The Monday Read

Typhoon Edition

I hope everyone is safe out there. The typhoon looks pretty gnarly!

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This week’s books

Finished Stephen King’s Fairy Tale. I would give it a solid B as a King book. Readable but not a standout.

Started $100 offers, by Alex Hormozi. It’s pretty good so far. His videos are everywhere, but I like a lot of the stuff he says.

This week’s links

  1. More Konichi-value: How Tokyo Avoided the Affordable Housing Crisis
  2. Presumably they will keep getting cheaper: More empty homes: Japan’s housing glut to hit 10m in 2023
  3. Always enjoy Derek Sivers (giveaway coming up soon on the site!): Ketchup
  4. J-links of interest from Undervalued Japan: part 1 and part 2
  5. Been thinking about this: Filling up your dream bucket
  6. My wife really wants to visit: Walking Istanbul (part 1)
  7. Japan leads the way again: “Zaitech” (財テク)
  8. I follow two of these, and half heard of maybe half a dozen others. The rest? No clue: Top Creators 2022
  9. Quelle surprise: Abe Left Japan’s Economy Worse Than He Found It
  10. I get a variation on this question from time to time: I’m 62, single and never had a retirement account. I have $100,000 to invest, but is it too late?
  11. Don’t know why I find this so interesting (have no plans to build a house): Designing a New Old Home: Research, Sketch, Collect
  12. I approve: Ben (Carson)’s 4 Common Sense Rules of Investing

What do you think? Anything interesting in there?

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10 Responses

  1. It might be time to start moving the tax breaks for building a new home to home renovations so that the abandoned homes have a chance of being lived in again.

  2. I can’t read #2 due to paywall, but it might be an interesting thing to look at: will these houses become cheaper if they are never advertised and never hit the market? It seems to me that there is little to no incentive to sell them. I am tentatively looking for a second hand place, and even just walking around my neighbourhoods, it’s clear their are many empty houses and none of them have “for sale” signs or are listed on major websites

    1. A lot of them are legally in limbo -the ownership is not clear, taxes are due, etc.

      Local authorities don’t have much in the way of options to seize or sell them, although that is being talked about more now. Hence the ‘akiya bank’ system: https://www.akiya-athome.jp (this is a private consolidation site, as akiya banks are run by local authorities)

      1. There’s been some interesting videos recently on how people come to find the “better” akiyas, with only a tiny, tiny amount ever making it to akiya banks, and those in the akiya banks potentially not being something you might want to buy.

        I know some prefectures are starting to bill people for demolition of akiyas deemed dangerous and they should really be putting effort into “use it or lose it” for people who have a financial interest. You have 3 years to make a serious claim or it reverts to the city. Nationwide campaign – if you have an interest, get in contact with the local government. Put everyone on notice. It won’t happen, but it can’t go on like this as the numbers of them explode.

        I still find it bizarre that the most important thing in Japan, land, is so hard to track down paperwork/ownership etc.

    2. My neighborhood in Kanagawa in the last 6 months I’ve seen 45 old houses demolished and new houses built — there has never been any for sale signs for any of them but they are advertised at local real estate agencies or online and are selling for decent amount of money … . Also , huge field near my place they are just building 40 new houses in my neighborhood … we are actually wondering if we should sell we got an estimate from the banks real estate agency and we have our mortgage just over half paid off … the estimate for our almost 20 year house and land we would almost get what we paid for it as a second hand house .. anyways I think Kanagawa has avoided the housing crisis as well … and I am praying our house doesn’t lose value over the next 5-10 years … I find the housing value here so strange … anyways the biggest thing I’m worried about is all the new houses being built will devalue our home …

  3. Regarding housing, there is also a reluctance among people in Japan (especially women in my experience) to buy a second hand house. Like a lot of things in Japan, people want new, clean and cool. The idea of living where other unknown people have lived doesn’t sit well with many of them.
    Unfortunately, they’d rather buy a more expensive new flimsy house than a cheaper, more sturdy old house. And unfortunately for the rest of us the rice paddies, farms and areas of nature are sacrificed as a result.
    Like the article says, they really need to make some tax incentives to a) get people to want to live in second hand places and b) do the same so that unneeded houses can be demolished and that land can be used for new housing instead.
    Also on a slightly different tangent, promoting agriculture and farming could help keep some of the green areas. Most of the people living around me who plant rice say they make next to nothing off it and it’s a burden to have the land. Only a matter of time before these will get sold off to be built on too, no doubt..

  4. Saw NHK Close-up Gendai last night (9/20) and a guest made an interesting comment: “If you buy a car and keep it for 30 years, chances are you will wash it, have it maintained, etc. over the years. Why doesn’t this happen with houses?” In other words, people need to put some money into upkeep and maintenance, so that older homes will be usable and sellable. Yes, giving tax breaks for renovating a property is an idea. I recall that some years ago there were gov’t subsidies for putting in double windows (inner window to provide some buffer for the usual single-glazed panes, etc. as part of a drive to make homes more energy-efficient.
    One concern is whether older buildings meet earthquake-resistance standards, and no one renovating old homes seems to mention INSULATION, let alone double-glazed windows.

    1. Really good point. We renovated my wife’s parents’ place a few years ago.

      Ripped everything out, put in decent insulation, decent windows, and mechanical heat exchange ventilation.

      Cost 24m yen(!)

      Very happy with how it turned out though. It’s basically a new house that looks like an old house from the outside.