Interesting Properties in Japan

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LeeB
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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

Post by LeeB »

The property in this post is interesting to me for a number of reasons.

First, it is one I remember looking at years and years ago when we thought about moving to Japan so it has to be at least six years ago that it was put up for sale and then sold, but probably longer than that. It may have been way back in 2011. I don’t remember the price at the time, but the property sold fast.

Second, it is also interesting because of the shape. I call it “THE BOX” as it basically a big concrete box and when looking at the property it looks like a big concrete wall from one side.

Third, it is also located in the planned community in Onjuku. It has the initial transfer fee of 500,000 yen and the ongoing monthly fees of around 5000 yen or so.

Now for the details of the property. The lot isn’t huge or one of those stinky small ones, but at 161坪 or 533 square meters it is reasonable size to take care of.

The house is a two storey job with a size of 105 square meters so a little on the small side, but maybe okay for two people. As the house is two storeys, it opens up the land/lot and there is a small yard and space for a small vegetable garden. It is hard to see from the photos if the land slopes, but given the construction of the house there may be some.

The photos are a little deceptive as it seems that the house backs up to a treed, hilly area, but if you look at the house from a satellite photo there is a road behind the house which separates it from that elevated land. The photo also shows that there are vacant lots on either side of it, tennis courts across the other road, and the main Onjuku community facilities there as well. So unless the house is much higher than that big building, you aren’t going to get much of a view of the coast from your balcony.

The property has no carport or garage, but there are at least three (four?) parking spots just off the road near the main entrance.

As I was looking at the property years ago when I was much younger (richer and more handsome too!!) the two storeys wouldn’t have bothered me at all. In another ten years it might.

The listing this time has no photos of the inside of the property so no idea how much it has changed or what was in there, but from what I remember the property looked nice back then.

The price of the listing this time is 2,800万円 and I don't remember how much it was years ago, but the current price IMO is a little high given what is/was for sale in the area currently and over the past few years.

Overall, a neat little property that would be nice for a holiday house or maybe even to live in year round. The property might appeal to somebody and get a quick sale, but at 2,800万円, well I’d pass on that make an offer around the 2,000万円 area.

http://www.nb-home.jp/bukken/c_onjuku/oj0600.html

And an interesting article on the area from back in 2012:

https://catforehead.com/2012/07/21/fiel ... -onjuku-2/

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Re: Interesting Properties in Japan

Post by LeeB »

For this 'interesting property' I've picked something commercial for all you budding business types..........

When looking at Onjuku on the web I seem to recall photos of this business and maybe some stories about it.

This property was listed for sale a while back and I'm not sure about the date so the sale probably might not have much to do with the current business environment surrounding the virus although one would think that the ongoing viability would be greatly impacted.

So the particulars:

A combination surf shop, small I guess what you could call a 'hotel' with 4 rooms, a small owners accomodation area, and a restaurant smack dab in the middle of the Onjuku beach resort area.

Land area is 260 square meters with a total building area of 182 square meters. The zoning is 60%/200% so you are pretty much limited to what more you can put on the property beyond what is there already - another 60 square meters or so. Value of the land assigning zero to the building and business works out to 500,000 or so yen per tsubo.

The price of the business and land is 3900万円.

http://www.onjukutaiyo.com/fudo/11575?s ... el=0&meh=0

As the first line in the property description says:

値下げ

I wonder how it was before the price reduction..............

The photos:

VanillaEssence

Interesting Properties in Japan

Post by VanillaEssence »

https://981.jp/ftl/searchRes_detail.do? ... =3%2C1%2C2

This property was up for sale a year or two ago and looks like it’s still for sale. Only 129万円 for about 1000m2 and reasonable looking sheds. It’s also amazingly messy inside I think the occupant must be going through some turmoil. If it wasn’t occupied and if one of the middle sections of the property wasn’t registered farmland (how the hell can you farm 200m2) this would be pretty tempting.

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Post by Zasso Nouka »

Good grief, it looks like Mr Trebus is living there.

Jokes aside if there is someone still living there and you bought it you'd have to get them to move out and if they are having issues that might not be easy, plus is there any outstanding debt on the property ? Given the state of the inside of the house and expense of clearing that it makes you wonder what the structural integrity of the building is like.

But it's still a very cheap price.

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Interesting Properties in Japan

Post by VanillaEssence »

Zasso Nouka wrote:
Fri Aug 28, 2020 5:06 am
Good grief, it looks like Mr Trebus is living there.

Jokes aside if there is someone still living there and you bought it you'd have to get them to move out and if they are having issues that might not be easy, plus is there any outstanding debt on the property ? Given the state of the inside of the house and expense of clearing that it makes you wonder what the structural integrity of the building is like.

But it's still a very cheap price.
If it was at least empty it might be worth considering. I wouldn't be comfortable to kick someone out of their home who has so little access to resources they can't afford 120man to hold onto their house. My Japanese isn't good enough to read the PDF so I'm unsure about existing debts. The house is definitely one of the most fucked I've seen and there's a cat in one of the photos so I'm guessing there is probably stench that has permanently seeped into the wood by now. Probably better to knock it all down but the shed is nice.

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Post by Zasso Nouka »

Maybe a developer would buy that place and kick the resident out somehow then knock everything down and build new on the plot but for an individual buyer it sounds like a lot of hassle.

