buying real estate in JP as a foreigner

Do you have Japanese nationality or a visa which allows you to live in Japan? Without either of these you won't be able to open a bank account in Japan, to my knowledge.

I own property in Shiga and I am not a visa holder I just come on a tourist visa but because I own property and am registered at the city hall in my area I was able to open a bank account with the help of the city hall to pay taxes and such, once you are registered at the city hall because you are a property owner it should be a problem opening a bank account.

should not be a problem

Steve, why do you need to pay tax? What kind of tax? Is it things you have to pay just for owning a house? Expensive?

Thank you Steve for this information.

Did you deal with a real estate agent in Tokyo or in Shigaken? How did you find your property?

I have been scouring yahoo Japan real estate and there are some that meets our price range and location.

Like you we also want to use the property as a 2nd home. We like to spend 3 imes a year in Japan for month or two at a time.

As to the question of visa and status, I'm not sure. I have not gone to the Japanese Consulate to check on how difficult it is for me to stay in Japan longer than the normal 3 months tour. I was born a Japanese national and do have family ties there but my parents made me a US citizen when I was 17. I certainly want to keep my US nationality but wonder if I can some visa status which allows me to stay in Japan longer. I no longer have to work and finance is not a problem. Even if my stay in Japan is limited to 90 days, that is ok.

If you can prove that your parents were/ are citizens of Japan then you can get a "child of a Japanese national" visa which can be renewed indefinitely. A Canadian-born friend of mine with Japanese parents has been on this visa for about 6 years now.

Genevie, Death and Taxes makes the world go round everyone has to pay sooner or later.

NM, I found my properties by just coming to Japan and driving around, on one of the properties we used a Real Estate Agancy and the other was a private deal, Buying property in Japan is really easy I had no problems what so ever. I really love the Shiga, Biwako area you can pick up a good piece of property form 5,000,000 yen and up.
And about visa's just come to Japan you will get a 90 day tourist visa and your set ater 90 days go to S. Korea for a week and come back to Japan, you will receive another 90 day, I have been doing this for 3 years now, once you own property you can come and go as you please.
If you need and help looking for land let me know will be glad to help.

Thank you Steve for the information and your offer. My mother's paternal side are from Gifu-ken so Shiga-ken is very close. Matter of fact,I brought my mother's ashes to Gifu-ken so that she can be with her parents and her sister. My grandfather's family are from a long lineage of Buddhist priests and the that side of the family still have their temple in Gifu-ken.

I have not spent any time in Shiga-ken. It appears to be a low lying area with a beautiful Biwako. What made you decide on Shiga-ken?


I read earlier that you imported all the supplies for building a chalet from Canada. That must have been a major undertaking. Especially dealing with all the regulatory agencies in Japan to build. Did you build yourself or did you hire people?

I really admire you for doing what you did.

NM, you come from a very interesting lineage, sound exciting.
I love the culture in Japan it always continues to amaze me, I love it.

Yes, I Imported all the materials to build my house from Canada, I have lots of experiance in the building industry and a good friend of mine imports houses all over the world so it was really easy, his company imported the materials and they arrived right to my property where I could start building, very conveniant he took care of everything.
I built the Chalet myself it took me about 4 months, I had to make a trip to S. Korea and come back again to finish it but had no problems with visa's I find the Japanese really don't ask to many questions :-)
I really recommend if people are really interested in buying property and building a house to import and do it your self it is actually very easy to do and you can save alot of money, I find Japanese house companies (builders) so expensive and in some cases try to scam people out of alot of money.

Very interesting Steve. Did your land come with an access to electricity, gas, water, and telephone? 4 months to build by your self is very fast. How big is your chalet in square footage?

My husband and I also rebuilt most of our home ourselves doing 90% of work including all the demolition. Only thing we did not do our own were foundation, gas line hookup and the continuous gutter system. The first phase took us almost 3 years (both of us were still working fulltime). This also included 500 sq foot addition. The second phase of kitchen demo, moving some space into living room and dinining room rearrangement and rebuild was done in 5 months. It really helps that my husband can do all electrical and plumbing work himself.

We never thought about buying land in Japan and building thinking it would be a major undertaking.

I'm just very glad to know that people can purchase real estate in Japan without much problems.

I appreciate sharing your experience with us.

Your house, is that in Japan?
It's great you and your husband can do many of the remodeling yourselves.

My property by biwako came with access to electricity, cable, telephone and water only the main thing that I had to put in was the sewer system, gas is usually propane bottles on the side of the house which is very common in Japan, I also have a solar system to cut down the cost of electicity.
The size of the Chalet is 1699 sq ft, it took 4 months to build but I still have to finish some of the rooms inside we mainly finished the outside and kitchen, bathroom and living areas and moved in while finishing the rest of the bedrooms and loft area.

