The opportunity to buy property in Japan might be a stretch for people whom have never been there. Non-residents and foreigners face no legal restrictions from buying property in Japan, but that’s not to say you can’t if you can overcome some obstacles.
1.
Japanese Bank account: Legally you need a Japanese bank account to buy property in Japan. There is no restriction on sending money from overseas, but the problem is that you might need to ensure the exact right amount of funds goes into the City Office bank account. That requires you to know the forex rate ahead of time and for you to know the charge that the receiver (court) bank will charge them. This is likely to be a problem because Japanese bureaucrats are sticklers for procedure. They don’t like irregularities. Of course you can ask if they will accept deposits of ‘too much money’, but the problem is, they might tell you the wrong info. It would help if you can get the guidelines for buying foreclosed property. It’s common for bureaucrats to be dismissive of such inquiries. You might think – ‘What if I send more money than is required to be safe’. I don’t think they will accept, unless you are willing to forego the surplus. But they will fuss over what to do with the excess cash. They will say no I believe. If your bid fails I think they will not want to deal with the added inconvenience of sending money abroad. Japanese banks are very conservative, like bureaucrats, so I think they will be unable to transfer money overseas, and of course that is ‘irregular’, and we know what they think of those.
2.
Local friend: The alternative is to use a local friend who has a bank account. It goes without saying that it needs to be a friend you can trust with the first 20%. Maybe after winning the bid the bank will allow you to pay by other means. But as you know, that might be too ‘irregular’ as well. It would help if the friend was Japanese. I always feel like I smell like roses if I am accompanied by a Japanese person. You will need to check the rules to see if this ‘irregularity’ is possible. I think its more likely for a winning bidder. Of course you want to know beforehand. I think if you feel pressed to trust a Japanese person with a large amount of money, they can be trusted more than most people. Why? They tend to lack ambition; it would be beneath them to steal more than say 5x their annual income, though of course it depends on how desperate they are and whether you have a longstanding and ongoing relationship with them. I trusted my ex-GF, though it goes with a risk. The other reason is that Japanese don’t like to deal with conflict. They prefer faceless crimes like corruption.
3.
Local agent: The other option is to deal through a real estate agent to make the necessary cash payments on your behalf. This is not regular, but the private sector has at least the motivation of the ‘profit incentive’. You might expect them to charge you a fee of 3%, as per their standard arrangements for selling real estate. If you are buying a high value property it would be advisable to push for a fixed amount, say $500, and be clear about the services you require. There are some agents who deal specifically with foreclosed property.
So there are obstacles for people who don’t live in Japan, or who don’t have a personal or company bank account in Japan; but there is always the option of dealing with a local agent. If you need an English-speaking agent, I would approach the real estate agents association for Japan. These details are of course in my report.
If you decide to buy the report, I would love your feedback. My thanks to Antony.L, Sydney, Australia for the following feedback on the Japan Foreclosed Property report:
“Plenty of great ideas and information. Good to know that the government information is not always correct. Information on your problems (eg the disgruntled neighbour/ex-owner) is invaluable. Primarily however, it's the general principles that I value, rather than specific info - the way of looking at the whole picture. And your text conveyed that very well. I feel that the level of risk I faced in entering this market has been greatly reduced. There's a wealth of info in the report that I didn't have the energy to go through. I'll be returning to it many times to try and absorb it all”.
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Andrew Sheldon
www.sheldonthinks.com
