Why Japan is Giving Away 8 Million Free Houses
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- čas přidán 17. 01. 2023
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There’s a lot of problems with these houses unfortunately:
1) These older homes have 0 insulation, the grandparents are huddled next to a space heater in the winter so they don’t freeze overnight
2) The house and land transfer might be free but you’re often required to renovate the building to meet present codes before you’re allowed to legally live in it
3) The example of Asago is pretty typical, these quaint countryside villages might be beautiful to the outsider but they’re kinda depressing to live in as a younger person. There are few people of your age to socialize with, the stores/services naturally cater to old people. You’re surrounded by other abandoned homes/businesses. If you have kids you often have to send them to far away schools due to the decline in rural child populations.
4) The villages that offer these deals are generally in the middle of nowhere. It’s going to take 90-120 minutes of transit just to get to an airport or major train station, and then whatever time it takes to go to a major city.
Edit: 5) To people saying it’s free or that it would be a good summer home, almost all of these deals come with the condition that you legally live at that residence. The towns want you to pay taxes there more than anything. In order to be a legal resident, you’re going to have to make sure the home passes safety standards as a “liveable residence” as well as transferring your official address to that home. The address change can be quite inconvenient here because our outdated bureaucracy still manages so much with paper, and all important notices, bills, etc are going to be mailed to your one official home residence in Japan.
'The house and land transfer might be free but you’re often required to renovate the building to meet present codes before you’re allowed to legally live in it'
There's a similar scheme that's been running in Italy for a decade which has the same caveats. In that scheme you also have to employ as much local labour as is reasonably possible and spend at least a certain amount on the renovation.
The crucial factor for 2020s living is how good the internet connection and electricity are. If they're adequate you could get a work from home job.
@@spankeyfish Pretty much. For people who actively prefer to live in the countryside and can work 100% from home, this is a potentially good deal as long as you have reliable broadband and can deal with the language barrier. I speak fluent Japanese, and I wouldn't call it the easiest language in the world to learn.
@@zibbitybibbitybop I have a feeling Japan also is doing this to encourage people to live there. Considering the population shrinking that’s currently going on, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Japanese government starts implementing measures to encourage immigration from the west and beyond.
It's hard..
So basically the same problems as Italy's famous 1€ houses.
You missed the whole "people moving from the countryside to cities" angle, another reason why so many houses in small villages are empty.
Yeah I was surprised that wasn't talked about early on in the demand falling. Japan will pay families to move out of Tokyo into the country because it's so lopsided.
Yeah he should’ve also mentioned more downsides to why the homes are “free”. A lot of Japan’s population is in the big cities like Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Yokohama, etc.
Isn't Japan long been the most urbanized nation itw?
@@TheRishijoesanu Not every part of japan is urbanized. My grandmother lived in a rural town (more like a village), and their school (elementary + middle school) combined only had like 15 students. There was only 1 local train station (unmanned), and the trains only arrived every couple of hours
@@kojii6159 True but still, the JP urbanisation is one of the highest in the world, which is crazy for it's size.
There was huge missed point here! Japan does NOT have a housing crisis because homes fundamentally are not seen as appreciating assets. Your neighbors are not worried about the valur of their homes lowering or anything like that. Many western countries are facing crisis precisely because houses are seen as investments rather than places to live. If a house is always supposed to gain value, eventually only the few could afford it.
@Quantum Passport itll never end. You have to move somewhere remote.
Uh, neighbors definitely are worried about the value lowering. It might not apply to family homes where all generations live together, but young couples owning real estate may see their home's value drop if there is a case of violent crime in the surrounding area. For instance, if your neighbor murders his wife, everyone living next to his home will see a price drop. Superstition and all that. There is even an online map somewhere showing properties in which people have died, and the discount you get.
Thats simply because the population is increasing in the us mostly because of immigration. Japans population is shrinking at a rapid rate due to low birth rate
Supply and demand. Houses last longer than humans so value of housing in japan decreases as populations decreases for a period of time
They wasn’t always the case. Japan had the mother of all housing bubbles in the 80s and still hasn’t recovered from the pop. It’s not some cultural wisdom that Japanese don’t see houses as appreciating assets but hard experience.
Louis-San, a French/Japanese CZcamsr living in Japan did a video today debunking this myth. They are not really houses but shells of houses. They need to be renovated to seismic norms of today, which means they will be basically stripped down and rebuilt. You need to be a permanent resident, which is extremely hard to get in Japan, to be eligible to buy one and they are mostly in very remote or abandoned villages. Then it must be your primary house, meaning you have to live there permanently to be eligible, you can't buy them as cottage. In short, be ready to wait between 2 to 4 years before you can expect to live in them from the start of the buying process to the delivery of the renovated house and the actual end price make them not appealing at all.
I thought it would be great to make an update on this video since your videos are usually on target factually. For those interested in watching his video, look for his channel but i warn you there is no english subtitle i am aware of. CZcams does not offer english generated subtitles from what i saw.
That's what I was afraid of. Japan would have to let me in the country first before I start dishing out any money. If a house had to be rebuilt, what would be the cost? If over $50K I'm out.
Thanks for this. I am so sick of youtube and sensationalized titles for views.
@@compresswealthdivideeconom3757 Emigrating to Japan is fairly easy if you speak the language and can show you descend from Japanese (and are young of course). If not, then you're out of luck. They're very insular like that.
did you even watch the video??? there is no myth here.... next time watch the video before making a fool of yourself.
If it's to good to be true, it probably is.
Ironic that Japan, a country with a deeply ingrained cultural sense of communal responsibility, has the absolute most freedom in its zoning laws for private landowners and builders, while the US, which has made an entire national history and culture out of individual liberty, struggles to build more housing on private land because the zoning laws are so complex and neurotic.
California just passed a law that lets developers build residential on commercially zoned land if it fuffills specific affordability requirements
My grandfather, he wasnt in a special profession or anything just like experience, noted that zoning was crazy due to how slippy companies were only wanting mineral and water rights and not the land. That was like 40-50 years ago in So. California.
I think that actually makes sense because if you have communal responsibility, you don't really need laws to force people to do things "properly" because there is already an understanding as to what is acceptable. While in a place where everyone feels entitled to do do what they want, others will feel compelled to coerce people into "behaving" with the force of the law.
you don't understand, what's great for GM is great for the US Citizen.
It's cool how it's always the US vs the best country in the world in a given metric so they never fail to get to the conclusion that the US is crap
As an Australian, I personally love Japan’s zoning system. My house is 20 minute drive from the nearest store even though I live in the middle of a suburb with 10,000 people packed in. In Japan, they have little restaurants and stores throughout their streets, it’s brilliant. I’d give anything to walk to a corner shop these days. No longer thanks to Australian zoning laws
Edit: I need to correct this comment. It is not accurate at all. I am travelling Japan currently and it’s only true of the cities. Suburbs in Izu peninsula are extremely inconvenient. Nearest konbini is 25 minute walk away. Bus only comes every 2 hours. I made a generalisation based on my experience with cities and towns. It does not hold true for most of Japan where tourists don’t go.
That’s the beauty of the only US city I truly love, Houston. There are no use restrictions of property there.
It is nice living 5 minutes from liquor store.
@@JEBavido Bruh Houston is one of the worst cities in the US in terms of walkability. It's true Houston doesn't have traditional zoning laws, but they replace those with a bunch of smaller rules like mandatory parking minimums and whatnot which lead to it being as unwalkable as any other texan city, if not moreso
Zoning codes ruined California.