In general buying property in Japan is very easy.

-----Taxes are generally payed throught the city office, in my case I just set it up where they just do a direct withdrawal out of my bank account every year in Japan.
The statement can be mailed to your office or home address anywhere.----------

Thanks for the info Steve. So basically property tax is what you pay annually?
Do you keep your utility services running year around at your home in Japan? You mentioned sewer, is it on city or on septic?
Since this isn't your permanent resident, do you have someone managing there to pay for the utility bills or can these be set up directly to come out of your bank account as well?
So looks like it helps to establish a bank account in Japan?
Would credit cards work or do they want you to establish money source at one of the banks in Japan?
Thanks.

Yes, Property taxes are payed annually to the city office,
and electricial, propane, water and other utility's are payed monthly,
I have a septic tank so no payment.

All annual and monthly payments can be payed though your bank account through automatic withdrawals by signing the right forms with the utilities companies and city office and so on,

These services are connected year round, if you did disconnect them connection fee's would cost you more each time,

Since I come to Japan often I just have all the statements mailed to my house in Japan, I don't think they would mail over seas due to the extra cost, I'm really not sure about it.

I have no one managing my house in Japan, Japan has got to be the safest place on the planet so there isn't much to worry about plus I am here 6 to 9 months out of the year, and when I am gone friends of mine keep an eye on things so no problems.

About Credit Cards unfortunately in Japan very few places (city offices, utility companies) except credit cards so it is difficult to set it up that way, a bank account is the best way to pay all your payments, I'm in the country side but I'm sure in the cities credit cards are used more often.

Glad to help,

Hi Steve - the remodel and demo was done on our property in the Bay Area (California).

I believe what you did is the right right thing for property ownership. It's the price of land that goes up in value in Japan.

We are still thinking that for our purpose a small apartment is the way to go. We do not plan to be in Japan more than 3- 4 months a year. In a way it's a lot like a hotel room for us but we thought it would be more cost effective if we just buy the apartment rather than paying hotel rooms every time we are in Japan. Besides, we like to keep some of our things in Japan for convenience.

If I had my way, I would most likely do what you did. At this point, I don't think my husband is up to staying in Japan more than US.

Thanks for all your info. Great learning!

The Bay Area is beautiful, I've been there for holiday's a few times.

Thank you for your comments, appreciated, Japan is a wonderful and beautiful place to live having property here makes it all worth while.

About purchasing an Apartment or Mansion in Japan,
just keep in mind when you do buy you will have to pay a maintianance fee every month usually 20000 yen and up, average is maybe 30000 yen, so if you have to pay this every month it starts adding up,

in my opinion buying a property with a house is much better, in the end you will save money.

If you do buy property in Japan what area would you like to live?

If you every need any help looking let me know.

Good Luck!

Do you have to go through any formal process of seeking approvals from City Hall prior to commencement of building construction (ie: a development application process, where you submit proposed plans etc.) ?? Also, do the various local governments 'zone' land for a particular usage (eg: some land can only be used for agricultural purposes, others for houses, other for apartments, others for industrial activities).??

I bought a "mansion", we call them condos in the USA. It was a cash deal, and we wired the funds from a USA bank. No surprises. My wife is Japanese, so it made things easier. Here's what we went through after we found what we wanted.

1) I had to open a bank account in my name; bank accounts are opened in only in one name.

2) I wired the funds from my account in the USA.

3) We had a meeting with our agent and the selling agent to sign (actually we used official seals) the offer/acceptance. I bought the mansion in my name only, which is common practice here.

4) Our agent read through the whole contract word for word, and we signed where needed. We also talked about insurance at this time. The people there were the selling agent, seller wasn't there but had a representative (usually the seller are at this meeting), our agent, and us (the buyers)

5) We had a meeting at our bank to transfer funds, transfer the title, and finish the paperwork. Here are the people that were there: selling agent, seller couldn't be there so there was his representative, our agent, an accountant, and us.

All the payments were made at this meeting and processed through the bank:
Payment for the mansion.
Payment to the selling agent.
Payment to our agent (yes, you must pay your agent).
Payment to the accountant.

We were handed the keys and owned property in Japan.

Could you please let me know the website address where I can search for house price in Shiga ken? We want to buy a land with house, and would like to search for price first. Thank you!

Here's a link.

http://realestate.homes.co.jp/search/main/

Great information Kiyo - thank you. Hopefully, our purchase will be as simple.