I would never imagined buying a house in Japan but I'm now in the process of doing so.

Here is a link to the details. There is a lot to read. I'll edit it all out into one blog and re-post it all here soon.

Photo slide show in here. Will update this about once a week until we get the keys.

About 4 years ago we began to think seriously about buying some property to live in as I'm probably going to stay in Japan the rest of my life.
I had done well with the housing boom in Australia and sold my Sydney townhouse for a tidy profit. I was still not ready to buy in Japan though as
the prices have been dropping and dropping here for about 15 years now. I wanted to buy rock bottom if possible. I was prepared to wait another 10 years.

This July and August we went looking at land and started to do the sums and see if we could get into the market now as I could see that the economy in Japan was improving and a lot of our renting neighbours were starting to buy as well. We began to research the prices.

The Australian dollar had been kind to me as well.

Old house big land?

New house small land?

Expensive land and build small house?

Cheap land and build a big house.

The best value in the area we live was for an old house on a large block. We looked at about 4 places and were ready to go ahead. Then I realized that we'd have to rebuild eventually and what's the point of moving into an old house in the same area when we can just stay here and rent.

A new train line opened in August of 2005 from Akihabara to Mt. Tsukuba. We decided to see what the land prices were like on this line and with the help of an internet friend had a quick look up and down that line in Ibaraki. We'd missed out buying there as the prices went up as soon as the railway line was planned.

There was no point in buying there, moving the kids to new schools and I'd have to find a new job. Mt Tsukuba is riddled with foreigners too so the work searching may have been a battle.

We continued to look. I often cycle up & down the Edo River and can honestly say I love that river. The nature, the peacefullness, so close to Tokyo but so far away. I saw a land developement out in Noda by the river and we went in and saw the sales staff. The land was about half the price of what we'd seen elsewhere and it was all on new roads, near a new shopping complex and not too far away from my jobs. We thought about it a bit longer.

We visited the sales staff over the next few weekends asking lots of questions. The land was zoned 'new' and therefore the banks don7t want to lend money on it as there is no actual owner or deed issued by the local government. This was the catch. This was why it was so cheap. I figured to take the risk and try and get it as deeds will be issued to the owners by the year 2010 and that would cause the land to increase in value. The land prices in Tokyo were going up anyway. I knew it was a bargain. We picked out the best block in the complex. Largest, best street, near a park but not too near. 2nd house from the corner. Southerly aspect. 2 houses away from the garbage pick-up. Electrical poles were on the other side of the road. It was expensive compared to the surrounding blocks and that is because it was the best block and it would retain it's value better than the other blocks in any economic climate. IMHO.

We have views of Mt. Fuji if the weather clear. Our block is the 2nd dark orange block from the left on the bottom just above the large part of the park.

We paid for it in cash and were not sure any banks would ever lend me for he house. I didn't care. If I couldn't get the money for the house I was going to make money on the land anyway. It would be an investment if I couldn't build. I had time on my side.

The next step was to find a builder.
I'd done a tour of the Misawa showroom in Tokyo a few years ago and was very impressed with them. I always said I'd get a Misawa home if I had the money. My wife did a bit of research on the internet and she picked out a few places to tryu first.

Ichijyou- They had a good reputation on the internet. We wen and saw them 3 times. They took us to 2 work in progress homes and 2 finished homes. They were not bad. I felt they were designed more for the elderly than the young and from what we saw the insides were a bit dark.

Sweden House Beautiful homes with Scandinavian style and woodwork. I didn't like them because I was brought up on Australian homes and the style may be good for Hokkaido it didn't feel right for me in Tokyo. The wood requires a lot of care every 5 to 10 years as well. My free time is for cycling not tending to a house I've paid a fortune for.

Fuji House: Beautiful designs and great efforts by the sales staff. But the pressure was too hard and they were rushing me. They lost an almost easy sale by pushing us to sign.  

Misawa: We went to the Misawa show rooms 3 times and the only time they showed any strong interest in selling to us was when we told them we were on the verge of signing with Sekisui Heim.  

After looking at wooden frames for 3 companies and not being entirely satisfied I decided to go with this next group!

Sekisui Heim: Here we have a steel frame builder with a good earthquake resistance record. An exterior that never requires maintenence. Solar cells and central heating. The price was going to be a bit more than we planned and to get it to the size we wanted we went over budget. But I'm more than happy with the choice. The salesman was not pressuring me. He was very informative and he made us a plan that met all our needs. Fuji House had made us a plan but it was not what we asked for. There was no time wasting at Sekisui. Every little change we made to the plan was done that day and a new plan submitted to our door step that night. Always to perfection.

The price range we wanted was between 500,000 to 600,000 yen per tsubo. We are already up to 730,000! This is the price that Sweden Homes 1st quoted to us that sent us running away.

My wife looked at a company called Arden homes and we looked and researched other builders on the net.

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Last modified: January 27, 2006