Same here with American zoning laws, please allow us to get away from "neighborhood character"
I used to live in Kyoto and I remember hearing so many stories about shoddy workmanship even on brand new homes. Japanese people typically don’t like to buy a house that someone else has lived in so good luck in trying yo sell it someday unless you are in a very desirable area. I lived in a very nice two story traditional style house and it was like a tinder box. I would never light a candle in it! The walls are very thin and uninsulated. They feel more like what we would call a barn or shed as far what we’re used to. The heating system is a space heater and/or sitting around a ‘Kotatsu’ which is like a round sort of coffee table with a blanket draped over it. You sit cross legged on the floor and drape the blanket over your lap. There’s a heater underneath. That’s it! And most of Japan is very COLD in Winter! Lots of snow!
And I doubt that they are going to let just anybody move to Japan and move into these houses. Japan is very picky about who they allow to move there. Even ethnically Japanese who move to Japan from countries like Brazil say they feel like outsiders, like they are never embraced by the culture. They are tolerated but never really accepted. I’ve had them tell me this personally. Everything about them is so different including body language and mannerisms.
Terrible insular culture by the sounds of it. Patriarchal and uptight. I wonder why?
@@misterbonzoid5623 Thousands of years being that way. “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down!” Olde Japanese Saying
They discourage individuality, going it alone, doing your own thing etc. which squashes creativity. Japan is a consensus society. Japanese companies make decisions very slowly, even taking years to make changes. Korean companies are run by very smart guys who can make decisions for their companies in a day! Remember Sony? It used to be #1 in a lot of things but got left behind. Ever hear of a Japanese cellphone or smartphone? The CEO of Toyota was replaced because he stubbornly refused to work on developing new EV’s. He say’s ‘I’m a car guy.” He likes internal combustion engines. He just couldn’t wrap his mind around the idea of them being replaced by EV’s. He just got canned last week. And he’s the grandson of Toyota’s Founder! Now Toyota has years of catching up to do just like Sony. They weren’t nimble enough to adapt.
The Japanese are great innovators. They can take a camera and make it better. Or a radio or record player or car, etc. and improve upon it, make it much better. But they rarely ever invent anything. Think about it. The reason is that they stress conformity and discourage individuality. I had a nurse in one of my English classes I was teaching in Kyoto who has brown hair. Most Japanese people have black hair. She was forced to dye her hair black beginning in Kindergarten and then all the way through high school! That’s how bad it is in Japan!
Agreed. I don’t think the house owner would sell to a foreigner, even if it was a shit piece of garbage in the middle of nowhere.
@@jmseipp I thought Toyota had been focussing more on hybrids; that's why they were late to EVs. & that Korea highly values consensus too like Japan. I did use a Japanese smartphone (Sony) last time but the glass screen cracked by itself when barely 2 yrs old (I hadn't dropped it), & my classmates told me that's the quality they expected from Sony now!
@@lzh4950 As I mentioned before, Toyota’s CEO, the grandson of Toyota’s Founder, has been sacked! He admitted that he was a ‘car guy’ who liked internal combustion engines. Duh…, He was obviously a danger to the company’s future. He’s been replaced by an aggressive new CEO who understands that the future is with EV’s. Toyota does have an EV model and will have many more soon.
The South Koreans aren’t held back in the way the Japanese are. They can make decisions very quickly, in a day sometimes, regarding major decisions. Having lived in Japan. I know very well the mentality of the Japanese. They believe that ‘The nail that sticks up gets hammered down’ so they are very reluctant to make major changes. Or even offer up an opinion! I’ve also spent a lot of time in South Korea. Totally different! In all the time I lived in Japan I never had anyone offer to help me in a situation where I was obviously lost, looking at a map and trying to get my bearings. On a crowded train, I never had a Japanese person initiate a conversation. Totally different in South Korea! If you’re looking at a map, trying to figure out where you are or where you want to go, total strangers will come up to you an offer their assistance! They will cheerfully help you out! Nice! Total strangers will often walk up to you and initiate a conversation. Cool! Very friendly!
I often initiated conversations with strangers in Japan. And they’ll respond. But they won’t ever be the ones who will ever begin a conversation. They are very shy and terrified to make a mistake with their English. The South Koreans don’t care about any of that! Very different cultures! Hop on a plane and leave Japan and arrive in South Korea and you’ll notice it right away, very different cultures.
I’ve never heard of a Japanese cellphone or smartphone. They must not sell many of them.
Very well-made and researched video. One thing to note is that these free or extremely cheap abandoned houses tend to be in a state of disrepair or have some other underlying problem that will lead to even more problems down the line (think plumbing or foundation-related). I personally know a few people who have successfully renovated these places to something interesting and livable, but just like an old beater that you keep in your garage and try to fix up, these will in most cases become a money pit.
Just ask Tokyo Llama, lol.
And ants. God damn ants.
It's like the buy a 100.00 dollar Italian villa in rural Italy. You must restore the marble home, and outbuildings etc if you buy the villa.
You also have to restore the population, I volunteered but my wife disapproved.
This housing code thing is the same throughout most of Asia. For a country that calls itself the land of the free, America for sure has some of the most un-free housing and building codes.
Edit: This is not as harsh of a criticism as this comment section has made it out to be. It's just; coming from a foreign culture, this kind of regulations(on how the building must look, HOAs, single family only zones) no feel like a beach of my personal freedoms. I don't know enough to comment on the American housing market.
Mixed use zoning is the norm most places and until the 60's was the USA. America has really odd zoning laws.
America is just a wealthy version of Russia
America has some legacy bits left over from "land of the free" but we are so far from that country at this point. Not to say we are the worst, and that things couldn't be a lot worse, but from licensing to building codes, and so much more, we have maintained the slogan, but not the spirt of those words.
Why are we talking about America in a video about japan?
Yeah America is free to be poor and homeless that’s what it means lol.
Having lived in Japan 30 odd years with in-laws who are in real-estate, I can assure you that cheap/free houses is entirely dependent on location. All the major cities do not offer free houses so don't get your hopes up unless you want to live in a small town.
What is the largest city that offers free houses?
@@aaronfield7899 awaiting an answer to this question
Another thing that he doesn't cover in the video is that Japanese are very superstitious. They don't want to live in a place if someone has died there. There is even a website in Japan that lets people know about apartments and homes around the Tokyo area.
I had a Japanese friend whose mother died in her home. I asked him what he was going to do with the house. He said nothing. No one will buy it. He goes once a month to cut the grass, etc., but the house sits empty as do many old homes in Japan's countryside. In former tourist spots old hotels are scattered about, abandoned. It's really depressing to see.
I have also seen homes and buildings here that looked completely normal get demolished overnight and rebuilt a year later. This has to do with them reaching zero value. But even in Tokyo where I live now I find some homes that are abandoned. Strange that Japan doesn't have property forfeiture laws so that the city can seize the buildings and do the demolition so at least you have an empty lot that can quickly built on.
I would love to live in a small town with Japanese zoning laws, only issue is that my industry/career of ecology/university research is… located overwhelmingly in centers of urban areas
There are no 8 million free houses in Japan.
There is a CZcams channel, called Tokyo Lama, where a couple details the process of securing one of these countryside houses (paperwork, costs, etc). They’ve been slowly renovating & upgrading the house and property over the past 3 years. Very informative for those folks considering purchasing one of Japan’s abandoned homes.
