RetireJapan

Question from curiosity and ignorance on my part since I am on the learning journey of home ownership (not just in Japan, but anywhere).

Let's say you have 50million yen for the purpose of home ownership. This would be everything - taxes, downpayment, fees, insurance, curtains, furniture...house done, keys given, BOOM. You're in.

Assuming you have found the location of your dreams, would you:

A. Buy a second hand house and renovate (if so, how old is too old before it's pointless to talk about renovation from a cost standpoint)
B. Buy a new house, and be done with it
C. Buy land, buy a pre-fab house from ______
D. Buy land, get a custom made house (architect and all...)
E. Other...

The info I've gleaned from this form over the months has been invaluable and eye opening. Thank you in advance!

I'm going to pick "A" because that is what we did. We bought a thatched roof kominka, that is over 300years old. We renovated it into our dream home for way less than 50 mil yen. It did take 3 major renovations over a 10 year span but the end product has so much character, we couldn't have built the same size house new for 50mil.

I don't think there is a certain age that limits if it can be renovated but rather the construction of the home.

We had to renovate my in-laws' place as it could not be rebuilt. Cost 25m yen for a complete renovation (from the walls in). Very happy with the results.

I would pick A, because I got lucky with A. I found the exact house I wanted, which did not need any renovation so I saved on budget (it was fairly recent, from 2013). If you renovate you may be able to get the house of your dreams, cheaper than new.
I looked into D, but the area I wanted would have put me above budget. The issue was the land price, not the custom made house itself (I didn't need a big house so it was fairly reasonable).

...how old is too old before it's pointless to talk about renovation from a cost standpoint...

Simple age should not be the metric. Old--or from a certain building era/generation--may mean cheap(er) construction, but some old houses are built pretty well, and some are built really well. And some are just lucky--they were maintained, there happened to be little or no settling of the foundation, maybe it was a spec house, etc.

Pretty much anything can be renovated, see a couple of the above posts. Rather than age, it depends more on costs, the price of the house/land you get, and how much you might (need to) spend to make it meet your definition of livable.

Our place is well over 50. We've done some reforming over the years, the biggest and most costly was a kitchen re-do. But when I look at the mini kitchens in tate-uri these days, I still think we did right. We've never touched the roof (tile) or siding (metal)--anything on the outside. Some windows replaced (are those inside or outside?), water heater and a/c units as needed (and some re-wiring for the a/c--you now need dedicated outlets and a separate breaker for those to be installed).

We also chose A over D because we were lucky enough to find a house that was basically sound and of the right size. It needed a lot of cosmetic work - such as painting inside and out, creating a garden out of a rubbish tip, etc. - but we could do most of that ourselves at our own pace. It took a long time and it wasn't always easy. Paying people to do it is always an option if you're short on time or not DIY-inclined. Good luck!

With the exception of option B (with the caveat that you might find a tateuri that pretty much fits your needs and is affordable), A, C and D are all good choices IMO. We would have gone A, but couldn’t find a suitable property in our area, so ended up going with D, facilitated by the fact we are in inaka and knew a builder.

Did D. Wanted land with specific features.
had no idea about the C option so went with D.
In Tokyo here, the land price was the main thing anyway.

Just to give you an idea of prices, here are used Hebel House's listed.
https://www.hebel-haus.com/stockhebel/p ... ndex.html/

RetireJapan wrote: ↑Thu Jun 01, 2023 4:41 am We had to renovate my in-laws' place as it could not be rebuilt. Cost 25m yen for a complete renovation (from the walls in). Very happy with the results.

May I ask which company you used for the renos?