Buying an akiya in Japan
Most of what is written in English about Japanese vacant houses is written by people who have never had to get one surveyed, connected and insured. These pages are written from the 94 properties we have surveyed and listed (50 of them currently available) — so where we give a number, it is a number from those properties, and we say so.
We are a licensed Japanese broker (Tokyo Governor (3) No.94005) and we work in English by email. Nothing here is legal, tax or investment advice.
-
What an akiya bank actually is — and what it is not
An akiya bank is a municipal noticeboard, not an estate agency. Knowing which protections apply to a bank listing and which do not is the difference between a cheap house and an expensive mistake.
Read → -
Can foreigners buy an akiya in Japan? Yes — here is what is actually required
Japan places no nationality restriction on owning a house or the land under it. What it does require is a report to the Ministry of Finance, a tax agent if you live abroad, and attention to a few carve-outs that catch rural property.
Read → -
What akiya renovation actually costs — from 94 surveyed houses
Our renovation estimates across 94 surveyed vacant houses run from ¥300,000 to ¥20,000,000. In 21 of them, the midpoint of the estimate was more than the asking price. Here is how that distribution breaks down and what drives it.
Read → -
What it costs to keep an akiya you are not living in
Fixed asset tax at a standard 1.4%, urban planning tax up to 0.3% where it applies, a septic tank that needs servicing, and a house that needs someone to open the windows. The recurring costs are small individually and easy to miss entirely.
Read → -
Financing an akiya from overseas: what Japanese lenders actually require
Most Japanese mortgage products are written for applicants with permanent residency or Japanese nationality, residing in Japan, with Japanese income. If you live abroad, you are usually outside that envelope — which is why this market runs on cash.
Read → -
How akiya purchases go wrong — including one of ours
The expensive failures are not scams. They are road frontage, farmland designation, a septic tank nobody priced, a short-term-rental assumption nobody checked, and area labels that are not locations. We know the last one because we got it wrong and told the buyer.
Read →
Looking at a specific house?
Send us the listing — ours, another agent's, or an akiya bank entry. We will tell you what we can verify about it, in English, by email.
Send an enquiryOr ask for a property record report — we go to the house, make a 3D record and write down what we could verify on site.