Japan got a lot right. Mixed zoning is such a common sense no-brainer. I'm lucky to live in a city (in the U.S.) where my grocery store, gym, doctor, library, and favorite restaurants are all a maximum of a 15 minute walk from me. But I grew up in American Suburbia which is a hellscape. So I think Japan's approach to zoning was actually brilliant. It's just the whole having to demolish a house every 30 yrs thing.
I love the suburbs. It's safe and quiet here. Plus, my wife makes a ton of money by working at home, further negating the need to live in a dangerous city.
@@Captain_Neckbeard Its not the city itself that is just dangerous, just a certain 'element'.
@@Captain_Neckbeard suburbs are a drain on American society and Economy.
@@Captain_Neckbeard the strong alpha male Conservative Americans are terrified of dangerous leftist American cities inhabited by beta male dangerous leftists! The contradictions of American Conservativism are hilarious
@@victorcode2075 we see your white hood from hundreds of miles away
I'm a Brazilian of Japanese descent. This year I'm going to live and work on Japan for a year or two (maybe more, who knows). The process for doing do was remarkably easy considering I'm a nobody from a 3rd world country with no degree who can barely even string together basic sentences in Japanese.
Thing is, I'm young (25) and I'd wager they are in real need for young people like me to work in some low wage jobs. I'm not complaining, I've always dreamed of living in an actually functional and safe country.
How did you get a job in japan? Did your japanese descent help or is it anyone who can apply? I am same age as you and want to work in japan but finding no ways except alt jobs.
@@mokisan in Brazil, only japanese descendants or married
@@mokisan Sure thing it did. Many countries such as Poland, Russia, Israel, etc. have programs which enable quick paths to getting a citizenship of/visa to said country if you prove that you had someone from that country down your line of descent. If you don't have that, it's significantly harder and even more so in Japan which is famous for convoluted paths to citizenship.
Also, keep in mind that you have to renounce your other citizenship(s) if you get a Japanese passport.
força e honra amigo, tomara que de certo pra você lá no Japão! Quero sair do Brasil também mas acho que vai ser pro Canadá mesmo. Brasil é muito perigoso, não me sinto a vontade.
@@ordenmanvrn7685 I don't mind doing that. But sadly I don't have any Japanese descent
As anyone who's ever owned a house can attest to, an unkept house will eventually rot away. Those beautiful houses are rotting away as we speak...a pity.
There are not 8 million free houses in Japan. This video is not truthful.
Not to mention becoming host to a godawful quantity of supernaturals and spooks and things that go bump in the night. Anyone fancy a door opening by itself with a loud creak. Yup, these sort of houses come with automatic doors.
I wouldnt mind living in a rural village as long as there is good internet and electricity and clean water. I already have a 100% remote job. the thing is, how much money do you really have to put in in order to make the house livable. and taking into consideration what the video says, the house will cost 0 dollars in 30 years or so.
so, I can perfectly understand why people dont want them.
@@TheGothGaming internet is the issue here rural villages don't have great connection so your gonna be dealing with pretty bad internet
@@bubluberstrublers8974 that does not happen in Japan though.
Finland was in a similar situation before Coronavirus. Mortgage interest rates were negative, one office building in the middle of a town was sold for a whopping 1 Euro. After Covid it has been easing a bit as people have been moving back from Helsinki to the rest of Finland.
There are "free houses" all over the world. There are a ton in the US, Italy and Japan for example. They're all even more proof that free is the most expensive thing you can get.
I think the issue is *community not included*
Sure, I do not doubt there is work out in the middle of the Great Plains or something, but its very far away from alot of people, especially the young. If there are no jobs, stores and schools, forget about it.
The reality is you'd have to pay hazard pay to get people to move more the ~+2 hours out of major metro centers, more if that city is considered terrible, often rotting for similar reasons. So "we'll give you a barely passable house for free if you'll fix it" Is a terrible deal for 9 out of 10 people with everthing factored in. Most of the remainder its simply too far/ have the money to pay for good locations that never had these problems.
You'd probably need to bulldoze most of these towns snd build new industry/ greenhouses/ warehouses to even start back filling these towns voluntarily. I suspect alot of farming communities will be getting far more goverment aid/ tax cuts just to keep fields productive in the next 20 yrs.
I grew up in a small town in Canada and I remember the town nearby was selling land for $1. Because people wanted to live in the city not the country.
Now that same plot of land will be $1 million and will sell for 1.3 million.
@@Uncle_Fred I'm pretty sure the land this person is talking about was for sale for 1$ per square foot, but the person didn't add "per square foot" on the sign. This is actually quite common in my province
My great grandfather purchased a land 0,10$ per square foot decades ago and my grandfather recently sold it for exactly 1$ per square foot. When you take inflation in consideration, the land basically kept a stable value over time
But obviously it depends where you're looking at. For example, the price of land in most of British Columbia is now crazy
Back in year 2000 when coal prices collapsed, there was a town in northern BC Canada (Tumbler Ridge) that auctioned off abandoned houses for cheap. People who bought then probably cashed out well later on.
@@Avarua59 It's the same in Murdochville in the middle of Gaspésie. A guy purchased like half the town for a few hundred thousands of dollars and is currently renting them for tourists, as it is in the middle of the Chic Choc mountains (which is a very good place for skiing and snowmobiles)
@@PG-3462 I don't know about the value now but it's probably the same, because this is in rural Saskatchewan out on the prairies, not exactly desirable like BC! The whole property was $1
I was wondering why Japan was handing out such great deals on their houses and then when he said the number of vacant houses were going to double in 10 years, I connected the dots and remembered that Japan has a population crisis.
that's just 1 of the crisis' we know about.. I'm sure there's sh|t we have no idea about.
I you call transitioning to a state of less overpopulation a crisis.
Good job detective
@@tellyboy17 that's incredibly stupid.
@@tellyboy17 its not overpopulation ,its more *under* population
I live in Japan. I was supposed to move into an old akiya 2 yrs ago, they supposed to have given it free to me, before I moved….
the winter came and dumped tons of snow, broke into the already broken roof, made the house unlivable…busted the pipes, so I couldn’t claim it. They also wanted my Japanese children to move with me but the young want to live as close to town, where life is.
I spoke to the countryside neighbors who told me I would get mental coz iwamizawa was nothing but white out 20 feet of snow daily. Becoz of TONS OF SNOW…There is NO WORK available for MILES (only in the short summer months, you have tomato-picking,etc) I met another English teacher there who told me not to make the same mistake he had made, coz each winter he leaves iwamizawa, because of japans demographic time bomb, there aren’t any kids to learn English, even when facilities are free in Maple lodge, (the only hotel there WITH HARDLY ANY WORK AVAILABLE!!!.…this really upset me to hear it but after a few months I realized that ONLY IF a person wanted to DISENGAGE ENTIRELY & go off grid, should you think of it…but that sort of thinking is opposite to what the Japanese want…they want revival not survival instincts…if I just want to evade inflation…and not contribute to the growth of the Japanese economy by restoring the old history of the houses with COSTLY RECONSTRUCTION, EXPENSIVE LAND TAXES (THE buyer has to pay land tax for ALL THE YEARS IT SAT UN-LIVED in…give them your 1st and last born of YOUNG LIFE (KIDS).and MANY MANY MORE SERVICES to the RURAL community ….they said I should just FORGET ABOUT taking a free house from them…after you’ve wasted time and money, they’ll just tell you FREE DOESNT REALLY MEAN FREE…go figure.
