I have been living in Japan for 5 years now and will be getting my PR by this year end. I am looking to buy a mansion or apartment (not an 一戸立て) due to personal reasons such as safety and maintenance issues.
I have been researching a lot on which company I should go for when buying the apartment. I have heard that many companies can’t afford to do the major maintenance or renovations required after 10 yrs or so and the building’s condition deteriorates rapidly with time, resulting in slum.
Therefore I would like to go for a trustable company or realtor for the apartment. I have heard about Proud, Prime, Clio, Duohills etc.
I would appreciate if anyone can recommend some from their own experience or just knowledge.
Thanks in advance!
4 comments
You might want to mention the city in which you’re looking to buy.
> I have heard about Proud, Prime, Clio, Duohills etc.
Good or bad?
The major 7 property developers and their mansion brands are Mitsui (Park Homes), Sumitomo (City House), Mitsubishi (The Parkhouse), Nomura (Proud), Tokyu (Branz), Tokyo Tatemono (Brillia) and Daikyo (Lions Mansion.)
Developers are done with the property once they’re built, so looking at developers/mansion brand won’t tell you much about the quality of management. However, these major brands are more expensive and are usually only built when certain internal standards are met (e.g. you’re not going to find a weirdly-shaped buildings, pencil-thin buildings, or the makeup of the rooms being mostly one-room rentals.)
Management companies handle the ongoing support/maintenance. Generally those branded mansions will be managed by a company of the same group (Mitsui Fudosan Residential Service, Sumitomo Fudosan Tatemono Service etc.) so you can expect that the managers will know what they’re doing, whereas smaller property developers will likely have management handled by a different company (Nihon Housing, Tokyo Amenity Support etc.) that can have more variance in management quality depending on what you pay for. They will also have membership schemes for residents (Mitsui no Sumai Loop for Mitsui, Fureai Club for Sumitomo-managed buildings etc.) offering discounts and other benefits that third-party management companies generally won’t have.
That being said, whether maintenance is actually done is decided by the *owners* of each unit. The management committee (管理組合) which is made up of owners and elected by owners will come up with proposals on budgets and maintenance and those proposals are put to a general vote among all owners. The management company can only provide advice and assistance – the ultimate authority lies with the owners. That’s why looking at the management committee’s books is also important, to see if there are any potential issues down the line or any delinquency in fee collection. Many banks will outright reject an application if there are multiple owners in the mansion who have not paid their dues for an extended period of time (and you should not buy if that is the case too.)
That’s where the trustworthy realtor comes in. A trustworthy realtor will screen the mansion’s finances and maintenance plans to see if there are any glaring problems. And the most general advice for this is – do not buy from the *seller’s* realtor. Get your own realtor, and talk to a few to see if the realtor understands your desires and is trustworthy before deciding on one.
If you want even more assurance then you can get a mansion management inspection (e.g. from [Sakura Jimusho](https://www.sakurajimusyo.com/expert/kanri-check2.php)) that will look into the finances and meeting minutes in deeper detail than the realtor and flag any potential issues.
I bought Mitsubishi (park house) pretty good for this 10 years. Mansion is like new.
I also saw branz and those mansion didn’t hold very well.
Branz don’t have the same kind of monthly maintenance as mistubishi (around 38.000 monthly), i remember branz was 10.000