Buying/building house (greater Tokyo area) - Where to start?

[zeroshiki]

That said, if you can get a provisional agreement with an attractive lender ahead of time, you could avoid this kind of 2 million refinancing fee which I suppose is partly what I paid for being lazy in the first place. That’s not how I did it, but I gather you can get a potential lender lined up ahead of time, so it’s probably something to look at first.

Provisional agreement --> You mean a pre-approval from a bank, I assume? That's something I have seen a few times as a recommendation. What are the requirements? Can I just walk in and have a quote for how much they can lend based on an assessment, or do I need to have a general idea of what I am going to buy? Any idea how long an agreement would be valid for, as in does that trigger a time window for searching?

You can apply for a pre-approval quite easily online. They only ask basic things about the area and your income.

[Sterk]

It seems like most people are looking north (Saitama) and east (Chiba) nowadays since west/south (Yokohama) is tapped out. Less than 1 hour to Shibuya for less than 100M seems really unrealistic to be honest.

Thanks for the input. This is also the kind of reality check I am looking for, and depending on the outcome of my search I am open to the conclusion that buying/building might not be the best financial decision in my situation.

As I said, I would love to have the freedom to move somewhere cheaper, but have to operate under the assumption we will need to commute to the office daily. Chiba or Saitama would be strategically poor locations for both me and my partner.

Will try out the online pre-screening thing as soon as I get some more information in.

[sutebayashi]

Provisional agreement --> You mean a pre-approval from a bank, I assume?

Haha yes it seems that’s the term I should have used, I’d be an absolute novice in this outside of Japan:)

Sumishin SBI should be competitive but if you have any net bank account I suppose they all offer mortgages so hitting up the one you already have an account with could be easiest / beneficial.