(I was LUCKY to have ESCAPED…the lure…of “free”….will you be?)
Thanks. This world is messed up. It shouldn't require so much to live.
English teacher writes completely unreadable wall of text lmao
@@KT-ki6gz And yet some of us are capable of reading it.
You seem to be someone who has bought into an impossible delusion. Anyone who has sat themselves down and put some serious thought into what these things really entail understands what they're getting into.
I stayed in a two-story traditional house in a small town a few years back in the middle of winter. The toilet was unusable at might (due to freezing temperatures) and thoughts of the poor insulation still gives me chills to this day. As the walls were ultra thin, my voice (which I lowered to just above a whisper when talking on the phone) carried over the entire house (during the night) causing the owner to complain.
End of story. Thanks for reading.
.
That's what I'm thinking the entire I was watching this video. We've all seen movies of someone getting thrown through a paper wall in Japan. Sure, homes are cheap and there's plenty available, but what of their quality?
@@2x2is22 Well, number one, pretty sure you can add your own insulation if you want. Japan does have wood, so put up walls. Not a big secret is that you can use almost anything to insulate, wool is making a comeback. So move in and insulate the plumbing. After paying ZERO dollars you can do a fair bit of reno on the savings. Lets see, a shitshack in many big cities sell for a million.
But that is true, the japanese are well known for actualy being tough. They typically have little insulaiton and the heat is simply a fire in the middle of the room you spend most of your time. Unlike our homes, where most of a house is unused and yet people demand it be twenty degrees in case they want to go in. And yet we in north america always deride europeans and asians for being wimps, mostly thanks to movies.
Add some sound absorbing foam panels.
One big thing he didn't mention is you dont really get a free home. You do get a free home, but the paperwork is massive for which you have to hire someone. And you have to out of your own pocket do the renovation of the home in japan according to government standards, this is the big money spender here. Also taxes (which are relatively small)
Keep another thing in mind, these free homes might look enticing. But many of the abandoned homes aren't up for sale. Because they are family heirloom, and people would rather let it rot pay the min taxes an don't sell and these are the majority of the houses. So keep that I mind.
It makes an easy title for clickbait or on the surface it looks good. But when you dig deep it's a bit of a mess.
Came in here for this specific comment. It's not 'FREE'. Not by a longshot.
Came for to get this type of comment be seen.
@@OnlyOneNights ok, but depends on how bad the renovations and taxes are. You might get away with 25k.....
These are all things you would have to spend money on if you buy any home at all. The home itself is still free, all you're saying is that the government won't provide for the cost of anything else which obviously they won't. He doesn't need to mention it, anyone with half a brain should already know all of that.
Yeah and it's most likely leasehold too.
While the quality of these homes is often not good, it's remarkable how Japan has almost completely decommodified housing and made homes into just that - a place to live.
Sounds like a plus for me since its viewed and treated as a commodity, Most young people cant afford a home in much of the 1st world because investors keep homes expensive to take advantage of people.
The video had the opposite conclusion….
@@jasondads9509 And I have this one. Your point is?
It seems like a rather unsustainable system to me, given Japan's demographics.
@@ctormin Explain to me please, how is it unsustainable for everybody to have a place to live?
There’s a saying “old men plant trees knowing they’ll never see the shade”
In America old men buy up all the trees that their parents planted and charge insane rent prices, then bulldoze the other trees for golf courses and stroads
I'll take a golf course over a parking lot any day
I’m wondering why, when I spent 6 months in Kyoto and Osaka twenty years ago, I saw so many homeless people living on public land in “tents” they had formed from blue tarps. If there are so many free houses, why weren’t they moving into them?
I see the many answers to my question were shared by other viewers.
Tokyo Llama has a good video on everything you need to know buying these houses-he bought one.
And a darn good one at that, that house is gorgeous
He did a lot of work himself as well so he was able to save some money. However not all of these houses are going to be as good of a condition of his, so it will cost a lot to renovate them
Another reason why Japan seems to have more houses is that old houses are often subdivided into 2 or 3 "pencil" houses, adding to the number of houses built in a single plot of land
Japan should do a rejuvenation programme like Singapore’s to make them desirable to live in, as well as attract blocks of younger people to live in those communities.
They aren't having kids.
@@lukeotics No, I get it. Society is broken however.
Thanks so much for citing our book Emergent Tokyo in the sources! Hope you liked it. :)
Erm... actually, yes, there are terms and conditions for someone to get these homes, and they vary quite a lot depending on prefecture. Even though the content of the video is mostly right, the intro was pretty misleading.
There are several different programs for people getting abandoned houses in different states of disrepair and legal abandonment.
It of course starts with most of those homes being abandoned sometimes for decades, so they are in such a ruined state that you almost have to rebuild everything in them, if not tear it all down and start from scratch. Some are not as bad, so they won't be given free, but with prices well bellow market.
You will be dealing with government sometimes, or sometimes it's relatives of the former owners. Well, not directly, it's either through some program or a real estate agency.
Some of them require you to not only start reforms as soon as you get them, you are expected to move in with family in a given period of time - you cannot get it for rental, 3rd parties or stuff like AirBnb. I think some allow that, but most of the programs I heard about you can only take the property if you are moving in.
Another good part of those are only granted for Japanese citizens, or foreigners with permanent Japanese Residence visas. Some requires you to have a job locally. Some have age gates, or are only giving to young families with small children. The spectrum is kinda huge.
There are all sorts of different situations there.
That is, if you are talking about all the abandoned houses in Japan... perhaps there is a program that is giving out abandoned houses for free with no strings attached there, but I find this very hard to believe. Real Estate in Japan is notoriously more stringent and selective. It's hard for even foreigners who have been working years in Japan and have no intention of leaving to sometimes rent a place, let alone buy one there, or get one for free. Some property owners explicitly won't sell or rent for foreigners.
But you know, this isn't unique to Japan... I've just watched a video on a similar thing happening in southern Italian towns.
Another thing to note on the video is that while yes, the mixed zoning rule allows for a lot of things in Japanese neighborhoods, it also comes with very strict regulations on what commercial and industrial places can do if they are located in a mixed zone.
Everything from how much noise they can do, how tall buildings can be, what materials can be used, along several other things are tightly controlled.
There is also a kind of a mixed assumption there... it is true that most of the real estate market and absurd rate of new constructions is due to older places getting torn away and new places being built to replace it, but a good portion of those old houses and homes are incredibly well built and sturdy - reason why they are still standing to this day. There are also lots of poorly built houses that came up in the 60s and so, mostly in urban centers, but it isn't the norm, particularly for abandoned homes that tends to be in small villages far away from urban centers.
Take note that these villages in the inaka where lots of these abandoned homes are, are also losing ground in terms of public transportation... if you intend to get something way out in the boonies for free, there are chances you will also need a car to go to bigger cities, and you might not have access to many facilities. There are exceptions of course like the one shown in the video, but most abandoned houses are located in villages that are also getting abandoned, train service might stop at some point, and stuff like hospitals and schools are also going away if it still exists.
It's less aging of Japan and other factors, and just plain urbanization. Kids of families who lived there moved to the city and have no plans to go back.
