as well (The Nabaki River)

When I went to look at the satellite map, I found that there is one factor which would probably turn most people off right away. A couple of hundred meters to the north-northwest (???) is a poultry farm.
If you have ever been to one of those places they don't smell that great and it appears that this one isn't a free range one either, but some kind of barn/cage farm which would make it worse...........and when the wind would blow..........well.............

The other interesting thing from looking at the satellite map is that there are quite a few solar farms around the house.

The price of the property is 1,500万円 which works out to 10000 yen per tsubo if you value the house at zero. The house is vacant and a cheaper offer would probably be accepted.

As with any property of this type in Japan when you buy the place you are paying the 'rent' forward or fixing the cost of your accomodation for the future. Most likely you'll never see any real price appreciation, but over the long term it is cheaper than paying rent or buying a condo and being stuck with all the fees.

Now for the house.

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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

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The following article from the Japan TImes has some stats on Japan's declining population:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/ ... pace-2019/

The population fell 276,000 to 126.17 million as of Oct. 1, declining for the ninth straight year and recording the largest annual drop since comparable data became available in 1950, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.

The population in 40 of the country’s 47 prefectures declined, while that in the remaining seven prefectures including Tokyo grew as the trend of people moving to urban areas continued.

You can read the report in Japanese at:

https://www.stat.go.jp/data/jinsui/2019np/index.html

Akita Prefecture had the largest % decline in population at 1.48%. It is also the prefecture with the largest % of people over 65 years of age at 37.2%.

Tokyo-to, Okinawa,Saitama,Kangawa,Aichi,Shiga,and Chiba increased in population, but Osaka-fu had a small decrease. But even the increases were quite small with Tokyo coming in at an increase of 0.71%.

So what does this mean?

Property in rural areas of Japan away from the big cities (IIRC I eiither posted this on the old site of this one a while back) will most likely continue to fall in value and those properties at or near a large city or population center will do better. The prefectures on the list that increased in population (ex Okinawa) are near Tokyo, Nagoya, or Osaka (Shiga is a good example of this).

Something to keep in mind if you are in the market for a property.

The only prefecture that surprised me on the list was Hokkaido that came in at number 27 with a fall of 0.68%. I remember reading in some study that of all the areas in Japan, Hokkaido was going to lose the most villages or populated incorporated areas over the next 30 years or so.

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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

Post by starting_the_dream »

LeeB wrote:
Fri Apr 17, 2020 10:41 am
Property in rural areas of Japan away from the big cities (IIRC I eiither posted this on the old site of this one a while back) will most likely continue to fall in value and those properties at or near a large city or population center will do better. The prefectures on the list that increased in population (ex Okinawa) are near Tokyo, Nagoya, or Osaka (Shiga is a good example of this).

Something to keep in mind if you are in the market for a property.
Interesting article, LeeB. Thanks for the link. I wonder if corona will have an impact on the trends. I know I feel very lucky to live where we do at the moment. Every day we practice 'social distancing!' Our son, 5, has been home from preschool all month. But he and our daughter, 1, have been outside every day getting sunshine and exercise. I can't imagine trying to keep two young kids inside in the city. Maybe telework and online shopping will encourage more families to look into living outside the large metropolitan areas.

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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

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starting_the_dream wrote:
Mon Apr 27, 2020 11:40 am
Maybe telework and online shopping will encourage more families to look into living outside the large metropolitan areas.
That's quite an interesting point, it's obviously quite hard to predict what will happen after all of this is over but it would be a nice positive if more city dwellers thought about moving to the countryside and not living in those tiny cubbyholes that currently pass for living spaces in the big cities.

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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

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I've always found it interesting to look at what the Japanese call 'inaka' and compare it to other countries. IMO Japanese 'doinaka' is actually like countries' inaka.

Overall I think that I'd rather live in the Japanese 'inaka' than what for example, the Australians here call the 'bush'.

Japanese have better infrastrucuture (Internet, public transport, shopping, schools, medical facilities, ets) and of course even in the 'inaka' they have a bigger population than most ofther countries.

The Internet here in Oz is pathetic from a speed point of view. I'm only a little over 1 kilometer from the main exchange for our area and I'm lucky if I ever even see 7 or 8 Mbps. The hotels in Japan have faster Wi-Fi than our Internet. Of course if you live in the CBD and have access to a cable you can get up to 100Mbps. Australia ranks something like number 60 or so in world Internet speeds.

Even NZ had cable Internet to most of the small towns way back 15 years or so ago. When we went to Milford Sound and stayed a little place out in some little village they had cable Intenet and huge speeds back then - at our place in where we lived in Australia at that time you had to get two lines put in to get ADSL and that area was one of the last to get real ADSL and what we now call the NBN. IIRC they only got that about three years ago!!!!

About the only thing that has improved with the Intenet here over the past 10 years or so is that with the huge increase in demand the companies have had to put in more switches to handle the load so now we don't get cutoff as much anymore. It used to happen all the time.

I also think that with the lockdown they've increased the bandwith somehow so we don't see the huge slow down that usually happened after the schools were let out and the all the kids jumped online. Sometimes you couldn't even watch a video on Youtube without it buffering.............

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