I have some questions about home loans. I (American) and my wife (Japanese) are trying to purchase land and build a house. When applying for the loan she was instructed by the house maker to only apply with her name and not jointly. I found this strange since if we were to apply together the amount we could ask for would have increased. I have a spouse visa but was told that most banks would deny our application if my name was on it with hers. I’m a little disappointed considering I make more money than her and it would be nice to add both of our incomes into the equation instead of just hers. Have we been lead astray and given false information? Are there any banks that would loan to t people in our situation and not charge ridiculous interest?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
18 comments
Would you give a loan to someone who’s only ties to this country (or whatever country you are figuratively in) is a marriage and they could divorce and leave at any time to go back to their country without paying the loan?
Of course not. And that’s exactly how banks feel. The advice you were given is correct. If you feel strongly about putting your name on the loan, it may be worth considering citizenship.
How many years have you been married? Can you apply for PR?
It might be better to wait until you do, you can save more then and put more down also
It depends entirely on the bank. Each have their own internal rules for approving loans (they sometimes even differ by branch location). The house maker is likely going with a bank that they are used to dealing with, and that bank may, or may not have rules in place that frown upon giving loans to foreign applicants (especially if you’re not PR).
That said, there ARE definitely banks that will allow a joint loan that includes a foreigner, and even those that will accept non-PR holders (you can search the sub, there are many examples).
My advice is to shop around the different banks, or even credit unions, and try to find one that’ll take you on.
The problem is the spouse visa. Very few banks will loan to someone with just a spouse visa.
Get your PR already, if you’ve been married for 3 years.
When my wife and I bought our house it was the same situation… and I had a PR …
I would contact banks with this question instead of relying on the house maker.
I just signed a house loan (for a mansion) with an engineer visa, my wife (Japanese) is the co-signer and guarantor.
Yes there are banks who denied me because I don’t have PR, but there are different rules for different banks. Best is to contact banks yourself, give them your information and what you are looking for and they’ll either deny or help you getting the loan.
Currently at the tail end of a similar process, which looks set to resolve with me receiving a partial home loan despite only being on a spousal visa (there are other factors I won’t get into). Having a real estate agent pushing the bank on my behalf has probably been the decisive factor.
At the very least, SBI Shinsei Bank has a dedicated application process for people in precisely your situation. Full details are available in English on their website. The interest rates do seem higher, but still relatively modest.
Every situation is different. Was on a spouse visa, 3 kids, and applied for loan for home/land with SMBC and others, was approved for all, but they would only do in my name as my wife’s salary wouldn’t help. This was 8 years ago or so and the rates were no different than those advertised for Japanese (dang near 0%).
As mentioned, you’d be in a much better with PR.
Another advantage (if you had PR) would be to get a joint mortgage (which some people don’t know about). I guess it depends on your financial positions, but it splits the the mortgage in two halves. The benefit is that you can both claim the sizable tax breaks that come with building your own house. I would have had no idea, but my wife is something of a tax expert.
I don’t think every bank offers them, but some do. Ours was Shinsei bank. This site says they don’t require PR.
[https://resources.realestate.co.jp/buy/which-japanese-banks-lend-to-foreigners-to-buy-a-home-or-investment-property/](https://resources.realestate.co.jp/buy/which-japanese-banks-lend-to-foreigners-to-buy-a-home-or-investment-property/)
SMBC Trust and SBI Shinsei are two banks that I am working with to get a home mortgage. Both allow you to take out a loan as a spouse of a Japanese national(without PR), as long as your spouse signs as a guarantor.
My friend (spouse visa) did it recently. All the major banks rejected them (they live in Kyoto). After a few months, a small bank accepted the loan. His visa didn’t help.
I recently bought a second-hand house and my salary was the primary reason for getting the loan. It’s a 66/33% joint loan with my wife with me as the primary owner. My wife doesn’t work and I’m only on a spouse visa. My income is just below 4million yen. I was accepted by two banks for my loan, one being Shinsei Bank and the other being MUFG.
I too was concerned that without PR I wouldn’t be able to get a loan, and indeed when talking with house builders etc. there wasn’t a lot of hope for us. Downscaling expectations based on our income and mortgage opportunities made it clear that banks are much more willing to loan than people think, you just need to be realistic about what you can afford.
Edit: should also add that the interest rate for the loan is, as far as I’m aware, the standard floating interest rate. There was no exceptional number added to my loan because I wasn’t Japanese or on a PR visa.
Get PR.
You need PR anyway, in case something unfortunate happens to your wife.
Why not wait until you have PR?
The loan rates here are <1%. This is a government thing. It really doesn’t matter, as long as she qualifies the mortgage rate will be the same.
Since you’re on a spouse visa you’re very likely going to get rejected. If you want the mortgage to be in your name you need to have a permanent resident visa.
American w/ J-wife too. Also have PR.
Need PR and even then banks might still reject you.
We went through a realtor and out of 4 banks he consulted 3 flat out rejected the loan application. In our situation, I had to be the applicant because my wife is a homemaker. During the initial consultation, the realtor made it clear that if I didn’t have PR there was no chance.
I don’t have PR yet, but I submitted the application for it this year. Following that my wife and I applied for a joint loan and it was approved. So I think at least showing you have applied to get PR is important.
From what I gather it’s pretty rare, but I took out a fairly substantial mortgage (oku+) earlier this year on a spousal visa with sole income and no guarantor. So it’s not totally impossible. Pretty vanilla terms through SMBC (.475%) as well.