But in the age of these properties also lies problems that have nothing to do with how well built these places were. Very old traditional homes requires specialized maintenance and service for upgrades and repairs, they are expensive and sometimes very hard to find, and the expertise in it is dying with the older generations. Particularly for a category of homes known as minka houses, several aspects of the architecture, design, materials and a bunch of other stuff is close to artisanal, it doesn't fit mass produced stuff, so repairs and reforms can get super expensive to do.
Like the video said, code is also being constantly updated... so it ends up in a mix of things which often results in it being more profitable for owners to tear an old house down and build a new one in place to live, sell or rent rather than trying to do a full scale reform.
So, it's a huge combination of factors that led to this very unique real estate situation that Japan has. But interestingly enough at least for me, I think the weird way real estate works in Japan is also kind of a factor in a more equal economy that Japan has.
For instance, rent in major urban centers like Tokyo are still pretty expensive for what you get, but nowhere near the discrepancy in prices that you have in countries like US, Australia, Canada and UK. You'll pay half for more space in smaller cities, but it's not some completely absurd discrepancy. Even if you go a bit outside central Tokyo... say an hour away by metro, prices starts becoming pretty reasonable.
But anyways, I'm getting outside the topic here... there are lots of channels on CZcams with people going for these almost free places with several attached terms to them... Tokyo Llama comes to mind. If you are interested, check them out!
Interesting, thanks.
I bet I would be excluded based on age and not having a family, besides not being Japanese. And then the cost I bet is not free when all said and done, maybe $200K.
@@compresswealthdivideeconom3757 You can't even buy since you're not japanese.
@@Jeffnvz Yeah. Would have been nice to see that in the title.
One of the biggest obstacles is getting permanent Japanese residency. It is very hard for most foreigners to obtain. Even me being married to a native Japanese, it was a pain in the ass. I also work for a Japanese company.
shhhhh, don't let Blackrock and their AirBnB subsidiaries know
too late, they shilling the yen
Those areas would be better off, even if it was just corporate investors interested in them. That AirBnB brings in customers to the one restaurant in the area. Provides work when the house is cleaned between rentals. Brings in tax revenue.
However, even corporate investors aren't interested in these, because by the time they are done putting in all the rehab to make these attractive to tourists, they might as well have bought a normal home in a more traditionally touristy area.
Every family has that one person who will break the family's financial struggle, I hope you become the one 😊
@andychang2317 You're right, it's obvious a lot of people remain poor due to ignorance
I'm looking for something to venture into on a short term basis, I have about $6k sitting in my savings
Starting early is the best way to getting ahead of build wealth, investing remains the priority
Obviously trading in bitcoin is very volatile and risky to trade that's the reason most traders trade with a company
Now is the best time to purchase and invest in Bitcoin stop procrastinating
"There are worse ways to spend zero dollars", made me spit my coffee all over the place. So damn funny, delivered with his dry manner.
I feel like "your neighbors have no say over what you do with your property" should be the motto of America, not Japan.
But it isn’t. Sadly, your neighbors have a ton of say over your property in the USA. See HOA’s for an example
@@03dashk64 that's why it should become the motto of america
by revoking hoa power
Ban HOA's
One major difference… culturally japanese respect others, neighbors, and public spaces.
Here in the states if you don’t have an armed guard watching you or some immediately painful fine then all hell breaks lose.
@@Khanfuzed1 yeah Japan respects everyone….
As long As there Japanese
The economics of housing is so different in different parts of the world. Here in the US....we have more land than most, but people still can't afford any. It's really weird, and there are hundreds of analysis of it, I'm sure. PS. I miss A Hill To Die On. Those videos still make me laugh, and I link the Fahrenheit one at every opportunity.
Its cause private companies make single family housing, this requires tons infrastructure like roads highways and roadlights per person. All of this needs to be rebuilt when it gets old. Also there are minimum road requirements that are huge and minimum front lawn requirement. So everyone needs a car cause its so sparce. This is impossible, cause the city pays for all this, completely uneconomical for them. If you made more dense cities, with more walking and public transport and less roads and cars you dont need as much infrastructure per person.
It’s the same everywhere people want to live near booming cities. I’m sure there is cheap under $100k houses for sale in the USA in rural areas or depressed cities
Development companies will make what makes them the most money at a given land area after building costs. It’s the restrictive zoning laws that is prevalent in majority of locations in United States. Zoning laws like this requires only single family houses and waste land space by requiring minimum lot size, maximum building size for lawns, parking minimums and setbacks from streets and lot boundaries.
Wow! What a amazing video! I learned so much from that!
Something I thought that may have a correlation to this topic is the Great Fires of Edo. Historically, Japanese homes have been made predominantly of wood. With such a high concentration of wooden structures, it wasn’t uncommon during the Edo period to have catastrophic fires every decade or so in major cities like Edo (Tokyo) that would burn down almost a third of the city. In order to combat this, many of the common homes back in the day were built using wood joints and without nails so that they could be easily deconstructed to prevent fires from spreading. There are even stories of residents willingly telling the kajiya, or firemen, to prematurely tear down their own homes to create fire alleys.
It’s interesting how so many natural disasters have shaped this consumable view towards real estate in Japan.
edit: I also wanted to add if anyone is interested, that the Great Fire of Meireki that started on March 2, 1657, burnt down an estimated 60-70% of Edo. This included Edo castle which is now the imperial residence.
Honestly the quality of your videos is the reason I've been watching you for years, its a wonder why you don't have any many subscribers or views are you deserve
Did you see the title? There are NOT 8 million free houses in Japan.
From my understanding, part of the issue is that the Japanese don't like to buy "used" homes. There is a cultural view of treating used homes like used sneakers- something creepy and dirty. Also they don't really maintain them as well as other cultures. So homes (the structure, not the land) more than a couple decades are viewed as worthless and often torn down and a new one built.
Yeah, I think that's pretty much what the video said.
I don't see any issue with that since these "homes" are just some rice paper and chopsticks. Good luck tearing down houses like I live in - its almost three feet of bricks basement to sixth floor. Was built right after WW2 and looks barely used.
@@NGC1433
First of all, kinda racist framing. Secondly, this concept of older buildings being unwanted applies not only to prewar homes but even buildings built in the 1970s and 1980s, where their construction was already very much modernized.
@@NGC1433 Many homes built in the early 2000s are more than "rice paper and chopsticks". Pretty racist statement.
@@NGC1433 imagine building brick houses in a seismologically unstable land...maybe your ignorance can be the confidence boost Japan needs to pull itself out of a stagnating economy.
It's true, the land a house is on is worth more in japan than the house itself.
When a family inherits a house they most likely just level it and build something new to get money out of it, or just sell the land which is more valuable this way than if it had a house on it.
The temptation to not use the "free real estate" meme as a thumbnail must have been immense
literally. except demolishing, or building a new house, or renovating the existing one would have been atrociously expensive in reality. not to mention the back taxes.
These abandon houses and even cheap property are everywhere even in the US. Except there’s a reason why they’re cheap or abandoned. There’s literally houses in Detroit for example you can claim for practically free but if they aren’t already looted and still standing you would deal with high property tax in an depreciating land and a crappy neighborhood or no neighbors at all even which basically makes it renting but with all the disadvantage.
Yes, living in Detroit comes with many advantages. You get hookers and drugs just feet away from home, maybe a stray bullet. Convenience.
@@compresswealthdivideeconom3757 not just Detroit but DC. All of the above but in a neighborhood where tear downs are $500k and new build is close to $1m.
