Hey all! Recently while looking around on Suumo, my husband (jp) and I found a bunch of houses around 30-50 years old going for 90-150万円. We spoke with the realtor, and will be checking some out, but the plan is to buy cash and then slowly DIY it over the next year and change. Ideally looking for places that aren’t crumbling at the foundation of course, but for those of you who have bought and renovated old places, what are some things to look out for, and what do you wish you’d known going in?
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Did you miss a zero on those numbers?
The cheaper the place, the more remote it will be, and therefore fewer renovation companies and tradesmen will be available. Also, the cheaper the house, the worse the construction usually. There will be legal problems as well.
The akiya “sweet spot” is about ¥10 million in the countryside near Tokyo, ¥8 million around other major cities.
If you buy a ¥10 million house you probably only need about ¥1 million in renovations.
A ¥9 million house probably requires ¥1.75 million in renovations.
An ¥8 million probably requires ¥2.6 million in renovations.
A ¥1 million house would be suitable for a barn.
In other words, the cost of (immediately necessary) renovations increases faster than the drop in purchase price, unless you are buying from your father in law. Most people who brag about buying a dirt cheap house got it from someone they know.
Check out TokyoLlama on YouTube. He went through this with an akiya that he purchased for 3mil JPY and documented the process. He bought a beautiful place but I think he spent 8 to 10mil on repairs & renos after the purchase. It’s not a cheap process.
There’s also /u/kyoto_kinnuku who purchased an ancient akiya and did most of the work himself. He’s posted about it here, you might find some good info in his history.
The further into the inaka you go, the cheaper you might find a place, but places that have been left abandoned for years are often not worth saving. You need to make sure you don’t buy a money pit.
Finally, there is a Facebook group called “Building and renovating a house in Japan” that you should join. Lots of info there.
Please note that the renovations of these are extremely time consuming, challenging, and expensive. Whatever you think you are saving in price I assure you will be losing in time and effort spent trying to fix it.
Tokyo Llama on YouTube can give you a good idea of what to expect
Mentioned this in a different comment, but at those prices you need to make sure you are buying both the house and the land, and not just the house with only a lease for the land. Never buy a house without also owning the land under it.
There a guy on YouTube that talks about this. Search for Akiya and he should come up.
Find out what you can about the neighbors before making a decision.
Buy an actual house and not a “McMansion” house. Ours was built by hand using timber from the mountain behind us (I can’t remember the name ATM but my wife’s uncle who’s a carpenter was impressed). Get it checked out, take your time.
Look at a mortgage, the interest rates are stupid low and you could then use the cash you have to renovations or even invest it and come out ahead but that’s your choice.
Look and look some more, it took us about 2 years before we found one and we couldn’t be happier with it.
https://imgur.com/gallery/Ye6UhtH