'20% of residential areas in Japan will be ghost towns'

[Taro Toporific]

Vacant Japan Homes Show Holes in Abenomics’ Push for Housing
bloomberg.com | September 18, 2013
...Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s plan to boost the economy in part by reviving the housing market and encouraging new home construction is in conflict with Japan’s demographics. Rural, suburban and less-desirable urban areas are becoming littered with empty homes as younger people moving to cities combines with one of the world’s fastest-aging populations. At the same time, tax breaks on mortgages favoring new-home purchases, recently extended to 2017 and increased to 50 million yen from 30 million yen, are spurring demand for new properties
“Even when the number of vacant homes is on the rise, more and more new homes are being built,” said Hidetaka Yoneyama, a senior researcher at Fujitsu Research Institute in Tokyo who has written at least five books on Japan’s housing market. “That’s absurd.”
Home vacancy in Japan, estimated at about 18 percent of housing nationwide, may reach 24 percent by 2028, he said...more...

abandoned-japan.jpg

...

[Coligny]

Speaking of which, where do you start hunting when you want to buy a former commercial building ?
After thinking half a second we realised that moving out of the bunker to a standard house can only end up in a disaster. There is an old vet clinic near the mini bunker that could be nice albeit being a mid 70's building... but it's still really a vet just not live in anymore. An old medium/big coffe shop with appartement would be not too bad. We'll talk to the vet just in case... But honestly that would be disastrous for my felines if she was to stop her practice in The Big T... And I certainly don't anticipate much trying to explain what we want to our local MiniMini racketeering shop...

[yanpa]

Please ignore the picture in Taro's post as ridiculously unrepresentative, it's from a street in Harajuku which I happen to know very well and I guarantee you that it will shortly become some sort of bijou shop/eatery if it hasn't already. It used to belong to the local timber merchant but over the years the old families have died off/moved out and the gentrification is pushing northwards towards Yoyogi.

Edit: acksherly looking at Google Street View it looks like it's the last building standing in the way of a larger construction project.

[Coligny]

Please ignore the picture in Taro's post as ridiculously unrepresentative, it's from a street in Harajuku which I happen to know very well and I guarantee you that it will shortly become some sort of bijou shop/eatery if it hasn't already. It used to belong to the local timber merchant but over the years the old families have died off/moved out and the gentrification is pushing northwards towards Yoyogi.

Edit: acksherly looking at Google Street View it looks like it's the last building standing in the way of a larger construction project.

D00d, for once he didn't even enhance the misery with photoshop... Usually Taro's illustration makes Weekly World News feels like the Nationnal Geographic...

[Taro Toporific]

Please ignore the picture in Taro's post as ridiculously unrepresentative, it's from a street in Harajuku which I happen to know very well and I guarantee you that it will shortly become some sort of bijou shop/eatery if it hasn't already..

Hey, complain to Bloomberg, not me. That's "ridiculously unrepresentative" photo is a screenshot of the Bloomberg news video that accompanied the article.
Speaking of ridiculously unrepresentative, Bloomberg's using the vacant homes in Inariyato part of Yokosuka as representative is deceptive too since the mountainsides of Yokosuka are an insane committing distance from Tokyo. (Realistically at best it's a 1.5-to-2 hour commute from a Tokyo office to concrete billy-goat hovel in Inariyato, door-to-door.)

harajuku-slum.jpg

bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-17/vacant-japan-homes-show-holes-in-abe-s-push-for-housing-growth

[Russell]

Please ignore the picture in Taro's post as ridiculously unrepresentative,...

You mean the other buildings are worse?!?

[Russell]

Speaking of which, where do you start hunting when you want to buy a former commercial building ?

I would look at the auctions for properties of debtors...

Sorry, only in Japanese. But lots of fun this site.

[Wage Slave]

Speaking of ridiculously unrepresentative, Bloomberg's using the vacant homes in Inariyato part of Yokosuka as representative is deceptive too since the mountainsides of Yokosuka are an insane committing distance from Tokyo. (Realistically at best it's a 1.5-to-2 hour commute from a Tokyo office to concrete billy-goat hovel in Inariyato, door-to-door.)