Now if only it were easier to get Japan to let you live there.
I could easily work from home, and ive got many years or construction and repair experience. I could take one of them old 0 dollar houses and make it shine.
Italy is doing basically the same thing. Trying to give away homes in remote villages to revitalise them.
they probably wouldnt allow you to do all the fixes if you are not matriculated in Japan, at least for plumbing, gas and electricity. Sure you can repaint the walls and stuff, but some of t his houses are from 1950.
Japan doesn't want gaijins like you. They want gaijins who are top 10%.
I can see myself doing a fixer upper in Japan but the problem is, I dont know the local codes. Wireman by trade but they have entirely different systems, Japan has 2 in fact.
Donkus, I've lived in Japan over 2 decades, and they still won't give me a permanent visa. They make it harder to get all the time. They don't want foreigners to stay.
the current issue is how to revive a rural place with population and economy, which is what I have been focused on for the last ten years and more. as an architect I have been building in the rural sites, studying the relations of people and nature. I have held classes in architectural schools focused on the issue of rural living model, not just houses as a building, but rebuilding the entire network. the real challenge is behind the romantic getaway homes and villages.
In America the country or rural areas are considered as "bug out" areas. During the riots of last two years that's quickly becoming a common mindset. Maybe sell rural communities as "fallback" assets. A place where one can grow and raise food in case the electrical grid gets destroyed. In Japan, there are earthquakes, and the threat of war.
@@MissionSilo But also some rural areas in the US are seeing a population decline, as younger people moved away to cities where there's more job opportunity and resources. Also some basics like fast internet can often be lacking in rural areas (for example I get only about 1.5 mbps, which is painfully slow).
I happen to live in a rural area myself, and work as a nurse at a small rural hospital.
@Nurse_Xochitl yes but due to crime, riots, politics and so forth people are going to go to rural areas. Not as their main living abode but once again as a bug out area
@@MissionSilo some, but only some.
where i live has seen a population decline.
but it's also true a lot of idiots from leftist states like california are leaving their shithole to move to other states.
Something interesting that was glossed over a bit here is the reason *why* a house is a depreciating asset in Japan. And the reason is simply that the value of the land and the value of the house itself are assessed separately. This contributes to the dynamic where if you wish to sell a residential property, you have to build a new home on it to have a chance. As a result, most homes on the market in Japan are less than 5 years old.
This also makes the real estate practice, common in the United States, of sitting on empty properties to drive up rental prices while those empty ones keep appreciating totally non-viable. If you don’t sell or rent your property, you either hold a rapidly depreciating asset in the house, or pay substantial tax on the structureless property. All of which further increases supply in the market.
Japanese got it right
Housing should not be an investment vehicle, cause that means every generation expects price to be higher
There gotta be a ceiling eventually
Or you can normalize massive homelessness. USA! USA!
On other shoe, treating housing as a disposable commodity results in owners who do not do upkeep on their homes. Meaning those homes have to be demolished and rebuilt. Meaning lots of waste.
The Japanese system is different, not better.
@@micahbonewell5994 You can see lots of vids on you tube of American communities looking like war zones. I have seen them myself first hand as well.
My guy, have you seen the prices in japanese urban economic zones? The prices in this video are cheap because its rural japan, this is the same case in the united states. There's more vacant homes than homeless in the US, they just arent near jobs and amenities
Housing prices go up when the population goes up faster than the number of homes.
Japan does have so immigration subsidies to help the population but from what I remember you have to be of Japanese descent to get major help. Ofc you dont have to but it will be more challenging
Being of Japanese descent doesn't mean you're of Japanese culture. Rather than focusing on ethnicity, they should focus on if they integrate.
@@jasonhaven7170 But Japan gives a break to those of Japanese descent. It's xenophobic like most of Asia (E & SE for sure). Japan and South Korea have only about 2% of population that is foreign born with a significant number of those being people descendant from their country. China is only 0.1%!!!
@@jasonhaven7170 usually immigrants keep parts of their original culture. This stays over multiple generations, although parts such as the language do fade away relatively quickly. It's not exactly unreasonable.
@@kyh148 That is not true, otherwise how do you explain Irish-Americans or French Huguenots in the UK? Or Liverpool's 3 century-old Black communtiy? You clearly don't live in a diverse area, I do and most ethnic minorities in the UK integrate into British culture, hence great comedians like Romesh Ranganathan and models like Naomi Campbell and actors like Idris Elba and MPs like David Lammy and Diane Abbott.
@@jasonhaven7170 We have decades of research that shows that diversity is a net negative in every community it occurs in. Feel free to look it up.
Very interesting story, I had no idea property was not an asset for future gain. Great narration and presentational short doc.
That zoning law is like in Indonesia. I live in a residential area. I'm not very familiar with the law here, but near my place, there are traditional market (2 min walk), super market (3 min with motorcycle), many delivery service offices/drop points, dozens of street food stalls and local stores that sells snacks, frozen food, LPG, car wash, drinking water, even building materials. I'm loving it!
"Its free real state"
Even in western countries the value of a home is mostly in the land value, not in the house itself. Here in Canada, similar to Japan, many houses older than ~30-40 years will have little or even negative value compared to empty, developed land (i.e. has water, gas, electrical, sewage, etc). Particularly nice or well maintained houses will fair better of course.
The shrinking, aging population, in combination with an ongoing migration to Tokyo and other major cities, is what is making the land value so low. When there are far more rural / small town properties than potential buyers the prices are going to tank. Meanwhile here in Canada, where we have a growing population and people moving to all sorts of towns, big and small, I've been looking at houses in small towns and they're in the $1m (USD$700k) range. The average house in the larger city I currently live is around $2m.
But there are also regions in Canada where population is declining and thus home prices are very low. There are many places like that in Eastern Canada (Ontario, Québec and the Maritimes). Saguenay in Québec is such a region, where most young people go to either Québec city or Montréal
US$2 m in just house alone is not worth living in the country. With US$2m in Malaysia covers everything including house, food security, health care, freedom to travel the country 13 states every year with just the fix deposit interest. Free Living, no financial worries. Everyday no winter. Everyday good weather
@@wendyshoowaiching4161 I'm sorry but not having winter is not for me 😂 I hate heat and I love skiing
The building codes make it hard to build something on your land. Thus houses that are already standing are much more valuable outside Japan.
@@Currywurst4444 It's my understanding that building codes are ever changing in Japan as well. Perhaps not for single family homes though?
Great video! I rarely say this, but the ad in this is legit, I like the Nebula A LOT.
Nice content as always
Most of the reasons why Japan can't give away houses in some places is because they make it so difficult for outsiders to immigrate there and settle in permanently. You would think that their country's demographic issues would make it more likely that they relax immigration rules, but there has been a significant lag in that regard. It also doesn't help matters, on the domestic front, that many young Japanese individuals are too single-minded in their thinking that greater prosperity can only come by moving into a large city. The internet and the emergence of remote work is increasingly making that less and less true.
Mass immigration is absolutely not a viable solution as it would threaten the country's identity. I don't get how it can be proposed so carelessly.
@@adastra4741 I needed to be more specific. I'm not in favor of low-skill labor-based migration. I was talking about high-skill migration, specifically. Places like India have a huge population of educated people whose economic worth and utility isn't being well-implemented in their home country who could really benefit from being in Japan, instead.
