I wish I had that kind of money.
we can imagine it
Oh to be a thousandaire
Hey if this also gives me a path to residency…
It doesn’t.
Don’t buy these old japanese houses, they’re literally made of mud and sticks and have absolutely fuck all for insulation.
Living in nature is all fun and games until you’re expected to expected to sleep in 50 degree weather while your split unit struggles to keep your paper box of a bedroom cool.
Most of the time the closest hospital is like 2-3 hours away on a bus that only comes twice a day, so you better hope you never get in an accident cause the ambulance won’t come for hours and your only other hope is the only other person in neighborhood: your 90 year old neighbor who you’re not sure is even still alive.
Source: lived in one for multiple years.
Wattle and daube is actually pretty insulated for what it is. That said Japanese homes are cold because they’re breezey choosing high air turnover over high insulation value in an attempt to circumvent some of the summer humidity.
for $3k i’d buy it just for the land it sits on. who cares about the house
Right? That’d be a solid investment for someone with enough money to replace/remodel the house
Land in Japan only appreciates in large cities. If you buy it now at 3k it’ll be worth 2k in 30 years.
Nah in 30 years it’ll have a real fuckin nice house on it that’ll bring up the value
If you built a house in Japan now for the cost of 100k the house would be worth 50k in 30 years.
Real estate in Japan appreciates like cars, unless you have an especially rare piece of land, it depreciates over time. It’s a bad investment unless you’re actively getting use out of it.
Part of why there’s so much cheap and abandoned land in Japan, there’s no real estate investment structure outside of land near train stations.
there’s no real estate investment structure outside of land near train stations.
So it’s the way it should be, then.
No real “I’m gonna buy cheap land in fuck-off nowhere and build a fucking theme park or whatever and run ads to make sure some idiots make the long trek out to this miserable tivoli of scams and no options. But then other people get the opportunity to settle close to me and compete by selling almost reasonably priced sustenance, and such. And some years down the line we’ve got a shitty pointless desert town going, one with a defunct theme park about raccoons or some shit.”
Sounds perfect honestly.
Sounds like Totoro. Here’s you 3k I’m in.
The catch is that rural Japan is a a shithole rife with xenophobia, privacy violations, bullying, and problematic neighbors. And that’s for ethnically Japanese people, so it’s be way worse if you were actually a foreigner.
There’s a reason why people in Japan try so hard to move away from rural areas into cities.
What kind of privacy violations? Do the neighbors peek into your windows?
Panty theft, naturally.
We hit the jackpot, boys!
Universal truth I think
Can’t tell if the way small minded bigots stay away from the best parts of every country is a fun coincidence or causal.
I read a while back, a testimony from someone who grew up in small town America and then moved into the city when they were older. They explained that there is a lot of indoctrination against “cityfolk” because it’s largely used as a scapegoat. As city dwellers tend to be more progressive due to their heightened social stimulation, this leads a lot of small-towners to hate the idea of progress
The issues with city people go way beyond just progress.
As others in this thread have said, buying a property in Japan doesn’t extend your Visa or grant you residence in the country. This would be a waste of time if you didn’t already have that lined up. However, there are countries that do. Some have what’s called the Golden Visa program, or Investor/Real Estate Visa program (there are other names, but if you’re doing a search, this should turn up decent results). Here’s a list of some countries that do this, and the minimum amount you need to spend.
Portugal - Golden Visa
Investment - €500,000 or €350,000 for lower population areas, or properties that need to be renovated
Residency benefits - Residency permit for 5 years, with the opportunity to apply for permanent residency after thatSpain - Golden Visa
Investment - €500,000
Residency benefits - Residency permit for 1 year, renewable as long as you own the property, and you can apply for permanent residency after 5 yearsGreece - Golden Visa
Investment - €250,000
Residency benefits - Residency permit for 5 years, renewable as long as you own the property, and you can apply for permanent residency after 7 yearsThailand - Thailand Elite Visa
Investment - THB 1,000,000 (about $30k USD) for a 5 year Visa
Residency benefits - Renewable every 5 years with no residency requirementEcuador - Investor Visa
Investment - $42,500 in real estate
Residency benefits - Grants you permanent residencyMalaysia - Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H)
Investment - RM 1 million (about $240k USD) in real estate
Residency benefits - Grants you a 10 year renewable VisaPhilippines - Special Resident Retiree Visa
Investment - $50k in real estate
Residency benefits - Grants you permanent residencyWhen I was looking into bailing on the US, I made a Libre Office spreadsheet with like 70 countries and all this info plus a bunch of other personal requirements for what I was looking for, so some of it may be outdated. Hell, some of it may be straight up incorrect, so feel free to double check it.
