Akiya, kominka and rural property in Japan
Japan has millions of empty houses and they are cheap for reasons that are knowable in advance. Knowing which reason applies to a particular one is the whole exercise.
A seller offering a house at the price of a bicycle is not being generous. Holding the property costs them tax and maintenance they are not doing, demolition costs money, and clearing the land raises the tax on it.
Everything that made it a burden to them transfers to you on completion. Nothing about the situation improves because the owner changed.
These guides cover what a cheap house actually costs, what renovation reaches at each budget, and what is specific to traditional buildings.
Before you buy
- What a cheap Japanese house actually costs. Transaction costs, acquisition tax, renovation and holding costs on a low price.
- The akiya bank is a noticeboard, not an estate agency. What the akiya bank does, what it does not, and who subsidies are for.
- Why Japan's empty houses are not demolished. The land tax rule behind the empty houses, and the 2023 amendment.
- Before you buy a kominka. Traditional construction, the seismic code, and why renovation costs more.
Land and legal questions
- The land you can never build on again. Why some cheap plots can never be rebuilt on.
- The land category can stop the sale entirely. Farmland around a rural house, and the permission it needs.
The work
- What five, ten and twenty million yen actually buy. What each renovation budget reaches, and the order to spend it in.
- Why the house is so cold, and what fixing it costs. Insulating an older house, starting with the windows.
- The termite your five-year warranty does not cover. The species old houses are most exposed to, and the warranty gap.
If you already own one
- If you inherited Japanese property, there is a deadline. Compulsory registration, and the 31 March 2027 deadline for older cases.
- The first thing to fail in an empty house is the water. Why an empty house smells of sewer, and what follows.
- An empty house announces itself every day. What an unattended house attracts, and why the owner can still pay.
If you are earlier in the process, start with the full guide to buying property in Japan as a foreign buyer.
Check a property
On cheap property the surprises are in the record. Enter an address and see zoning, hazard designations, terrain and land values, each with its source and reference year.
Research a property