Banks recommandations for housing loan

[Kiyora999]

Hi retirejapan and ricardo,

retire japan :
Oh OK we'll talk to multiple banks even though one of them say OK fast then!
But why do you say the only reason doing a joint-loan is for tax benefits and if one person cannot afford the whole mortgage?

I trust my husband and we don't plan to get divorced but it's better to have both names and the exact amount we're paying in the house in case something happens no?
I mean I could let him do the 100% loan and then give him money every month, but if it isn't written on a contract and life decides we fill for a divorce, I just lose all the money I've put in for X years no?

I read some articles saying that when you're married in Japan everything has to be split in 50-50 but I also heard some horror stories from co-workers where the wife/husband just left with everything....

Then again, we're not buying to get divorced in the future, but I don't know, I want to feel safe too.

ricardo:

The house is 32M and we can only put 5M in advance after paying all the fees (+3M of the property)
so it would be 27M yens loan in reality... but it's still not 20% of the house value sadly :/

I wanted to wait a little to get that but I really feel the urge to change jobs asap and we'll get to pay the wedding ceremony very soon so I won't be able to save up very fast until august...

[ricardo]

No one plans to get divorced.

I trusted my first wife.

Irrelevant to the bank. (Although the “urge to change jobs” won’t go down well.)

Talk to them.

But now you’re referring to spending money on a ‘wedding ceremony’. New information.

You now say your husband could do the ‘100% loan’ but earlier, in your first post, you said his salary wasn’t enough.

So you haven’t really got any money, have you?

Which is more important: your dream house or your ceremony?

[Cracaphat]

Three years ago we bought our house and we used Kyoto Bank.We had a problem that the place was "illegally" built, so that getting a loan from the big established banks would have been almost impossible. Our banker was a 2nd year newbie and he told us he had to really twist his boss's arm to come through with the loan.It helped we put up 10 mil to soothe any worries being self-employed.For technical reasons,our loan is 30-70,with me being the 30!

And Kiyora999,you're doing a wedding ceremony and looking to buy a house in the same year. As you realized,5 mil towards 32 is still a big gap.That gap is more than what we paid for our then 20 year old house.If in doubt... wait.I sense you're rushing because you like the place.But more than that,can you afford it down the road?

[StockBeard]

I've had good success with SMBC and Prestia. Ultimately I chose SMBC, for a fixed 35 years rate of about 1.7%. I didn't have PR at the time I negotiated with the banks so my choices were limited. You might not have that problem. As others have said, you can't know for sure until you actually talk to people in those banks.
Personal anecdote on that topic: I have been rejected at the last minute by MUFG because I didn't have PR, even though they made me go through the whole process and even had me open a (useless) account with them. They knew I didn't have PR but somehow changed their mind at the last minute.

I mean I could let him do the 100% loan and then give him money every month, but if it isn't written on a contract and life decides we fill for a divorce, I just lose all the money I've put in for X years no?

I'm not a lawyer but I think your fear is right here. If you end up in an agreement where the loan is 100% on your husband, then technically the house is his. So if you pay him a portion of the mortgage, you would probably need to have at least some signed statement from him that he is borrowing money from you and will pay you back at some point.

[Kiyora999]

Hi everyone, thanks for the replies!

But now you’re referring to spending money on a ‘wedding ceremony’. New information.
You now say your husband could do the ‘100% loan’ but earlier, in your first post, you said his salary wasn’t enough.
So you haven’t really got any money, have you?
Which is more important: your dream house or your ceremony?

Well, I apologize for the confusion.
I did some simulations on Mizuho and SMBC when I wrote the post and his salary didn't seemed to be enough (he could just borrow 29M instead of 30M)
But then, other banks are OK for up to 33M so he could eventually do alone -which I don't really want to-.
I prefer not using too much of our cash in the loan except the 10% to get the low rate for the Flat 35S loan (90% of the house value to get the best rate) and the 3M of fees.

