Buying property

hello forum. this is my third year living in japan. i was planning to stay here for a couple of years only, but now i have a very stable job and a soon-to-be wife. therefore, i've been seriously considering to settle down for good here in Tokyo. And this has got me thinking about owning property because now my monthly rent is about 20 man for a 2LDK of 65sqm and a lot of people tell me I might as well just pay this amount towards my own house/mansion.

However, property prices as well as spending and saving habits here are quite different to my home country and I feel I shouldn't make a direct comparison. Therefore, what I wanted to ask you is if in Japan people have any sort of correlation between income and the value of the property that one should be aiming at. Like, for example, if we say that our combined income is 15 million annually, would it be reasonable to target something in the range of 70 ~ 80 million? In your experience with the monthly expenses (especially if you have children), what would be the highest you'd go with such an income? Is it normal for people in Japan to pay property in 20~30 years or is there an average number of years that people prefer or consider as "good practice"?

thanks in advance for sharing your experiences

Owning property in Japan is not difficult.
I and my wife bought together house with 3 floors, custom made since I am tall and a normal height of door etc would make me really upset and painful :)

I live outside a big city but close to the station and transportation is good.
We bought the house 10 years ago when there was not so many building and the area was in development. Therefor the ground price was cheap, now the ground is willing and we are getting so many offers, but we are not planning to sell, how good the price will be.

Our income together made it possible to have a loan for the house and ground. Loan is 15 years and every month we pay. It is so much cheaper compared with buying a house in my country.

Loan is based on you work, how long, how much you earn, if you have payed everything in the past including tax etc.

Based on this information you will get a loan. Of course you have companies who offer more loan but at the end they are much more expensive (rate etc) than a bank.

My advice is to talk with several banks since interest is really low. There are companies like promise but the interest is high, so be careful.

Another point is your resident status, if you do not have a permanent a loan is difficult. Since you are not married yet.

If you need to know more just let me know.

Save save save... every yen that you can put down reduces the interest that you will pay. For a first home, I suggest that you think of it as a rental - with you being the first renters. Look for something that you can rent out if you need to move, etc., so that your investment is not lost thru sales and new purchase commissions, taxes, etc. The shorter the term of your loan, the better. See if you can get a loan that permits pre-payments from bonuses, etc., - anything to reduce interest payments and maximise capital. And remember that there will be times of unemployment, extraordinary expenses (a car accident?), etc., so you still need to keep 6 months of living expenses, including that loan payment, laid aside for emergencies.

A couple of observations:
Many houses in Japan are not built to last - 30 years and they might start again. I find that a bit weird, but there are some that last longer. That's part of the reason old apartments get cheap.
Not comparing with other countries is a good idea. My home country "affordable"/cheap homes are 40-50 million yen, but people build huge places so closer to 80-100M. Japan is, of course, more compact.
Don't spend more than 30% of your income on debt/house payments - a useful general rule of thumb, but it works. Ages ago I briefly worked in a bank and the lending rules were not to lend more than 2x salary. These days it's 5+ times salary, but lending criteria still look at proportion of your income used to service debt. If you are earning a combined 15M/year you could be debt free pretty quickly.

End of the day, people spend what they can afford.