Hi.
I recently immigrated from UK with my Japanese wife after retiring (aged 60) and selling our home. We have cash in the bank and are looking to buy a house somewere quiet in Izu or Chiba. Currently renting in Chiba. Houses that meet our requirements (size, location, price etc) are about 25 to 35 years old and we’ve just started viewing. I don’t think we can afford to build new.
I have a few questions:
1. Are there financial/tax benefits to buying solely in my wife’s name (as opposed to buying jointly)? My wife is a Japanese national. The proceeds of the UK sale are in my name.
2. How does the the house buying process (in particular for a cash buyer) differ from the UK process? \[In the UK, exchanging contracts and purchase completion are handled by each party’s solictors\]
3. I expect that a well-maintained (wooden) house should/could outlive us. Is this case, or should we plan to buy/rent again later in life?
There will probably be follow-up questions, but I’d appreciate any thoughts on the above, and any advice or experience that can be offered.
Thanks.
3 comments
1. Do you have kids? This is the first thing that comes to mind. Otherwise, I don’t see any difference. May as well have both of you on the deed. Check /r/Japanfinance for most info.
2. I bought my house through the realtor who listed the property. Private inspection from someone I hired.
3. Older houses aren’t as marketable, so don’t expect much resale value. On the bright side, it means you shouldn’t have much competition. Being able to close quickly due to having cash on hand and not needing to wait for a loan is a benefit. The state of your eventual house will determine how long it could last. You may not need to buy another, but you could decide to renovate the current one.
I have bought a couple of old houses with cash (one VERY old). The relatively newer condo we put in my name, to make it easier for me to get credit cards and such as a foreigner.
Both sales were through a real estate agent, inspection done by us on our dime. In both cases, we met at the bank and paid actual cash; that’s quite a bit different from my home country. Everything else was pretty streamlined and simple. Cash tends to do that I guess.
On 1., since you are now in Japan (meaning, it might have been easier to [gift her funds in the UK](https://www.gov.uk/inheritance-tax/gifts#:~:text=There's%20no%20Inheritance%20Tax%20to,a%20civil%20partnership%20with%20you) before coming, depending on how long she had been living outside Japan) having the deed in your wife’s name while purchased from funds belonging to you would constitute a taxable gift from you to her per Japanese tax regulations.
I think if you’ve been married for 20 years or longer there’s some deduction of 20M yen she could utilize but it needs to be requested explicitly: https://www.nta.go.jp/taxes/shiraberu/taxanswer/zoyo/4452.htm