Maybe. But probably not the kind of money you’re imagining. When people hear “I bought a house in Japan for $20,000,” the next sentence out of their mouth is usually about Airbnb. They picture a ski-season rental near Niseko, a canal-district listing pulling ¥15,000 a night, passive income flowing while they sit on a beach …
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Participants — many in colorful yukata or festival happi coats — from local groups like the Otaru Ryūsaikai (小樽龍祭會) and enthusiasts across Hokkaido shouldered the heavy portable shrine.
You buy a house in Otaru. You fly home. The house sits. This is the reality for a significant number of foreign buyers in Japan. Maybe you bought with a five-year plan — retire there eventually, fix it up on annual trips, let it wait. Maybe you already spend winters in Hokkaido but live somewhere …
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Series: Buying Cheap Property in Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan — Article 10 of 30 Nobody writes about this part. There are hundreds of articles about finding property in Japan, negotiating prices, understanding the legal process. But at some point you have to actually move $20,000 or $30,000 across the Pacific and into someone’s Japanese bank account, …
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Series: Buying Cheap Property in Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan — Article 9 of 30 When I tell people what I pay in annual property tax on my house in Otaru, they assume I’m leaving something out. There must be a homeowner’s association fee, or a special assessment, or some other line item I’m forgetting. There isn’t. …
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Series: Buying Cheap Property in Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan — Article 8 of 30 The listing price is not the price. I knew this going in — I’ve bought property before, in other countries, and there’s always a spread between the number on the listing and the number you actually spend. But Japan’s version of this …