Mortgage in Japan

[Supergoal]

I expect not many people here to be able to answer this question but need some advice.

I'm looking to build a house next year or so and I'll need a bank loan.
Has anyone gone through the process of getting a loan?
What were if any the prerequisites for a foreigner getting the loan?

My parents in law will give us some land they own and so hopefully that can bring the total cost down

Help much appreciated.

[Darwock]

I've been here going on 8 years and can't even get a credit card... so I can't really give advice.

All I can say is that you will undoubtedly need permanent residence (and probably a Japanese guarantor) to get anywhere. Good luck.

[Yakumo]

I expect not many people here to be able to answer this question but need some advice.

I'm looking to build a house next year or so and I'll need a bank loan.
Has anyone gone through the process of getting a loan?
What were if any the prerequisites for a foreigner getting the loan?

My parents in law will give us some land they own and so hopefully that can bring the total cost down

Help much appreciated.

My wife and I bought land and built our own house 5 years back. I can tell you now you will need a guarantor with a good income before you are even considered a lone. But never mind that because you are a foreigner you can forget about borrowing about 30 million yen. They won't even consider it because we're all dirty thieving bastards who can't be trusted. It doesn't matter if you're a permanent resident or that you have a full time job. The bank will come up with some ****ty excuse. Your wife on the other hand should be fine as long as she has a full time job.

I'll talk to my wife tomorrow about what lone we got and who with. All I know is that I'll be paying it until I'm 62.

[Supergoal]

My wife and I bought land and built our own house 5 years back. I can tell you now you will need a guarantor with a good income before you are even considered a lone. But never mind that because you are a foreigner you can forget about borrowing about 30 million yen. They won't even consider it because we're all dirty thieving bastards who can't be trusted. It doesn't matter if you're a permanent resident or that you have a full time job. The bank will come up with some ****ty excuse. Your wife on the other hand should be fine as long as she has a full time job.

I'll talk to my wife tomorrow about what lone we got and who with. All I know is that I'll be paying it until I'm 62.

[Mayhem]

I was gonna write something, but Yakumo pretty much summed it up, and I've heard similar from someone else living in Japan. Trying to get a mortgage as a foreigner is almost impossible. And the mortgages can be so long that your kids can be paying them off.

[kryss]

Doesn't help that you have to rebuild every 40 years or so (or you did until recently).

[Supergoal]

So... I mean I'm going to have to go through the process of asking regardless of how difficult it may be since we need a house no two ways about it.

I guess it would be easier to just slam down a massive deposit. Sounds ridiculous even with a long service of work and stay here. No criminal activity (that I'm aware of! ) and always paid and up to date with city tax etc.

[Yakumo]

I tell you who WILL give you a loan. Softbank will. Not the phone company, well, it is the phone company but they also have a bank. that is ran by a Korean so they aren't so up tight about loans to none native Japanese. You'll still need a good guarantor and permanent residency and a real full tine job (not a contract job that you sign each year). The big problem with Softbank is that their interest rates such ass. I'm still going to ask my wife for you though. Last night we had a bit of a fight because I bought a Nexus 7 table. It's not as if it's brand new, it's the 2012 model. Looks new though and preforms fantastically. It's going to be my new in-car entertainment hub.

[Yakumo]

By the way, where do you live? How much land do you want? Do you know the rules about how much % of land you can actually use for your house?

As a rough guide, I live in a very convenient place for public transportation, schools and shopping but I also don't live in a mega city like Tokyo or Osaka. I live in Shimonoseki which is the last city in Honshu before Kyushu.

My land cost 7 million yen and the house was 26 million yen. That's the sort of price we pay down here. My home isn't so big by UK standards but good for JPN. Here's a shot from Google maps to give you an idea of size. All the homes in this area were built within a year of each other.

All of the area in red belongs to me (it's actually in my name). The grey area to the left of the house is our Drive Way. We must have been out at work when that picture was taken. My Impreza and wife's EK Wagon fit in that space with room to spare for another k-car. As you can see, the house is small compared to the land size. The rule in this city is that only 75% of the land can be used for the building and there must be at least 2m gap between buildings.



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[Dogg Thang]

I find myself kind of envious of you guys. Always wanted to be in Japan. A decade and a wife and kids later and I just don't see it ever happening beyond maybe a holiday at some point. My own fault, I never got off my ass to make it happen - the common lament of my twenties. Hope you get sorted Supergoal and I wish you nothing but great fortune!

[teddymeow]

I find myself kind of envious of you guys. Always wanted to be in Japan. A decade and a wife and kids later and I just don't see it ever happening beyond maybe a holiday at some point. My own fault, I never got off my ass to make it happen - the common lament of my twenties. Hope you get sorted Supergoal and I wish you nothing but great fortune!

Ditto. Except for "kids" replace with "divorce" and "remarried".

If I'd known I'd have been such a Japanophile when I was at college I'd have done different A-levels and maybe gone to Uni.

[QualityChimp]

I'm going to steal Yakumo's milk off his doorstep now...

[Strider]

I'm going to steal Yakumo's milk off his doorstep now...

Too late. I already drunk it and it was gooooood!

[Supergoal]

I'm in saitama. We're currently renting after moving from Tokyo to be closer to her family. Her family have a crap load of land they use to grow grapes and grow vegetables for commercial sale. Yep they're farmers.
They've decided to give some of that farm land for us to build a house on for free. How much land they give depends on how big we want the house to be. I'm guessing it'll cost a bit more than yours did being so far from the big cities. I'm 40 mins from ikebukuro and 50 from shinjuku so even though its farm land it's still pretty close to the city. Not sure if that will affect us though with the land being free. If we can't get a mortgage via my status perhaps I can get a camper van.

[Yakumo]

Hehe, there's no milkman in Japan. You have to buy your milk from the supermarket in 1ltr packs. Just as well really, the milk would turn to stinky cheese in no time even now if left outside.

O, I asked my wife what bank we got our loan from and she said Nishi chugoku shinyo ginko. They had the best rates and 0% interest for 5 years.