Portugal doesn’t have a property based golden ticket visa as of October 2023 due to concerns that it was affecting real estate prices in cities like Lisbon and Porto. But you can still donate 250K euro in cash or invest 500K euro in a local business that leads to job creation (among a couple other investment options). Another option for Portugal is the D7 visa, which requires you to live in the country 6 months the year for 5 years, but requires foreign income of 10K euro per year. Either way, after 5 years, you’re eligible to apply for citizenship.
That’s… shockingly affordable if you already have equity in some real estate
Thanks for the info! I was unaware of the Spain and Portugal options, so looked it up.
Spain ended their program in January, with application deadline April 3.
Potugal ended their real estate version, but still has investment options.
Yeah I figured things would be changing soon.
You can actually do this in most countries. Public Auctions of homes are for when people don’t pay land taxes so the local auditors repossess them and sell them dirt cheap to cover the amount due.
You certainly can’t buy a home in Germany that’s anywhere close to as cheap as the one in japan. Maybe there are some very remote plots of land with a ruin of a house on it, but those will still cost more than 4000€.
Public auctions around my area usually start at around 150k or more, so it’s just not worth it for me.
I don’t speak enough Deutsch to navigate their websites for specific examples, but home foreclosures in Germany increased 9% yoy in January 2025, but you’re also correct that property prices are quite high which is the primary contributor to rise in foreclosures.
It’s definitely highly desirable property given the chaos in the USA, the East, etc.
I could feasibly make $4k pretty quickly, I want my own home, and I’ve always wanted to visit Japan… 🤔
I can imagine this would make your taxes wacky
I’d have to be near retirement age while still nimble enough to renovate it and hope my pension and savings would be enough to cover the costs.
Even then, it would be difficult to navigate renovations in that environment where you don’t speak the language, have no idea how their houses are supposed to be built, waste disposal and the myriad of other issues that will surely arise.
Getting a job is going to be a bitch - thus the retirement age requirement.
Getting citizenship is going to be an even bigger a bitch.
I’d be an outcast cause of my skin color and inability to communicate.requires repairs
Black mold fucking everywhere.
Might be a fun projectNo insurer will touch it without being brought up to earthquake code, either, most likely.
Starting with “after the burning”
I actually looked into that property once; there was no way it was going to happen for a number of reasons. I ended up buying a house in much better condition in another area.
I really need to do a video about the topic or something. There are many, many landmines with stuff like this. For a very TL;DR and assuming every single other thing is perfect: owning a home does not give you the right to spend any extra time in Japan nor grant a visa; you are on the hook for taxes, fees, septic maintenance (though the above property may have been a pit toilet; I don’t remember), and other bills which will have to be paid from a Japanese bank account. There are also certain neighborhood association obligations, property maintenance, fire control, etc.
Also, why buy if you don’t want to live there?
It’s not gonna earn rent out there. Italy, among other countries also let’s you buy abandoned homes.
In my case, I moved to the Japanese countryside because I wanted to farm, mostly. But, yeah, I’m definitely not the average case.
Sounds amazing, as long as the locals don’t show dissent.
So far so good a year in. Everyone’s been super friendly and helpful.
Not sure if they’re still doing it, but a few years back (holy shit maybe a decade), Italy was even offering to pay people to move there. But there were massive conditions. Like, you had to buy a historical property, maintain it to their standards, and open a business to boost tourism, or something along those lines. I looked into it and was kind of intrigued, but it seemed pretty obvious it was designed to draw rich expats, not average losers like me.
I believe they now charge $1. Still unaffordable.
In some cases in Italy the condition for buying is that you’ll live there.
That’s good.
I watched a video from an American guy who did this. But he already had residence, and made it very clear that if you don’t have residence, doing something like this would be a waste of time and money. He bought a massive junker of a house and it took him like 2 years and a bunch of help to make it livable. Still a good video, and still a cool idea, assuming you have certain ducks already lined up. Definitely not something to do on a whim.
I looked at doing something like this in quite a few countries, and skipped on Japan pretty quickly. Happy with my decision though.
Essentially, there’s usually good reason it was abandoned.
Additionally, houses in Japan aren’t really built to last. Properties like these are usually bulldozed and rebuit when purchased.
Essentially, there’s usually good reason it was abandoned.
I knew it…
Ghosts
Basically.
Grandma died and nobody wants to live in a 50 year old house in the middle of nowhere.
Essentially, there’s usually good reason it was abandoned.
For $3400, I’m fine with living with tormented ghosts.
Building standards are improving but, yeah, slowly. Kominka over 100 years can have really good structure if well maintained, but it definitely would not be something who isn’t already knowledgeable about them. The majority fall into ruin.
Not all of us gaijin are tourists. I have permanent residency and I would love to find a cheap house far from the noise and smoke. Do you know where I can look up houses like this?
I’d start by researching areas and find places you like the climate, vibe, future prospects, etc. from there, start with suumo then the akiya bank to get an idea. Next, go in person and spend a weekend there. See what exists that is NOT listed anywhere other thanaybr a sign in the yard (or not even listed but obviously not lived in).
