Here is an article we wrote for the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan’s Number 1 Shimbun about the financial reality behind the huge akiya (vacant home) problem in Japan, which is mostly about inheritance.
- Comment
- Reblog
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Cat Foreheads & Rabbit Hutches 
Another interesting article.
Thank you.
I sometimes wonder if an enterprising entity would be able to put together a bunch of blocks of land together and build a decent sized building or buildings or a big block of farm land.
Are there emminent domain type laws in Japan that local government can use? Given the mess in the real estate market is in in Japan, I guess probably not.
Here in Melbourne we are having a sort of breather in the upsurge in real estate prices.
The state Labor government has been able to do something not even higher interest rates from the central bank have been able to do: make real estate fall in price.
This has been accomplished by several actions. One is people are still leaving Victoria because of the insidious policies implemented during COVID – the lock downs upset a lot of people.
The other reason is that as a result of the usual pattern of Victorian state Labor governments spending like drunken fools they have had to increase taxes on a whole bunch of stuff and real estate was one the areas they hit.
Land tax is applicable if you own more than one property in the state. For example you own your own house and a holiday home or own another property you rent out.
The land tax is applied to the additional real estate holdings once a certain value is reached and given the prices here almost 100%of them are now subject to the tax.
Not only was the tax increased, but the value at which it started also increased.
Many people were subject to this tax for the first time and those already paying it have seen the tax increase by huge amounts.
Our neighbour is a RE agent that owned his own building for his business. His taxes went up by three times compared to the previous year.
He owned the building for 46 years and sold it. He also said that the number of rental properties that they managed had crashed as a result of people selling them. He sold the business as well.
So more supply on the market has hit prices pushing them down. IIRC Melbourne was the only capital city in Australia to see prices fall over the past year.
Basic economics in action.
LikeLike