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How an Average Family in Tokyo Can Buy a New Home

Life Where I'm From · 4.2M views · 2017-01-21 · 11:57

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Overview

A mini-documentary by a Canadian living in Japan explaining how an average family can afford a new detached house in Tokyo. It covers how houses are treated as depreciating assets and how Japanese zoning and building practices keep prices low.

On Hacker News

It is the standard citation in HN housing debates for showing that dense cities can still have affordable single-family homes.

Recommended by 3 HN people across 3 months · HN mentions 2017–2023

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What people said

bane · 2020-04 · Strong recommendation

Decent family houses in Tokyo are definitely more expensive than this, but not hugely (also Kyoto surprisingly). There's some interesting things about the Japanese housing market, for example, many homes become "worthless" after the end of the mortgage -- so they depreciate and are more like buying cars. Tokyo is also an absolutely enormous city with even more massive metro area. There's very few examples on the planet that come close. Tokyo is sometimes called "the infinite city" for good reason. This means that yes, you can pay huge money for a coffin in some areas, and little money for an entire house elsewhere in the same city. New York is kind of the same way in that respect, but is actually still smaller and less diverse. I could write a ton more, but I think this series from "Life Where I'm From" which is pointed out in the article is a fantastic overview of housing for a nuclear family in Tokyo. How an Average Family in Tokyo Can Buy a New Home - [VIDEO] Brand New Japanese House Tour - [LINK] Are Japanese Homes Really Worthless After 30 Years? - [LINK] Old Japanese Apartment vs. New House - [LINK] What a Very Old Japanese House is Like - [LINK] Living in Traditional Japanese Townhouses: Kyo-machiya - [LINK] Checking Out New Japanese House Design and Technology - [LINK] I'd also point out this young couple who are expecting their first child (Paolo from Tokyo) What a Japanese Moving Company in Tokyo is like - [LINK] $1500 Japanese Apartment Tour in Tokyo Shibuya - [LIN

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seanmcdirmid · 2022-01 · Recommendation

Here is a nice video explaining housing affordability in Tokyo: [VIDEO] Notes: * No one thinks of residential housing as an investment, so there is no speculation. * Building codes are such that residential can be built almost anywhere. Japan has zoning, it is just really simplified. * There is no resistance to rebuilding, so it is done a lot (why houses last only 30 years, the market demands new housing). * Housing can be built on really small lots, only 2 meters of clearance is required. * A $300k low end house is around 6-700 SQF, which might not make sense from an American context.

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monkeypizza · 2018-01 · Recommendation

Check out this video explaining why you can buy new detached homes in Tokyo for about 300k usd. [VIDEO] * Land owners have an absolute right to develop their own land - neighbors can't block you. * You can build a 60 m^2 x 3 floor house on 100m^2 of land, or more. So basically they build way denser, and reduce opportunities to block/rentseek.

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