Isn't it more the case that Tokyo is unrepresentative rather than Yokosuka?

[Coligny]

Speaking of which, where do you start hunting when you want to buy a former commercial building ?

I would look at the auctions for properties of debtors...

Sorry, only in Japanese. But lots of fun this site.

Awesum, thankz...

[yanpa]

Please ignore the picture in Taro's post as ridiculously unrepresentative, it's from a street in Harajuku which I happen to know very well and I guarantee you that it will shortly become some sort of bijou shop/eatery if it hasn't already..

Hey, complain to Bloomberg, not me. That's "ridiculously unrepresentative" photo is a screenshot of the Bloomberg news video that accompanied the article.

That's why I said "picture in Taro's post", not "Taro's picture" .

Here's the structure in question.

And if you look round far enough you can see some property belonging to my ex's family

[yanpa]

Speaking of ridiculously unrepresentative, Bloomberg's using the vacant homes in Inariyato part of Yokosuka as representative is deceptive too since the mountainsides of Yokosuka are an insane committing distance from Tokyo. (Realistically at best it's a 1.5-to-2 hour commute from a Tokyo office to concrete billy-goat hovel in Inariyato, door-to-door.)

Yeah, I was wondering where they got that figure from... but it seems it's right above the Keikyu Yokosuka Chuo station ("Inariyato" seems to be an unofficial local name for the area, took whole minutes to locate it), and if you define Tokyo as "Shinagawa", the fastest Keikyu train will get you there in around 45 minutes.

[yanpa]

And talking of Yokusuka Chuo, I see there are plans for a ruddy great residential tower, so the place must have something going for it (for someone).

[wagyl]

More that someone hopes beyond hope that enough other people see something in it so that they can get their money back.

[yanpa]

More that someone hopes beyond hope that enough other people see something in it so that they can get their money back.

Indeed. I'm sure it would make lovely off-base housing

[inflames]

Land usage policies in Japan are terrible. Also, the government doesn't try to do anything with abandoned properties (such as seizing and tearing them down), so there are tons of eyesores.

I live in central Osaka and behind my building there are a few abandoned homes and I distinctly remember one place where the roof caved in.

[Russell]

Great, now everybody's land can be increased by 20% to have a nice garden.

O wait...

[Coligny]

Please ignore the picture in Taro's post as ridiculously unrepresentative, it's from a street in Harajuku which I happen to know very well and I guarantee you that it will shortly become some sort of bijou shop/eatery if it hasn't already..

Hey, complain to Bloomberg, not me. That's "ridiculously unrepresentative" photo is a screenshot of the Bloomberg news video that accompanied the article.

That's why I said "picture in Taro's post", not "Taro's picture" .

Here's the structure in question.

And if you look round far enough you can see some property belonging to my ex's family

This building is evil...

I luv it

[matsuki]

Land usage policies in Japan are terrible. Also, the government doesn't try to do anything with abandoned properties (such as seizing and tearing them down), so there are tons of eyesores.

I live in central Osaka and behind my building there are a few abandoned homes and I distinctly remember one place where the roof caved in.

If they did something reasonable like that, it would shock the market with all the available land. (and ruin the "tochi ga nai" saying they all buy in to)

[IparryU]

If they would do this and just build wider properties and start encouraging companies to move to the outskirts a bit, we could have a really nice city.

But no... Not enough space...

Sent from my SC-03E using Tapatalk.

[Coligny]

If they would do this and just build wider properties and start encouraging companies to move to the outskirts a bit, we could have a really nice city.

But no... Not enough space...

Sent from my SC-03E using Tapatalk.

Companies outside of cities... Yea maybe... If they could start with polluting industries first that would be awesome... Nagoya is a great joke for this... There's steel recycling/reprocessing plants in the middle of the town... It's like a nightmare, but more concrete... And in concrete...

And judging by history... Even a good carpet bombing can't fix this...

And the air quality inside the big T... Is a bit on the wtf side...

