Land Ahoy!

First of all, an apology. It has been an embarrassingly long time since we last posted on this blog. I’m ashamed to see that over a year has passed. The main reason for this is simply that life just has a habit of getting in the way. I will endeavor to do better in future!

In our last post, I mentioned that we had put an offer in on a piece of land. More on the specifics of that later but first, a few words about the area of East Osaka in which we were looking. The area is suburban with good schools and good rail and road transport links into the center of Osaka. In the town/village itself, there are very few shops, almost no restaurants and no decent supermarkets either but these are all easily accessible by car or train. What it does have is greenery, incredible views and a real proper Japan countryside feel (and a great convenience store!). It’s a place where we know we would be happy to raise a family and to live in for the foreseeable future.

One challenge in finding land there was simply the absence of land plots available in the area, which has become increasingly popular with young families and also with grown up children returning to their family home after their parents have passed on (a common source of available land parcels) and deciding not to sell up but rather to stay themselves.

Another issue was that the area we were interested in is on the side of a small mountain (hill?) which offers some unique challenges for housebuilding in general. Since the mountain is small and reasonably densely populated, the roads that do exist are often quite steep and/or narrow.

We thought very carefully about the practicalities of living up or down a very steep slope from the station and basically came up with a notional cut-off point, “the line past which we would not cross”. Any plots past this line on the map were nixed on the basis that we didn’t want to walk too far uphill to get to the station. Luckily, the mountain features a kind of n-shaped spur jutting out which provides two elevated areas with a relatively flat walk to the station. We concentrated our search on these two areas.

Several months of searching produced precious little. We visited a few plots of land which were well located but all had some major issue. We came up against steep hills, plots that were too small or oddly shaped, expensive demolition projects, a lack of parking etc. etc. I wouldn’t say that we were close to giving up but our searches were becoming more wild and unwieldy and the catchment area in which were searching became unmanageably large.

There was one plot of land however with an old house and a hideous looking rusty red elevated shed on it that we had nicknamed “The Shitter” in our web-browsing. We passed it over time and time again until one day, for some unknown reason, we decided to go and look at it. I think it was probably the frustration at finding nothing new and wanting to feel like we were at least doing something.

I (Tom) went with the agent to see this large (by Japanese standards) 275sqm plot of land, which was situated about 7 minutes’ walk from the train station on one of the spurs, about 50 meters from a plot I had visited months ago (expensive concrete demolition required). True to the pictures, the shed was hideous and I concluded within about 10 seconds that the house next to it would have to also be torn down as there was no scope for remodeling, which was an option we were still considering at the time. Still, the views were nice and the place had a lot of character.

As we walked around, it was evident that this land would be difficult to deal with. Far from being a pretty, flat (expensive) parcel that most Japanese buyers favor, this plot was raised 3 meters above the road with a stepped stone retaining wall and old stone staircase leading up to a relatively flat plot at the top. By my calculations, only the flat plot would be buildable on so we would be instantly losing 30-40sqm of building area. The parking area was less than ideal too.

However, from the top it was clear that it would at least have rather nice west-facing views of the Osaka cityscape over the house in front (whose foundations are 3-4 meters lower) and an unrestricted view of the mountains in the distance to the North West. I was intrigued but far from sold on the idea. I started making calculations in my head about demolition costs (extortionate in Japan), land preparation costs, groundwork, utilities and so on. Things weren’t looking great.

The agents spoke to each other and mine came back to me with some rather surprising news. Although it hadn’t been well stated on the listing, the seller’s agent informed us that, since the seller ran a construction company, they would be willing to sell the land 更地 or “sarachi”. In other words, he would knock the old buildings down for us and prepare the land a bit as part of the deal.

To say this changed things is an understatement. This turned the land from an overlooked non-starter into a potential bargain. Suddenly, the land was worth considering seriously. Nevertheless, there were still a number of unanswered questions about things like sewerage, building regulations, utilities etc.