I’m sure you could find a cheap condemned shit hole in your nearest rural area too. That doesn’t mean that it’s a good deal.
It’s so cheap because the current owner doesn’t want to spend the money on demolishing the structure before selling vacant land. And if it is still available it is because no developer has looked at it and thought that they could make money on the flip.
That place is abandoned likely because the farmer who lived there died or went into a senior care facility. There are houses like this one all over the world in rural areas and I can guarantee two things: poor infrastructure and septic tanks. The reason it’s cheap is because no developer wants an undeveloped lot.
Also watched a video about a $4K unit in tokyo because you are literally not allowed to renovate it.
Do you remember the title of that video? Even if it’s got concrete floors and walls you’re not allowed to cut, I’m surprised if you can’t improve it enough to sell for more than 4K.
Tons of places like that in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsyltucky, and all over the Midwest US. My girlfriend was scrolling through them talking about selling her house and buying one of those places on a big plot of land and thank fucking Jeebus I talked her out of it. I was like “babe, have you never seen the cinematic masterpiece ‘The Money Pit’ with Tom Hanks?”
My husband occasionally talks about the same things. There’s no way of making real money out there, and there’s no way I’m living in a small town/city ever again, unless a high six figures job somehow hinges on it.
Two weeks…
The interesting part about a bunch of the homes in more rural Japan is that they’re not actually condemned or shit holes. They’re old and would definitely need some love and attention but their population hasn’t been at replacement levels for a long time and people would rather live in a big city where they have access to all of the things so slowly and steadily the outer Fringe population areas in Japan have ben getting more and more empty leaving perfectly good houses to sit vacant for years. That’s not to say that there aren’t shit holes that aren’t worth the time it takes to go see them but a large portion of them are actually quite nice.
There are no visible electric or telecom lines running to the house which means they have a generator for power And no communication. And it looks like it might not have a poured foundation although I’m not sure about that.
But the farmer who lived there didn’t need those things. Someone who plans on working from home will need such things.
I know Japan is redoing it’s electrical system to have no overhead lines of any kind so when earthquakes hit there’s not live electrical lines dropping on people.
Either way the point isn’t that this specific house is or isn’t a shit hole, it’s the idea that any house sold for so cheap must inherently be a shit hole. It might be, but the situation in Japan is different than the situation here because of aforementioned population decline and condensation into cities. There are many challenges to buying a home in another country not least of which in Japan is gaining the right to live there permanently, but as long as you do the work to ensure you know what you’re buying and that you can live there safely and legally once whatever works needs done is done, there’s no reason to assume a home like that in Japan is 100% a shit hole by nature. Especially since technology has advanced to the point that power and telecommunications don’t require a direct line anymore to be effective and affordable. Solar power and wireless communication is only getting better and better. Again, I’m not saying that house specifically couldn’t be a shit hole, I’m saying that in Japan specifically there’s no reason to automatically assume it is one. It will have problems but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be worth it if you did your research.
Can confirm.
There’s properties about 2 hours drive from where I am in Western Australia that are unsellable.
There would’ve been 100 people living in a community there in the past but now it’s just a few old people waiting to die.
When someone does die the houses just end up being abandoned because you can’t even get an agent to drive out there and put up a for sale sign.
Will I meet the Totoro?
There are way more complexities than meet the eye here.
Not the least of which: just buying property doesn’t give you a way to extend a visa beyond the normal tourist period (usually 90 days per 6-month period). Japan ultimately is still an isolationist country, and it shows the most in its immigration policies.
Correct. There is no “I own property” special visa status. The 90 day/6 mos can even be denied for any or no reason by immigration if they think you’re shady meaning zero access to the property.
I mean its remote, if you don’t interact with any gov’t agencies then how they gunna know you living there longer than the visa?
When you try to leave…
They know. They know when you entered and what kind of visa you carry.
I guess you could hide out in the woods, but… then why be in Japan?
Edit: and if they idea is to hide out in the house that you bought, well… may as well put a sign up that says “check here.”
No MAGA?
Oh, I get that. I guess I’m suggesting there are better options if it’s hiding out without an appropriate visa in the woods. It’s probably easier in, say, Borneo.
The Japanese government functions and has enforcement of immigration policy.
And their version of enforcement is quite… forceful.
But they’re japanese, so the most they can do is knock insistently on the door; something like kicking the door down would be rude. And if you marry, you solve the visa problem and help repopulate. Two birds one stone. Jokes aside, the place is really rundown and also not much “classic/picturesque”, looks more like an old factory or warehouse.
I guess you could hide out in the woods, but… then why be in Japan?
Are there large, carnivorous predators in Japanese forests?
…like bears?
If you’ve ever been around the monkeys in Japan, you know they are not to be toyed with.
terminal birth rates means that won’t be an issue for too long