The ceremony is already planned so I can't move that, the urge is more from planning to change job asap and that it's the only house I liked.
Plus, I really don't want him to do the loan alone.

And Kiyora999,you're doing a wedding ceremony and looking to buy a house in the same year. As you realized,5 mil towards 32 is still a big gap.That gap is more than what we paid for our then 20 year old house.If in doubt... wait.I sense you're rushing because you like the place.But more than that,can you afford it down the road?

Yes I know it's quite a big gap, but if we are allowed to buy it together, it's not a problem at all, I can save up approx 4M net/year alone on my side.
So I don't have any financial worries for this, it's more technical about me not having PR and wanting to do a 50-50 in case something happens...

I've had good success with SMBC and Prestia. Ultimately I chose SMBC, for a fixed 35 years rate of about 1.7%. I didn't have PR at the time I negotiated with the banks so my choices were limited. You might not have that problem. As others have said, you can't know for sure until you actually talk to people in those banks.
Personal anecdote on that topic: I have been rejected at the last minute by MUFG because I didn't have PR, even though they made me go through the whole process and even had me open a (useless) account with them. They knew I didn't have PR but somehow changed their mind at the last minute.

Thank you very much, I'll try to go negociate with these 2 then!

Yesterday we went to Mizuho, Saitama Resona and MUFJ but no success for us to buy together because of my visa...
Him alone would have been OK though when the online simulation didn't seemed to be enough :/

I have an appointment at SMBC saturday and filled SBI/Rakuten loan request too just in case since I have accounts with them to see how it would go.
I'll try to do 2 different branches at SMBC just in case it depends on my "face" ahah.

Also took an appointment with a lawyer to see if we can have some proof in case he does the loan alone and pay him half every month or once a year or something.


Thank you very much for your recommandations everyone!!!

[RetireJapan]

I really recommend you talk to some local banks too, not just the big national ones.

Yes, I guess you could split the loan if you are worried about future ownership. Personally, I don't like joint ownership of things, especially things that are illiquid and expensive to sell. I feel it's kind of like owning half a CD player...

I bought our manshon (got a 110% loan) and my wife pays some bills and saves/invests more than I do. If all goes to plan we will live in my manshon and (partially) live off her investments. If things don't go according to plan it will make it easier to sort everything out.

The important thing is to have a plan you are both happy with though

[Kiyora999]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to give a feedback on my experience since everyone kindly helped me!

So in the end my case was a big no no for all banks except Shinsei Bank and SMBC Prestia since I didn't have PR.

For SMBC Prestia I couldn't lend as much as I wanted, so I waited a few months to have 2 consecutive years in my current company and did the loan with Shinsei Bank.

The process took a little time but was quite easy and we could have a loan at 100% of the loan value!
I would recommend them to everyone that wants to take a 100% loan because the rates are very interesting, and the process was overall quite fast!
We lost a few houses in only a few days in the Saitama area, it was really frustrating.... Flat35 takes more than one month so with Shinsei we were faster than that and quite competitive even though they don't have the fast pre-screening.

In the end we got the house as planned in the Saitama area. We took a 4LDK, 100m2 right away and weren't asked about the size of the house etc even though we don't have kids.
What I would recommend to people is to be careful of all the fees you'll get on top of the house. When you buy new, you often have to add yourself the shutters, mosquito nets, air conditionner, curtains etc and it makes a very big budget (on top on all the house related fees).
Don't forget to keep savings for that because it's cheaper if you benchmark right away, than waiting a few months to do it!

Also be careful of the agents, I think they're all the same but they'll really pressure you to buy and also put useless options etc... Especially with their subsidiaries companies to get commission on that too.
Take the time to talk to the house maker and benchmark a little yourself too, we could save up approx 30% this way even though the agent was a little bit frustrated to spend time to open the house for competitors. But they're obligated to do it, so really, try to benchmark.

[Sybil]

Kiyora, it looks like things worked out pretty well in the end. Well done.