In most countries, houses get more valuable over time. In Japan, a new buyer will often bulldoze the home. Why? That’s the question we try to answer in our latest Freakonomics Radio podcast, “Why Are Japanese Homes Disposable?”
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In most countries, houses get more valuable over time. In Japan, a new buyer will often bulldoze the home. Why? That’s the question we try to answer in our latest Freakonomics Radio podcast, “Why Are Japanese Homes Disposable?”
There is virtually no market for pre-owned homes in Japan
Wage Slave wrote:There is virtually no market for pre-owned homes in Japan
Wanna bet?
Yokohammer wrote:Part of the problem might be the assumption that Tokyo is representative of all Japan.
TOWNSEND: The houses that are built today exceed the quality of just about any other country in the world, at least for timber buildings. So there’s really no reason that they should drop in value and be demolished.
chokonen888 wrote:Wage Slave wrote:There is virtually no market for pre-owned homes in Japan
Wanna bet?
Especially ones that people died in
BigInJapan wrote:chokonen888 wrote:Wage Slave wrote:There is virtually no market for pre-owned homes in Japan
Wanna bet?
Especially ones that people died in
Case in point: Three years ago when we were looking to move down here to Kyushu, I scoured the real estate listings for months. I came across a house about 25 years old that had been renoed (paint, wallpaper, updated kitchen and bathroom, etc.), and I noticed that the asking price went down over a million yen in a month's time. The house looked familiar, so I went on the bit.sikkou.jp site (foreclosures) and found it listed there about six months earlier. In the photos it was in bad shape, and the minimum selling price was maybe 3 million yen. Obviously a real estate developer or construction company had bought and fixed it for a quick flip. I sent the realtor a mail asking for more photos, and also, questioned why there no trees in the yard as there were lots in the foreclosure pics.
The realtor came back with this, "Um, it's because the former owner hung himself from a tree in the yard".
Oh. That didn't phase me (no blood or anything inside the house to worry about), but for my other half, it was not even an option. I'm guessing the price kept dropping and it probably didn't get sold.
chokonen888 wrote:...andTOWNSEND: The houses that are built today exceed the quality of just about any other country in the world, at least for timber buildings. So there’s really no reason that they should drop in value and be demolished.
Wage Slave wrote:There is virtually no market for pre-owned homes in Japan
Wanna bet?
chokonen888 wrote:Poor tree...died for being a tool against it's own will!!
I don't get the fear at all. people have died just about everywhere on this planet, why does it make a difference if they died during your lifetime? could be biased though...my entire home is surrounded by dead people, wife grew up "playing in the cemetery," not a fuck is given.
BigInJapan wrote:chokonen888 wrote:Wage Slave wrote:There is virtually no market for pre-owned homes in Japan
Wanna bet?
Especially ones that people died in
Case in point: Three years ago when we were looking to move down here to Kyushu, I scoured the real estate listings for months. I came across a house about 25 years old that had been renoed (paint, wallpaper, updated kitchen and bathroom, etc.), and I noticed that the asking price went down over a million yen in a month's time. The house looked familiar, so I went on the bit.sikkou.jp site (foreclosures) and found it listed there about six months earlier. In the photos it was in bad shape, and the minimum selling price was maybe 3 million yen. Obviously a real estate developer or construction company had bought and fixed it for a quick flip. I sent the realtor a mail asking for more photos, and also, questioned why there no trees in the yard as there were lots in the foreclosure pics.
The realtor came back with this, "Um, it's because the former owner hung himself from a tree in the yard".
Oh. That didn't phase me (no blood or anything inside the house to worry about), but for my other half, it was not even an option. I'm guessing the price kept dropping and it probably didn't get sold.
Yokohammer wrote:If you think about that "eeyew, somebody died there!" reaction it's pretty silly, especially in a city. Probably harder to find a patch of land where somebody hasn't died at some time in the past. But I guess recent deaths are higher on the "eeyew" scale, or something.
EDIT: looks like Choko beat me to this by a hair, so consider it a +1.
Coligny wrote:BigInJapan wrote:chokonen888 wrote:Wage Slave wrote:There is virtually no market for pre-owned homes in Japan
Wanna bet?
