Confused by Loan Bank Transfer discrepancy

[AntarcticFinance]

I recently bought my first apartment in Tokyo as a foreigner fully in Japanese and to say I was unfamiliar with the myriad of steps is an understatement. I'm still not fully sure how everything works here, but I managed it by myself fairly well. I opted for a 100% loan (¥0 downpayment) with a fixed 1.0% interest rate for 35 years. Pretty standard stuff.

On the day I signed (inkan) for the house, the bank that loaned me the money credited me with the total loan amount into my account (a), then deducted the payments again to pay the agency, previous owner, other parties etc. (b). However, a-b leaves me with a ~+¥3,000,000 surplus that I didn't have before in my account. Very strange and no idea why.

Can anyone who is familiar with buying property in Japan shed any light on how this money-into your account, money-out system works when you buy a property with a mortgage? Apologies if this is an obvious one, this is all new to me.

[Kiro]

Did you account for the deposit you gave to the previous owner when signing the contract? The bank pays it back.

It can also be that the estimate prepared by your agent and given to the bank was higher than what you actually ended up paying and the bank gave you the full amount (for the judicial clerk/registration fee, house insurance, property tax, revenue stamp… all of this come to mind).

The same happened to me, I was pretty happy about it (e.g. agent quoted ¥400k for house insurance, while i ended up paying ¥40k).

If I may ask, which bank did you use to get a 1% 35 years fixed? It’s pretty good.

[Roger Van Zant]

Did you account for the deposit you gave to the previous owner when signing the contract? The bank pays it back.

It can also be that the estimate prepared by your agent and given to the bank was higher than what you actually ended up paying and the bank gave you the full amount (for the judicial clerk/registration fee, house insurance, property tax, revenue stamp… all of this come to mind).

The same happened to me, I was pretty happy about it (e.g. agent quoted ¥400k for house insurance, while i ended up paying ¥40k).

If I may ask, which bank did you use to get a 1% 35 years fixed? It’s pretty good.

1% is nothing special. A friend just got their Flat-35 at 0.87% through SBI.

[Roger Van Zant]

I recently bought my first apartment in Tokyo as a foreigner fully in Japanese and to say I was unfamiliar with the myriad of steps is an understatement. I'm still not fully sure how everything works here, but I managed it by myself fairly well. I opted for a 100% loan (¥0 downpayment) with a fixed 1.0% interest rate for 35 years. Pretty standard stuff.

On the day I signed (inkan) for the house, the bank that loaned me the money credited me with the total loan amount into my account (a), then deducted the payments again to pay the agency, previous owner, other parties etc. (b). However, a-b leaves me with a ~+¥3,000,000 surplus that I didn't have before in my account. Very strange and no idea why.

Can anyone who is familiar with buying property in Japan shed any light on how this money-into your account, money-out system works when you buy a property with a mortgage? Apologies if this is an obvious one, this is all new to me.

You need to contact your bank and ask them. Nobody here will be able to tell you for sure.
If you don't need it, and it's not a mistaken credit, put it all in the 新NISA from next year!

[AntarcticFinance]

Yes good point, I will do that!

[AntarcticFinance]

Did you account for the deposit you gave to the previous owner when signing the contract? The bank pays it back.

It can also be that the estimate prepared by your agent and given to the bank was higher than what you actually ended up paying and the bank gave you the full amount (for the judicial clerk/registration fee, house insurance, property tax, revenue stamp… all of this come to mind).

The same happened to me, I was pretty happy about it (e.g. agent quoted ¥400k for house insurance, while i ended up paying ¥40k).

If I may ask, which bank did you use to get a 1% 35 years fixed? It’s pretty good.

I took a 1.00% fixed loan for ten years through Shinsei Bank, then I have to re-mortgage at that point. When I bought the house they were offering me a choice of 0.35% variable, 1.00% fixed for 10 years, or 1.5% fixed for 35 years. For reference, I have PR and put zero money down so 100% loan.

[Kiro]

Ah right, it makes sense then. It thought it was a fixed 1.0% for the full 35 years.
I was offered approximately the same rates by SBI net, went with the 0.32% variable. We'll see how it goes...

[AntarcticFinance]

Ah right, it makes sense then. It thought it was a fixed 1.0% for the full 35 years.
I was offered approximately the same rates by SBI net, went with the 0.32% variable. We'll see how it goes...

I was honestly very torn between the variable and the fixed for ten years. Most mortgages in Japan are variable is my understanding, and given the debt ratios here, if interest rates go up that much everyone is bankrupt, so in theory they can't. In theory.