RetireJapan

We're considering buying a house in the suburbs of Tokyo. I've read all the posts in the real estate forum but couldn't find answers to the following questions about loans.

1. How much? We're looking at houses ranging from 32,000,000 yen to 44,000,000 (our top). When we go to the bank, what do we ask for?? The higher amount I am assuming.

2. Getting pre approved-- how long does this take and will we get a certificate saying -- you're good to go for a house up to ... yen

3. Best to do the leg work yourself and go to banks??? Or go through the real estate agent and have them make the initial contact with the banks.

Any advice / experience would be appreciated. Thanks,

DnA

My house building company (it was new build) introduced me to a local bank they had contacts with. They pre-approved us for the full purchase price minus a ¥1m initial deposit (which means you’ll get the money unless your circumstances change dramatically, e.g. you lose your job, become sick, run up bigger debts etc).

It was one of the least stressful and complicated parts of the whole thing, surprisingly...

We didn’t borrow the full amount in the end, putting down a substantial deposit. The builder and the bank were a bit disappointed...

Not sure about this one, actually. When I started looking for a mortgage, I knew that we needed 9 million to pay for the place we wanted. The bank then suggested an extra 10% to cover fees so we ended up borrowing 9.9 million.

This was ridiculously low compared to my income, etc. so the whole process was very smooth.

Anyone else?

You should have a house in mind before talking to a bank. The amount you can get a loan for (or even IF you can get a loan) depends greatly on the house.

As Utachiyo said, you need to have a target house first before talking to the bank.
This is because the bank uses the house as a collateral so they need the details before confirming the loan details.

I found the real estate agent to be quite useful when it comes to loans. They will do a lot of the legwork for you (and you should make him earn his 3%!) Once you have a property in mind, they can apply to 4-5 banks at once for you. You will need to supply some documentation, but they will fill out all the forms for you.

If you have no idea how much you qualify for and want a ballpark figure, you can approach a bank on your own and do an application, and get an answer. Again, you will need a property in mind, but it can often be done online and something as simple as a link to a listing can sometimes be sufficient (depending on the bank). Shinsei makes it easy to do in English and it's generally hassle-free, although I found they have less competitive rates and are more conservative about how much they are willing to loan.

I came to Japan in Q4 2014 and got my first mortgage loan from Prestia in late 2017. I am not a PR yet and my real estate agent helped me through the process. Being in same job for 3 years and putting 20% down payment helped me get it.
You can first apply for a loan on any property around the price you are looking to buy or even a little higher and start the process to know how much the bank will lend you. you can always re-apply once you finalize the property. That's what i did on my second property.

Update: Our real estate agent was Sumitomo, so they did the legwork of applying for the loan for us. We didn't bother applying for other loans because the rates we got / what we got was good.
Like someone else said--make your estate agent work for the money you'll be giving them.