Hi, everyone.
Pretty much what it says above. I bought my house 6 years ago and because I didn’t have PR I was forced to accept a higher (for Japan) interest rate of 1.77%. I have now lived in Japan long enough and been married long enough to apply for PR and I was hoping it might open the door to refinancing my loan and possibly getting one of those sub 1% rates Japanese citizens are eligible for. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Thanks very much in advance.
5 comments
Yes. Absolutely. What bank did you go with? I got 1.1% with Shinsei and I only had a spouse visa at the time. You need to refinance as soon as you can. That interest rate is nuts for Japan.
Is that a variable rate? If so there’s a lot of room to go down, so I think you should try. For reference with PR, rates as low as 0.29% are possible.
You will probably only be able to get such a low interest rate by using Flat-35.
even without a loan YOU SHOULD ALWAYS TAKE PR IF YOU CAN
I pay about 0.48% (in my name) with life insurance for my spouse and cancer insurance that will halve my loan if I get diagnosed. Granted I got PR just on the cusp of having to get a home loan, so I got lucky. However, if refinance on a renewable interest basis you are effectively betting on long-term minus BOJ policies. Generally, variable loans are renewed quarterly and even long term loans have a readjustment period.