I won’t go into too much detail about that here as a lot of these things were somewhat unique to this particular plot but will summarize by saying that, each time we made inquiries about these issues, we created a notional best-case and worst-case scenario for how much it would cost. Almost without fail, every quote we got was at the right end of that scale. The positives were really stacking up.

A few weeks after first going to see the land and going back a few more times and making more inquiries, we felt that there were enough positives and there was enough potential to push ahead with an offer. The question was how much to offer! The land had been on the market for a long time and, in that time, the price had fallen by 40%. This didn’t perturb us too much as we figured that many Japanese buyers would be put off by the existing house or the perceived difficulty in construction. We’d made contingencies for any such issues and, although we were certain we didn’t have all the facts, we felt confident enough to make an offer.

After a lot of discussion and consultation with friends and family, we came up with a number and put our offer to the sellers. In truth, we did not expect this offer to be accepted as it was a full 20% below the already heavily reduced asking price. We expected this to be the start of a long and tedious negotiation. However, on a Monday afternoon in June 2017, we got a somewhat shocked and excited call from our agent telling us that the offer had actually been accepted. It was the last thing we expected and completely threw us.

A lowball or “dirty” offer is an interesting conundrum. Because it’s unlikely that it will be accepted, it’s an offer you can make a little more freely with perhaps a little less commitment. As we discovered, when it’s accepted, the first thing you do is panic and question just how serious you really are. Honestly, it didn’t really feel real at all. It took a few weeks for us to start to appreciate that this was going to happen!

This blog post is already far too long and it takes us rather nicely up to the point of the acceptance of our offer, which seems a good place to leave things for now. There have been a number of developments since then so I’ll be covering these in some catch-up posts over the next few weeks. For now, it’s good to be back and we hope you’ve enjoyed reading!

Shijonawate (四條畷市) - Where it all began

Back in July 2016 we went on our first trip to see a house for sale in Japan. It was a relatively spur-of-the-moment decision after some casual perusal online of the various housing portals that exist in Japan (more on that in a later blog).

The house was in a quiet, leafy suburb of Osaka city called Shijonawate. Neither of us had ever been there before but we found it to be relatively well-situated, just 14 minutes from Kyobashi Station on the Katamachi Line. It was, however, quite a trek from the station to the house - a 20 minute uphill walk according to Google Maps. 

Since we were unfamiliar with the area, our friendly English-speaking local estate agent (from whom we found our current rental apartment) offered to take us there by car, which saved us slogging uphill through the summer heat. This afforded plenty of opportunity for discussion and questions on the way. It quickly became apparent that he was as intrigued as we were about this particular property.

Whilst there had been a number of pictures online, it was difficult to really ascertain the scope and scale of the plot and the house atop it. This was made even more difficult due to the fact that the plot was actually one huge piece of land with three properties on it, each crudely demarcated from the others by a line on the plan but, as it would turn out, with no obvious physical boundary in real life.

We were looking at Plot C, which came in under our notional budget and supposedly boasted a whopping 500m2 of land with a 200m2 house in the middle. This is absolutely huge by Japanese standards and the idea of having a garden and outside space was instantly appealing. Beyond the house, there were also two outbuildings, a Kura (蔵) which is a traditional storage space, and a small tea house! Apparently the plot had been used for commercial purposes as a kind of company retreat.

The house was a wooden-structured large rectangle built in a semi-traditional style and made of wood in 1976. This mean that it was built before a major earthquake regulations revision which occurred in 1981. Although the structure appeared to be remarkably sturdy for such an old building (in Japan, 40 years old is an ancient house), both Yuko and I had some concerns about how it would fare should a major earthquake hit.  

Inside, the house had been built and furnished to a very high standard but very little had been done to it in the last 25 years. It was clear to see that the previous owners had spent a lot of money on it initially but that the mod cons installed in the 70s and 80s were no longer fit for purpose. It would have required a complete and costly refit of the entire ground floor, with the upstairs fairing no better.