@@adastra4741 Japan doesn't allow dual citizenship, if they allowed that, then they could make it easy for japanese diaspora to gain citizenship and live in japan. That would help mitigate population decline, but help retain culture.
@@adastra4741 Do you have any other obvious solutions?
@@adastra4741 indentity can change...
Now this is a certified neighborhood classic!
Bro, u miss out on property tax. When Japanese old forks died and pass to their property to their kids, the kids got to pay 1-time “inheritance tax” so most don't want the house or cannot afford to pay this tax, therefore empty houses (anyway Japanese hated having a foreigner as their neighbor) citing noise and cooking smell as these reasons 😮
I you want to see crazy go to old-town Dubai. When I was there I saw a jewelry store, a moped shop, and a small grocery store right next to each other on the bottom floor of about a 10 story building with, I assume, apartments on the upper floors. It was amazing. It's nice to have a townhome and not be stacked up like cord-wood, but my gym is very close, yet it's still 3/4 of a mile away. The USA got screwed by the NIMBYs, so now we have massive blocks of 1 and 2 story housing and zero walkability and terrible mass transit.
Bit random but I've been trying to watch this on Nebula for a few days and I can never get passed the first few seconds before it buffers for eternity, Had the same issue with PolyMatter videos before and never on any other channels, anyone else have similar issues?
that nebula ad intro in th end was smooth ngl
Great work Thank you
Japanese countryside is wonderful to visit but how would you make a living out there? With the right type of job, sure you can make a living, but it’s about the rest of community?
Me as a Canadian who wants to gut these ridiculous zoning codes: “How do you learn this power oh wise master?”
I really like that polymatter is diversifying and talking about countries other than China
This is a great video, but there is also a cultural-philosophical component stretching back to Japanese spirituality and metaphysics. There's the idea that structures are inevitably transient, that they are just points in the ever-flowing stream of time, of creation and recreation. Ise Shrine, arguably the most important structure in Japanese Shintoism, is constantly reconstructed, with the most recent rebuild happening only about ten years ago. The same philosophy is even in the Metabolists after WWII. Not to oversimplify or set up an overly broad dichotomy, but there is not the same traditional devotion to the idea of a specific physical structure lasting for centuries that you see in, say, England.
So basically the solution to housing affordability is letting private individuals and companies build houses how ever tall they want, Who would've thought.
American government prides it's self to be capitalist, but unfortunately it's far from it.
Well, more like allowing controlled free market mechanisms. Even Japan doesn't allow industrial zones to be built just anywhere. Furthermore, housing wise there's very little gained past 10 stories of floor for any development, as those high rise developments require wide bases that could instead be used for mid rise developments that could house as many or more people than the high rise. This is why liberalized but still state capitalist China has been banning 10+ story high rises from being built recently.
Oh also, even with a completely "free market" there's still lots of private housing compacts and home owner associations that can enforce similar restrictions on new developments as any municipal government can (like a housing compact requiring that any new owner can't build private commercial businesses on that property, a very common clause in some parts of the country). This is why say Houston is known for "not having zoning codes" but still follows similar single family housing suburbanism principles as the rest of the US.
So to make sure that the free market doesn't get in the way of itself, making such clauses in compacts (and reigning in the power of HOAs) could do lots good to the overall health of the market.
ps sorry for the double reply
There are restrictions on how tall the buildings can be depending on the zoning. The more restrictive allow only two floors typically, and you find 3 floors the slightly less restrictive zone. You still have restrictions about how you can't steal the sun from your neighbors, so that's often what limits height if you have small plots of land.
I am too old to move there now, but since japan had a good tourist year. I am curious how it will evolve further. from all the countries I have visited japan has some unique qirks that you just gotta love
This is like the opposite of what we have in Melbourne, Australia. Houses cost million AUD. Small 2 bedroom apartment in St kilda is half a million AUD. Sadge. I hope will have the market crash here at some point or I will be living on a street.
Dude. St Kilda is a suburb of Melbourne. That obviously isn't going to be free or comparable to what is discussed in this video. You got to compare these homes to extremely rundown homes in the outback.
Very interesting video. It's true that Japanese want to live in brand new houses! I live in a so-called rich area in Yokohama. I've seen many used georgeous houses in our neighbor for sale for a while, and then they were demolished, finally only lands were sold. People don't want to buy old houses even it's so beautiful looking, but want to build new houses with the lastest technology against natural disaster.
a person living in india, the game is totally different. real estate always appreciates in india. and its considered the best investment for a middle class. japan is totally different
It appreciates only in cities. In places where people go away from they keep dropping.
India is still producing babies, Japan isn't.
The graphics in this video that contain two different x- or y-axes (e.g. at 3:55) are a little confusing. It's not clear which curve belongs to which axis, and the plot at 7:49 is also very hard to decipher; white bars should both be to the left, and perhaps colour the axis ticks differently?
In Japan 1400sqft is a comfy home on a vibrant street. In America 1400sqft is someone's dream living room on a 30-year mortgage.
This video is so fascinating !
Ive been fortunate to travel to 76 countries so far. Japan is my favorite. It has everything for me. It is my dream. I will move there one day.
76 wow. You must have a thick passport. I hope you can see all you want to. Never forget how lucky you are.
@@seauryakumar I've been blessed. I backpacked for almost 2 years. Now its shorter trips everywhere. My goal has always been to get to every country.
@@itsehsanh Wow Im a pilot and I have not even been to that many nations 😂
It is good to be blessed, seeing the world is a small perk of flying planes.
Japan is also my favorite country to visit. It is a little annoying to see commenters always saying "Japan needs mass migration" when infact the reason why people go to Japan is to see Japanese culture and everything built by Japanese people... When I go to Japan I want to see great Japanese people. We should be grateful they let visitors in, as a country has a right to decide on who they let in....
Anybody who wants to can move to the US via Mexico but in Japan it doesn't quite work that way.
@@tellyboy17 Not sure I understand what youre trying to say?
Despite building considerably more, prices in Tokyo are still rising and apartment prices recently exceeded the late 80's bubble peak, albeit nominally but bear in mind Japans very low inflation rate and they could soon (in the next 3-5 year boom) exceed in real terms too. Yes Japanese buildings depreciate more quickly, but it is the land underneath where most of the value lies.
So whilst the declinig population and free/abandoned homes creates low house price growth in aggregate, where people actually want to live, ie where the jobs are (Tokyo, Osaka etc) house prices and rents are far from cheap.
Indeed before the 2008 GFC, Tokyo especially had it's own mini land boom and subsequent bust, again masked by the national average.
This belies the simple supply and demand econ 101 can create affordability story, land prices are a function of credit and mortgage structures, notably Japan even has 100 year mortgages, which sustain high prices, and completely contradicts the anti immigration narrative that growing popultions are a major cause of house price inflation.
It doesn't contradict it at all.
@@bkdarkness I'm constantly told stopping immigration will lead to affordable housing, but this has not occured in Japan where the population is shirinking, it is only very affordable or even free in areas where no one wants to live as people migrate to the major cities.
@@schumanhuman You seem confused. First you claim migration has negligible impact on housing costs, then you claim that it does by lowering it when people move out. Fact of the matter is when more and more people must share the same land, price of that land will inevitably rise.
@@bkdarkness No not at all confused. But I will try and explain again for your benefit.
Falling population can lower overall house prices in country, but that does not make housing more affordable where the jobs are people and actualy want to live ie Tokyo.