Especially ones that people died in
Case in point: Three years ago when we were looking to move down here to Kyushu, I scoured the real estate listings for months. I came across a house about 25 years old that had been renoed (paint, wallpaper, updated kitchen and bathroom, etc.), and I noticed that the asking price went down over a million yen in a month's time. The house looked familiar, so I went on the bit.sikkou.jp site (foreclosures) and found it listed there about six months earlier. In the photos it was in bad shape, and the minimum selling price was maybe 3 million yen. Obviously a real estate developer or construction company had bought and fixed it for a quick flip. I sent the realtor a mail asking for more photos, and also, questioned why there no trees in the yard as there were lots in the foreclosure pics.
The realtor came back with this, "Um, it's because the former owner hung himself from a tree in the yard".
Oh. That didn't phase me (no blood or anything inside the house to worry about), but for my other half, it was not even an option. I'm guessing the price kept dropping and it probably didn't get sold.
You mean 30 miliun ? Right ?
Samurai_Jerk wrote:chokonen888 wrote:...andTOWNSEND: The houses that are built today exceed the quality of just about any other country in the world, at least for timber buildings. So there’s really no reason that they should drop in value and be demolished.
Yeah, I rolled my eyes at that one too. That statement might make Taro's head explode. Although the way he qualified it with "at least for timber buildings" makes me wonder if he was talking about something very specific that could be true.
Wage Slave wrote: Nah. Maybe three million sounds right especially if the location is less than great. A person I know recently bought a 10 year old house, no blight, in a good part of Sapporo for 7 million. He's spending another 8 on refurb and extension and will have a great property for 15.
30 million buys a lot of second hand house outside the really big cities.
kurogane wrote:30 million seems to buy rather nice liveable houses in parts of Tokyo, never mind some of the older mansions. I saw a small easily fixed up suburban/semi-rural place in that area for 170,000. IOW, 17,000 dollars. Pockets aside, Japanese real estate is way, way down. Price per square metre aside, that makes crappy Vancouver houses look like the Taj Mahal at minimum 650,000 CAD (cue Northern Peso jokes.......Choko??? )
kurogane wrote:Anyways, +7 on the idea that very many to most Japanese get a willies feeling at the idea of a used house. I would say that most that still do it hold their nose and take the plunge. They simply don't like that. Other people have lived there, ferchrissakes!!!!!!!!!! It's a Kulchural Thing.
chokonen888 wrote: Was it like this pre bubble era? I honestly don't know but my guess is this behavior is yet another remnant trend of that period that gets written of as "cultural."
kurogane wrote:chokonen888 wrote: Was it like this pre bubble era? I honestly don't know but my guess is this behavior is yet another remnant trend of that period that gets written of as "cultural."
I will go with yes, but perhaps not so pronounced due to financial parsimony and limits. The usual routine for moving into an existing house is family inheritance or succession, and each succeeding generation will renovate and update according to its needs.
At any rate, I am still going with very many to most Japanese have a mild willies reaction to the idea of living in a standing house.
kurogane wrote:It's a Buddhist spirit/aura thing combined with their fear of ghosts and a general distaste for used shit.
dimwit wrote:
Yep, I'd say renoviate it.
chokonen888 wrote:...with a bulldozer?
chokonen888 wrote: Fair enough. The shit quality in both the house and some of the "renewal" work I've seen recently is reason enough to dread what's under the surface.
chokonen888 wrote: I think you mean Shinto? (though they're pretty intertwined here)
kurogane wrote:BTW, that hilarious delapidated building aside, I know of 6 to 7 rather old empty homes in my old neighbourhood in Kyoto that look brick shiithouseworthy sturdy, assuming there's no rot, and yet there they sit. Some of the pre-70s houses are bombproof; buildings seem to be the ones that are disposable, which is probably just as well.
Coligny wrote:BigInJapan wrote:In the photos it was in bad shape, and the minimum selling price was maybe 3 million yen. Obviously a real estate developer or construction company had bought and fixed it for a quick flip.
You mean 30 miliun ? Right ?
Russell wrote: I feel a bit sorry for the guy, to be honest.
kurogane wrote:BTW, any non-Tokyo-ites find the rent of 25,000 per month to be rather high for that? I suppose it does have a kitchen.
Russell wrote:Nope, it doesn't have a kitchen. He uses a microwave in his room.
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