As we quickly did the Maths in our heads, we could see that this would have proved to be a very expensive undertaking indeed. Furthermore, there were only two rooms upstairs, which would have either necessitated some fairly quirky living arrangements or a large scale extension and renovation of the upper floor.

Outside, things were considerably better. The tea-house would have made for the most wonderful guesthouse and was already replete with running water and electricity. The front could have easily been opened up to provide an outside deck and it would have been such a unique and fantastic space for visitors to stay.  

Equally amazing was the garden which extended all around the house in a semi-traditional Japanese style. The garden was complete with beautiful trees, rock formations and a large wooden water wheel. The previous owner had set up an elaborate system of pipes and pumps so that water could be pumped around the garden but no doubt the hassle of keeping it operating resulted in his admitting defeat. When we visited the house we could see the pipes but, alas, no water except for that coming from the fast-flowing river behind the house.

As we sat on the bench outside the the genkan (玄関),  a traditional Japanese house entrance, sipping tea kindly provided by the enthusiastic seller's agent, we imagined ourselves living in this Ghibli-esque environment. We opted to walk to the station (downhill) to see the local area and mull over our first impressions. We both loved what we thought the place could be like and, in particular, the tea house and the garden. Shijonawate seemed like an interesting, albeit quiet neighbourhood and the train connection into town was great.

However, the walk to the station was a long 20 minutes in the summer heat and would have been nightmarish in the other direction. We were glad to find our estate agent waiting at the station, AC running on full blast to take us back to the city.

After a couple of days, we made our decision not to proceed with the Ghibli house. It was simply going to be too much work and there were too many other reasons to say no, not least the fact that this was the first house we had been to see. Nevertheless, it proved to be a worthwhile and fulfilling experience and has acted as a catalyst to our current search. I'm sure someone will be very happy living there - it just wasn't quite for us.

The large garden with wooden water wheel.

The tea house.

A traditional tatami living room with wood and paper panel doors.

The house had a urinal! Complete with strange stone foot wells.

The kitchen was a luxury setup in its day but it hasn't aged well. The large oven is an expensive luxury in Japan.

The most modern addition to the house - an onsen style shower room with window to the outside world.

The main hallway off which all the rooms are situated.

The parking space below the Kura storage area.

The house and its beautiful surroundings.

Welcome

Hello everyone. Konnichiwa. Welcome to our blog.

It's always hard to know where to start with these things, but here goes. We are Tom and Yuko and we have decided to build a house in Osaka, Japan. Well, sort of.

At present, we live in a perfectly nice, modern but small, rented apartment in the centre of Osaka, close to a raft of fantastic restaurants, bars and convenient transport links. We are both in our late twenties and working in the centre of the city.

Sounds great right? It really is, and we're not ready to give it up just yet, but what we both yearn for is more space. Space that just cannot be found in the centre of the city unless you are a Hedge Fund Manager or you happen to own a park. Space to have a barbecue in the summer without fear of setting the neighbour's apartment on fire. Space to sit outside without having to reposition all of the washing on the balcony. Space to cure and smoke bacon on an industrial scale. Space to perhaps work or run a business from home. Space for some kids to run around in. Perhaps even a dog, cat, hamster.

It's with space in mind that we started looking at properties to purchase about 9 months ago. That search has subsequently morphed into visiting predominantly land plots with a view to building our own house. Although this blog will feature any existing properties that we look at, we have set it up with the intention of telling our story of building a house in Japan. If we end up buying a house rather than building one, this will be a rather short blog indeed!

At any rate, we hope that you will enjoy reading this (Mum) and that we are able to shed some light on the process for any other foreigners or mixed couples who may consider building or buying a house in Japan.



PS: For anyone interested in reading the stories of others who have done the same, I highly recommend checking out https://catforehead.com/, http://kichijojilife.blogspot.jp/, http://japanhouseblog.tumblr.com/ and https://gaijinhouse.wordpress.com/  all of which have proved to be really informative for us in starting out on this process.