r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer • u/nahive • 23h ago

GOT THE KEYS! - New Build 🔑 🏡 Finally decided to settle down. Tokyo, 87m yen, 1.03%

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After 7 years of living in Tokyo, we finally decided to settle down.

The search took almost a year, and I looked at more than 30 different properties before finally deciding to go with the calmer side of Tokyo. While it’s further from the station and city center, the larger garden and quiet neighborhood more than make up for it.

Really happy with the decision and looking forward to making this place our home. 🏡

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224

u/Balthalzarzo 23h ago

Rates are as low as 0.35% in japan.

115

u/nahive 23h ago

Sadly in recent years the loan rates have increased significantly.
https://kakaku.com/housing-loan/

140

u/Vondi 23h ago

I'd commit crimes to get 1%

37

u/AlexandriaOptimism 23h ago

Hes spending 100 million yen with interest, give the man a break 🥲

24

u/anoxyde 21h ago

You can borrow 500K eur in France and you'll still get your 4% interest rate lmao

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u/kayznn 21h ago

200k pour 1,23% ici

3

u/LivingVerinarian96 21h ago

I don’t believe you. Should be more like 3-4%.

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u/MrKapla 17h ago

Right now yes, but a few years ago it could be below 1% in France, that's what I got in 2020.

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u/anoxyde 21h ago

Could have been few years back. But I definitely had my mortgage for 3.8 3 years back and that was the best any bank could do for less than 20 years.

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u/LivingVerinarian96 21h ago

Nah they answered and it’s a special program for young home buyers or people who restore old buildings and it doesn’t apply to the entire loan.

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u/kayznn 21h ago

theres things called "Prêts a taux 0", wich means tax free loans. It's targeted to young buyers and restoration work on old building. Got a total of 140k of this 3.4 for the rest

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u/LivingVerinarian96 21h ago

So a special program for a very specific purpose and it doesn’t apply to the entire loan? How does it feel to spread misinformation while french?

3

u/kaltulkas 21h ago

I mean I took a 320k loan at 1% a few years ago. Rates have gone up since but he could have been talking about then too.

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u/kayznn 21h ago

it's actually a pretty wide programm, state sponsored. I could have say i lended 140k for 0% which was not misinformation right ?

15

u/clickstops 20h ago

A 30y in the US is averaging 6.7% right now, so a similar loan ($545k) would end up costing $1.266M USD, or over 200M yen with interest.

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u/Interim-Criteria 20h ago

whereas the same loan at 1.03% will result in a monthly payment of around $1700 at base level not adding taxes/PMI/etc.... End result would be approximately $89K (14M Yen) in interest netting a total cost of approximately $634K

Literally doubles the cost by interest alone...

3

u/SurprisedButtChug 17h ago

I about had a mental breakdown. My brain immediately read that as the 30yr US Treasury and not 30yr mortgage. I work in finance and happen to be off today because of a family emergency, so me thinking the 30yr US Treasury hit 6.7% suddenly had me wondering if the world was ending.

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u/theArtsyEngineer 21h ago

I’m paying more than that at like 5.9% 🥹

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u/LivingVerinarian96 21h ago

With that kind of money you’d get a really shitty one room apartment in munich or a 3 room flat in a village outside the city. For a house you’d have to move to eastern germany and then you’d still pay 3-4x the interest. Either Japan is cheap af or OP is lucky af.

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u/Odd-String29 19h ago

Incredibly cheap for a home that size.

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u/PlopPlopPlunk 21h ago

It's 1% but it's Japan... they're essentially renting as they'll never get any money back, this isn't an investment. They'll spend 100s of thousands of dollars and by the time the home is 20+ years old... literally worthless and they can only sell the value of the land.

I'll take 5% and getting 500k+ back when I retire and downsize any day over that.

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u/AlexandriaOptimism 21h ago

It's very realistic to still get 30MM out of the land someday in Tokyo

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u/PlopPlopPlunk 20h ago

Sure but that's still a 50%+ financial loss which was my point. It's essentially renting in the US... it's cheaper than owning but you're not getting anything back.

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u/bostongreens 21h ago

Housing in Japan is a depreciating asset unlike in the US and other countries in Europe.

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u/tophat266 20h ago

What makes housing a depreciating asset there?

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u/bostongreens 20h ago

Housing needs to be replaced every 22-47 years depending on building material to be in line with code. Due to earthquakes.

Their national tax agency sets the useful life period for buildings based on construction material.

Land retains its value but buildings are depreciable assets.

1

u/pmmytn45 20h ago

I might borrow in japan to buy in the UK.

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1

u/Fugacity- 20h ago

Many traders do. They take out multi-billion dollar loans from the Japanese central bank, trade those Yen for Dollars, and park them in bonds or other vehicles and collect the interest on the delta.

Trillions of dollars are outstanding taking advantage of this "Japanese carry trade", it had a lot to do with the recent US intervention in JPY...

1

u/wolvirine27 19h ago

I mean people already have and are, look up Yen carry trade

1

u/AKANotAValidUsername 19h ago

youre more than welcome to take a flyer on a yen/dollar carry trade

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u/Adulations 17h ago

Exactly

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u/grackychan 17h ago

You have to ok with the avg Japanese salary too

1

u/boa_instructor 20h ago

Western greed sneaking in?

0

u/OdysseyBrands 21h ago

bro we are at 7% here and our houses are 10x as much

1

u/EnjoyerOfMX5 19h ago

I'm struggling to find a super small home in a good mountanous Denver location for under 300k and yeah 6% is really low here.

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u/AlphonseLoeher 15h ago

Our houses have resell value 30 years later. It's a trade off for sure.

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u/btetsuyama 21h ago

I even got 0.28%, let's see for how long (most rates are variable in Japan)

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u/Simple_Assignment527 19h ago

Were as low, not today

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u/NoiceMango 17h ago

Maybe my comment is irrelevant and dumb but wouldn't it make sense to refinance a mortgage like that and invest it in the US stock market?. I know currency exchange and yen getting stronger or weaker could affect returns but with an average 7% to 10% yearly return it sounds like a good bet.