quote:Originally posted by Pennywise

quote:Originally posted by trackers

Thanks for the reply. So to summarise, and over-simplify, the 30% decline in the Japanese housing market over the last decade is primarily due to having a small baby boom population? Bugger

This article is quite a good on-the-ground piece http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1698184/posts
The biggest reason for the "stats" looking so poor is you need to look at the huge bubble in real estate in Japan in the late 80s very early 90s.

It was out of control.
Looking at a single figure of -30% has to be appreciated alongside the massive explosion in housing prices during the infamous real estate bubble in Japan.

Right now, there are better real estate opportunities in Tokyo than NZ by far.
Apartment renting to foreigners in Tokyo can easily yeild 10% + against loans of 1.5%




In theory yes, but in practice it isn't as rosy as that.

I have some frinds who have taken out very cheap loans to buy their first house/apartment.

There is a clause in the agreement saying they can't sublet - meaning they can't have renters paying the mortgage.

Their salary is only enough to get one loan for one dwelling - If they do secretly breach the contract by subletting they can't count rental income from tenants as income to get another loan because they have to keep this income secret.

The NZ model, where an person with an average salary can buy 10 houses with 5% equity in each and have the tenants payng of most of the mortgage, isn't possible in my friend's cases.

If you rent an apartment you still have to pay quite a high monthly fee. Our friends bought an apartment and still are paying a third of the rent we pay every month as fees.

Tokyo may be different, perhaps you can get a loans from banks there to build a rental apartment empire, but given that that Japanese banks lost more money than NZ is worth in the burstng bubble, I have my doubts.