If you\u2019re an expat in Japan ready to settle, you may want to consider buying a home in the country. Japan has some great places to live, from thriving metropolises to more serene rural locations. There are minimal restrictions on foreigners buying property in Japan but you\u2019ll need to follow certain processes as well as work out your budget and do some research into the best places to live.<\/p>\n
Essentially, anyone from across the world can buy property in Japan as long as they can afford it. If you need a mortgage as an expat in Japan, most lenders will ask that you have permanent residence or citizen status. You will need a Japanese bank account and an official ID number (called My Number<\/a><\/span>) for a mortgage.<\/p>\n The costs of buying a home in Japan obviously depend on factors such as property size, type, age, and condition, as well as location. The national average<\/a><\/span> for an apartment (condominium) is just over 1 million yen per square meter in central districts and 550,000 yen for properties on the outskirts. This is less than half of what you\u2019d pay in the UK or the US. Tokyo is the most expensive Japanese city, as you\u2019d expect of the capital. Here, you\u2019d pay around 50% more than national average.<\/p>\n Condominiums are slightly more expensive than houses in Japan. The cheapest property type available is the koryoya<\/a><\/em><\/span>, which is a traditional wooden house built before 1950. These generally sell for between 5-10 million yen.<\/p>\n Additionally, you\u2019ll need to budget for costs including:<\/p>\n Once you have found a Japanese home that you are happy to buy, you will need to follow these steps:<\/p>\n You can find Japanese properties using a realtor. The team at Japan Home Search<\/a><\/span> are experts at any and all property matters and are a great place to start when you are prepared to make a purchase. There are also English-speaking agents on websites such as Real Estate Japan<\/a><\/span>. You can also use an online property portal such as (links in Japanese):<\/p>\n Situated in the center of Japan\u2019s main Honshu island, Kansai is second only to Kanto \u2013 which contains the capital Tokyo \u2013 when it comes to places where expats settle. It contains the bustling cities of Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe. These areas have properties cheaper than the national average. An apartment in central Osaka<\/a><\/span> averages at 520,000 yen per square meter while in Kyoto<\/a><\/span> it\u2019s slightly more expensive at 800,000 yen.<\/p>\n A fast-developing area among expats, Hiroshima has been extensively rebuilt since the 1945 atomic bombing. Both a city and a larger prefectural area, it\u2019s a focal point in the Chugoku region of western Honshu. There are several popular expat residential areas<\/a><\/span>, including the Higashi and Minami wards. The average property price across the prefecture in 2024 was 141,900 yen<\/a><\/span> per square meter, making it one of the more affordable areas to invest in.<\/p>\n A picturesque city and wider prefecture on Japan\u2019s Kyushu island, Kumamoto boasts the spectacular Mt. Aso volcano, although it doesn\u2019t yet have quite the developed infrastructure for expats as places such as Tokyo and Osaka. However, this does mean significantly cheaper property prices. The 2024 average across the prefecture was 74,600 yen<\/a><\/span> per square meter. According to 2022 analysis by Real Estate Japan<\/span><\/a>, Kumamoto was the 24th of the 47 Japanese prefectures for property prices.<\/p>\n Tokumeigakarinoaoshima<\/span><\/a>, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a><\/span>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you\u2019re an expat in Japan ready to settle, you may want to consider buying a home in the country. Japan has some great places to live, from thriving metropolises to more serene rural locations. There are minimal restrictions on foreigners buying property in Japan but you\u2019ll need to follow certain processes as well as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":48696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,54,165,32,118,59,86],"tags":[733,734,735,736,629],"class_list":["post-48694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hiroshima","category-japan","category-kobe","category-kumamoto","category-kyoto","category-life-in-japan","category-osaka","tag-buying-property","tag-hiroshima-property","tag-kansai-property","tag-kumamoto-property","tag-property"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49472,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48694\/revisions\/49472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Cost of Buying Property in Japan<\/h2>\n
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How to Buy a Property in Japan<\/h2>\n
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Finding a Property in Japan<\/h2>\n
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Buying Property in Kansai<\/h2>\n
Buying Property in Hiroshima<\/h2>\n
Buying Property in Kumamoto<\/h2>\n
![Tokumeigakarinoaoshima<\/span><\/a>, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a><\/span>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re an expat in Japan ready to settle, you may want to consider buying a home in the country. Japan has some great places to live, from thriving metropolises to more serene rural locations. There are minimal restrictions on foreigners buying property in Japan but you\u2019ll need to follow certain processes as well as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":48696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,54,165,32,118,59,86],"tags":[733,734,735,736,629],"class_list":["post-48694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hiroshima","category-japan","category-kobe","category-kumamoto","category-kyoto","category-life-in-japan","category-osaka","tag-buying-property","tag-hiroshima-property","tag-kansai-property","tag-kumamoto-property","tag-property"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49472,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48694\/revisions\/49472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:CENTURY21_K%27s_Home_Tsurumi-Hanahaku_shop.jpg\"){kind=link}