[matsuki]

If they would do this and just build wider properties and start encouraging companies to move to the outskirts a bit, we could have a really nice city.

But no... Not enough space...

Sent from my SC-03E using Tapatalk.

Companies outside of cities... Yea maybe... If they could start with polluting industries first that would be awesome... Nagoya is a great joke for this... There's steel recycling/reprocessing plants in the middle of the town... It's like a nightmare, but more concrete... And in concrete...

And judging by history... Even a good carpet bombing can't fix this...

And the air quality inside the big T... Is a bit on the wtf side...

Don't forget the rice, blueberry, etc farms next to the auto repair shops. Zoning? Sure we have zoning, it just doesn't make any logical sense...

[Coligny]

Yep, we got that in the Big T too...

A mansion with Maserattis and Lambo in the parking, the central library, and inbetween... A fucking ricefield...

[FG Lurker]

Edit: acksherly looking at Google Street View it looks like it's the last building standing in the way of a larger construction project.

I suspect the reason for this is that the land under that building is "rented" by the person who owns the building.

The laws regarding rented/leased land in Japan are complex and pretty strange. If you own a building on top of rented land the owner of the land can't force you to tear the building down or to return the land, as long as you keep paying the "land rent". Land rent rates are also tightly controlled so the owner can't just jack the rent up to crazy levels to force the building owner to give up. They may also have a very old contract which had a fixed yearly rate with no consideration for rent increases or contract expiry.

So, basically the owner of that fucked up building is probably trying to force the issue to get a bigger payoff from the land owner and/or the developer. He's holding the entire project for ransom and there is little (legally) they can do about it. It may also be that the developer is not ready to actually develop that land yet so they are not dealing with the issue of the building owner. They may be hoping he drops dead or the building collapses before they have to actually pay him off.

[wagyl]

The simpler explanation is that the owner of the building also owns the land and is just holding out to try to get a larger payment.

[FG Lurker]

The simpler explanation is that the owner of the building also owns the land and is just holding out to try to get a larger payment.

Nope, because then he could tear down the building, or at least wouldn't care enough to spend money keeping it upright.

Keeping useless buildings standing is a very common tactic in situations like this. If the building comes down the balance of power changes in favor of the land owner. As long as the building is standing the building owner has more power than the land owner.

[matsuki]

reform time?

[yanpa]

The simpler explanation is that the owner of the building also owns the land and is just holding out to try to get a larger payment.

Nope, because then he could tear down the building, or at least wouldn't care enough to spend money keeping it upright.

Keeping useless buildings standing is a very common tactic in situations like this. If the building comes down the balance of power changes in favor of the land owner. As long as the building is standing the building owner has more power than the land owner.

(Many months later) The tax on vacant land is much higher than if there's some kind of structure on it.

[matsuki]

The simpler explanation is that the owner of the building also owns the land and is just holding out to try to get a larger payment.

Nope, because then he could tear down the building, or at least wouldn't care enough to spend money keeping it upright.

Keeping useless buildings standing is a very common tactic in situations like this. If the building comes down the balance of power changes in favor of the land owner. As long as the building is standing the building owner has more power than the land owner.

(Many months later) The tax on vacant land is much higher than if there's some kind of structure on it.

Hence all the parking lots popping up everywhere they tear down stuff? I was in Nakano yesterday and I swear I've never seen my Navi screen go so blue before. I couldn't even see the streets anymore there were soo many Parking lot marks on the screen.

[inflames]

Hence all the parking lots popping up everywhere they tear down stuff? I was in Nakano yesterday and I swear I've never seen my Navi screen go so blue before. I couldn't even see the streets anymore there were soo many Parking lot marks on the screen.

Yes, plus you actually get money from the parking lot.

My former workplace owned a parking lot between by several of our buildings; at some point the intention was to move stuff from a 10 minute walk away over but this never happened.

[Coligny]

300y/place/hour. in a good place that adds up fast while requiring nothing... better than a junkyard... instead of looking a weed growing, you look at muney growing...