Japans house prices are rising overall AND are rising fast in major cities as people abandon rural areas for jobs, so rising population is no a requiremtn for rising prices, credit is a big factor as are mortgage structures.
'Fact of the matter is when more and more people must share the same land, price of that land will inevitably rise.'
No, if you fully tax land values they will not capitalise into a price, at all and the building value will depreciate.
And if you build enough housing to match growing demand and make sure it is not held empty for speculation ,again bestachievable via taxing land, rents will not rise.
@@schumanhuman schuman, your reasoned logic is a breath of fresh air.
They have a similar system with their cars, they produce so many parts that they mandate motor changes at certain mileages and basically corner the market into buying new cars consistently. Not sure exactly how it works but it's effect on the market is very similar
11:04 this looks so peaceful. Streets are cleaned, minimal traffic, cars are appropriately parked, sky is blue and sun is shining. I really want to visit japan some day.
excellent and very necessary video. we gotta get "used homes" more into the english lexicon.
I'm assuming you meant the Japanese lexicon? As you can see at 8:19 the graphic clearly shows that the majority of homes sold in western countries and most other countries are in fact used homes while the opposite is true for Japan where the overwhelming majority of houses sold are new homes.
@@thredbo99 no. i meant in english. we simply don't refer to houses as "used" in the same way we refer to cars as "used".
it's like the fish who says "hows the water?" to the other fish and the other fish goes "what the fuck is water?"
we're swimming in the mess we made of the housing market and don't even know how to talk about it.
@@magicjuand oh ok, sorry about that mate. I misunderstood your comment, I 100% agree we really do need to change the way we talk about our housing market.
Juan, there aren't 8 million free houses in Japan. This video is not telling the truth.
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It's not ignorance but due to some unprofessional broker in the market
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I'm currently looking for a house in Japan. Think you can make make a part 2 to this? You did some good research. Unfortunately, there are no free houses in my area. I live near Osaka. Many of these houses seem to be far away from major cities.
Mind if I ask what you do for work, and how you got a visa there? I am interested in moving to Japan and living there
Get out of Japan. Stay away
It's interesting that Japan, a country with hundreds of millions of inhabitants, has similar problems to my own Norway, with a population of five million. The small towns and rural areas empty, and smaller municipalities offer free land, etc. to get new people in.
I wish Canada was more like Japan this way; we have so much land no one can use & a housing crisis; Japan's system would solve the biggest issue I myself & everyone I know has.
Pretty sure Japan and Canada are similar. You have a housing crisis in Toronto. Japan almost certainly has a housing crisis in Tokyo. You don't have a housing crisis in the Northern Territories.
It's crazy to think of a house as a depreciating, consumer good, similar to a car. It's such a weird concept especially from a Canadian perspective.
I looked it up... and there ARE strings attached. Some require you to live in the home for a year... engage in commercial agriculture... some even say you can't leave the town where the house is for a year.
South Africa is a mix:
There are specific areas for specific things and suburbs, etc.
But then there are some neighbourhoods that have it all: factories, apartments, restaurants - all on the same street.
I'm thinking of a neighbourhood in my city, Cape Town, called Observatory. Such neighbourhoods are populated by students, young professionals and artists.
The "uppity" people will only go there when they feel like having something different/cool for lunch.
i bet some honest merchants will seize these proprieties in no time.
Most likely, no one will buy these as it's leasehold. There's a reason these house are so cheap.
If none will take it for free, none will rent them out or buy them at a raised price
@Marc Nassif it's a gimic. The price is the renovation but more likely the complete rebuilding of the building. I don't know building cost in japan but it's gotta be at minimum 100k usd. Probably new hook ups to utilities and whatever requirements. The problem is the average citizen Japanese or no Probably will not be able to get a loan for this. You would need to come to the table with cash which at a minimum of 100k is a big ask.
if they have to their scams in youtube documentaries, those honest merchants are done for.
Interesting topic. I feel like I'm missing something however... What about land prices? You talk about housing depriciating in value, but I assume that if you have a house in Tokyo for example, the building itself might be worthless, but the land it sits on will probably be worth lots.
So, how does land value factor into all this? Are the free houses only in areas with close to worthless land? Does Japan use a system where land is rented in stead of owned? Is the house free, but the land still has to be paid for? Or is there a whole different system in place?
Would like to know it too...
The “free house” example is in the country side where land value if very low. If you own land in Tokyo proper (in the city, not in the middle of nowhere but still labeled “Tokyo”) it will be worth 4 to 5 times the building in general, and will get way higher in the best places.
Now there’s a flurry of arrangements, some plots of land are rented, some have a deadline (if you buy a plot that is already signed to be used for the next Olympics for instance…), but to my knowledge most land is straight bought and owned with no specific clauses.
There’s varying conditions offered by each municipality but it’s often something like:
You have to live there for X amount of years before the house and/or land becomes 100% your property. Contractually they generally have fees that you have to pay if moving out early in order to discourage people from using it as temporary housing. Rural housing plots are generally quite cheap which is another reason why people prefer to build the house of their dreams instead of buying a house that is 20+ years old.
Wow! This video is an eye-opener for me.
Note that traditional houses that survived the war bombings are still up in some areas like Kyoto, some are several centuries old,, because wood can be maintained to last a long time
Well, if you manage to navigate the paperwork and get it for free, you will have to renovate it which might set you back anywhere between 15 and 50k $
What a bargain
Man I love your videos
Is there a website where I can view these properties?
American zoning codes that have created a completely car-centric society. We need a nationwide overhaul of all the various municipal zoning codes. There's far too much local control in this country.
Here in Canada, we fight and struggle for anywhere affordable to live. Most of the developed world is in a housing crisis. So this sounds amazing.
There are only two provinces in Canada that are mostly unaffordable and that is BC and Ontario. Alberta has the highest wages and their big cities like Calgary and Edmonton are still pretty affordable.
@@-SP. Saskatchewan is plenty affordable but the answer to lack of housing shouldn't be to just move to the cheapest part of the country.
@@merevial but that is literally what this video is about. Tokyo is in housing crisis. The town of 300 that is a half hour from the nearest train station, which is then an hour from the nearest employment center is not.
very interesting. What is the Airbnb market like in Japan?
This video feels more like an Ad than anything else
Japan is such a beautiful, clean country.
have you ever been?
@@pooroldman5089 yes
I remember when Japan had the Most Expensive land in the world !
If I could speak, read, and write Japanese, I'd love to move there. But finding a job would be so difficult. To add, the money it would take for me to renovate a home in the countryside isn't doable for me. I'd love to live in the countryside. I grew up that way in Mexico. I miss it. Here in the US, it's just so expensive to have land. I just want my chickens, goats, and vegetables :(
Similar here. Where are you in US? I am in Oregon. I live for free but at great cost having a psychotic neighbor who uses dogs to harass me, I suspect him also knocking over my well pump housing, cut a wire and broker a pipe. Law enforcement does nothing about him. Can't date here because most here are single moms, obese, with tattoos, do drugs, etc. I need to move out of this country.
Great video!
It makes sense why homes in Australia are ~$700,000 AUD for a 35 year old renovation job.. They're looked at like assets, not homes. Unless I win the lottery or want a 30 year financial jail contract, I probably won't be a homeowner.
Note that Japan is a country that houses are like cars: they depreciate over time. This due to countless factors such as building regulations, construction materials, etc.