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Post by Otona Cream Pie »

How quickly do homes (real world) depreciate? For example, if I bought a decent house, kept it up (probably improved) and tried to resell in 3 years, how much of a loss would I generally be looking at? (If you can't tell, I'm a bit undecided with a few moving parts right not but I'm hating paying rent)

I've been browsing houses in my area recently and found a really modern (built in 2016) box that checked all my boxes EXCEPT it was a little more out in BFE Saitama than I would like. Nearest station is Minami Sakurai on the "Tobu Urban Park Line" (WTF kind of name is that?) and when I went to visit it, the neighborhood was 50% preserved Showa, 30% Walking dead post apocalyptic, and 20% cute.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Minam ... 43!5m1!1e2

The house: https://suumo.jp/chukoikkodate/saitama/ ... 0zzz180703

It was obviously an old neighborhood as it was a mix of brand new tiny homes, larger homes, and preserved Showa shacks. What confused me was the house was down a shared driveway that was sandwiched between two homes. Reminds me of building a home in someone's backyard only instead of small and cramped, the box was decent size and it had a useable size garden in the rear. The fenced in yard had one Showa shack kitchen, complete with exhaust venting which concerned me until I realized it was akiya. Shuttered, no propane, everything you expect from 80's Japan without the grumpy old man sitting in the window with a fan.

The layout is just perfect and the owner (still living there) has really good design sense...though in some places the execution is "well, it's Japan, you didn't think it was real, did you?" It's full elec with one of those EcoCute systems - in fact, the only thing it's missing is solar/battery storage, yet the roof is one sheet all facing south so you can easily fit more than needed up there with maximum performance. I found one oddity after it was locked up and I was staring at the front of the home...the height is slightly more than 3floors, tilting down to more than 2 floor sin the rear...yet there was not a 3rd story on the layout map. There is also some odd wooden grate thing on the exterior 3fl level you can see in the pics. The agent said it was just a decoration. Odd...had to refrain from making a "maybe that's where he keeps the bodies" joke. If there is really no built in access, seems like such a waste!

Anyhow, I think I could negotiate the price down to 2,300万...but not sure how fun that drive to the office in Tokyo is. The drive to Niigata would be easier though so that's a plus. The other concession is if I decided to move in say, 3 years, I'd probably save around 250万 on rent and utilities vs renting but I just wonder what kind of hit I would take on selling something like this. With added solar and proper kaigai upgrades could keep it's value or is that a losing battle? Close to the station so maybe renting is possible? I already get crap from Tokyo people when it comes to nomikai and such since I'm usually driving but I prefer having even a small yard for the pups to romp in to closer to Tokyo and more cramped. Any advice/suggestions?

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Post by gonbechan »

shared driveways are horrible. expect trouble and inconvenience.
if you are ever thinking of renting the place out in the future, expect numerous calls from the neighbours complaining about parking offences aka 2cm over the line, scratched cars etc etc etc.

In case selling in the future is hard (I have seen pretty nice properties sitting unsold for years) you might want to rent it out instead.
Having a dedicated carport or parking area is a must.
A house like the one you show might have rebuilding restrictions (now or imposed later) that will also add to difficulty selling.

I have also noticed that in areas like that, tons of new cheap houses go up as the larger old houses get bought by developers. People will chose new over used most of the time regardless of the features. Check out the house prices of new houses in that area.
It might give you a better idea.

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Post by Otona Cream Pie »

gonbechan wrote:
Mon Jul 26, 2021 6:04 pm
shared driveways are horrible. expect trouble and inconvenience.
if you are ever thinking of renting the place out in the future, expect numerous calls from the neighbours complaining about parking offences aka 2cm over the line, scratched cars etc etc etc.
I have loads of security cameras to prevent that kind of assery and the neighbor is rocking a kei in their area (it's a bit offset) but point taken. Potential for trouble.
gonbechan wrote:
Mon Jul 26, 2021 6:04 pm
In case selling in the future is hard (I have seen pretty nice properties sitting unsold for years) you might want to rent it out instead.
Having a dedicated carport or parking area is a must.
A house like the one you show might have rebuilding restrictions (now or imposed later) that will also add to difficulty selling.

I have also noticed that in areas like that, tons of new cheap houses go up as the larger old houses get bought by developers. People will chose new over used most of the time regardless of the features. Check out the house prices of new houses in that area.
It might give you a better idea.
Good suggestions, will give me something to do while I mull this over.

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Post by edmundedgar »

Otona Cream Pie wrote:
Mon Jul 26, 2021 3:16 pm
Anyhow, I think I could negotiate the price down to 2,300万...but not sure how fun that drive to the office in Tokyo is. The drive to Niigata would be easier though so that's a plus. The other concession is if I decided to move in say, 3 years, I'd probably save around 250万 on rent and utilities vs renting but I just wonder what kind of hit I would take on selling something like this. With added solar and proper kaigai upgrades could keep it's value or is that a losing battle? Close to the station so maybe renting is possible? I already get crap from Tokyo people when it comes to nomikai and such since I'm usually driving but I prefer having even a small yard for the pups to romp in to closer to Tokyo and more cramped. Any advice/suggestions?
Obviously depends where in Tokyo you need to get to but that area looks like a PITA for driving. It's right in the middle between the two radial expressways, and that area is endless surburbia that's quite painful to get across. If you also want to get out to Niigata you might want to think about the area I used to live on the Tobu Tojo Line (Wako-shi/Asaka/Shiki/Niiza). You can get onto and off the Kan-etsu Jidosha-dou at Tokorozawa, which avoids the traffic jams of people trying to get into Tokyo proper.

On the value of the place I don't think adding an owner to the history will make much difference but you've got all the fees of buying and selling. There's also the depreciation of the house getting older - IIUC you typically knock the value of the house down to zero over 20 years - so you've got that bleeding out during the time you're living in it and also during the time after you stopped living in it while you're faffing around trying to sell it. If it's oldish, I expect any renovation you'd do would add basically zero to the resale value. I'd be very surprised if you could buy, renovate even a little bit and sell and come out better off than 250万 less than you started with, pulling a number out of my arse I'd guess it would be more like 400万.

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