Japanese houses have limited lifespans (2018)

I feel like this is changing even in the 5 years since this article was written. Sellers are realizing that they can find a buyer faster and get more value by renovating a house prior to listing for sale.

Here's a 30+ year old used single family home chosen basically at random, it was renovated in June 2023:

https://suumo.jp/chukoikkodate/kanagawa/sc_kawasakishikawasa...

Or if the seller doesn't have the money or motivation to renovate themselves, there are companies like this which will basically buy a house as-is and pay cash, and then renovate it and flip it:

https://www.real-to-hearts.jp/

Used homes listings like this can be found increasingly all over Japan, and I expect it to become increasingly common as older homes from the 80s and earlier (which do tend to be pretty crap in my experience and are not worth renovating) are torn down, and more homes from the 90s onwards (which tend to be pretty well-built and are worth renovating) enter the used home market.

For sure though I still see a lot of homes being torn down and new homes being built in their place (actually happening right outside my window as I write this). Or agricultural land being rezoned for new housing construction... often times right next to a vacant and decrepit old house.

> According to Nomura, a brokerage, the value of the average Japanese house depreciates to zero in 22 years. (It is calculated separately from the land, which is more likely to hold its value.) Most are knocked down and rebuilt.

This is talking about the assessed value of the house. It also implies that when a house reaches 22 years it is instantly knocked down and rebuilt, which is not true.

> The frequency of earthquakes also plays a part. Large tremors tend to be followed by tougher building regulations.

Even without the regulations, the level of destruction is hard to understand. Walking through a suburb of Kumamoto after the big earthquake in 2016 it seemed like every third house had partially collapsed. Landslides and flooding are also common.

Housing in Japan seems a world apart from housing in the UK. In Japan, I have lived in the same rented apartment with no rent increases for a decade. This is unimaginable in the UK. Strong tenants rights mean that once you are in a place you can more or less expected to be in there until you want to leave. The letter of the law on rent increases is that they must be justified by the surrounding market, but the cultural trend is to wait until a tenant has moved out.

Articles about cheap or free houses in the countryside of Japan pop up every now and again but the reality is most of these houses are worthless. Unoccupied, it only takes a few years for a leak to spring in the roof and the wooden house will rot away to nothing very quickly after that. They are located far from any kind of desirable jobs and services. Sometimes the owners, usually children who have moved to Tokyo for work, don't want to sell. I remember looking at one place, in a state of partial collapse, with the dates the family had come to visit written onto the wall by the front door. Yearly visits for over a decade but few repairs meant that the house probably wouldn't be around for much longer.

Of course earthquakes play a part, but I'd like to point out another case point: Taiwan.

Taiwan also suffers from earthquakes (it's on Pacific ring of fire, just like Japan). But it doesn't change how people think of the long term values of houses. 40+ years old houses are traded on market just fine.

The wastefulness is bad. However, housing should not be seen as a ever appreciating financial investment. That is what lead to housing shortages in cities like SF and all of the UK. It incentives people to block any additional housing (and sometimes any changes at all) to prop up their own housing price.

The article does bury the lede a bit by neglecting to point out that the land retains its value, only the house itself loses value. It is an interesting article to an extent in that it points out some fundamental differences between the way the west in general and USA specifically vs Japan think about houses. But it doesn’t really explore the idea beyond that

I managed an old japanese house as an airbnb back in 2015. The house was at least 50-60 years old and was doing pretty well except for some exterior problems. I will say that the traditional style houses are built with way fewer materials and way less insulation than western style houses which means the material waste is not nearly as high on demo. Also, they were remarkably bug free due to the wood used, being elevated, and not having tons of wall cavities to harbor pests. Overall, this style of house fits their very humid climate without needing AC to be livable whereas here in the US southeast, a house without AC and with contact with the ground, will become a bug infested mess in no time. And then the demo will create probably 10x the waste.

Most Japanese want to buy a new house because they want an earthquake-resistant house. You don't want you and your family buried under rubble.

I've been following one Swedish guy who moved to Japan and purchased old house in Tokyo and is made a series on renovating it as well as abandoned houses in Japan in general.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIpnyz6FXxU&list=PL_4tRHMzlA...

The article doesn't go into detail - are people in Japan likely to own both the house and the land? Or just the house and instead have some lease / permit for the land?

It's worse now, I remember reading some data that showed that buying houses are crazy bad investments now

I also remember having read about "jiko bukken" properties in Japan. Might this also play a role?

Seems like such a waste, unless the houses are built with bad materials and sub par building regulations.

Should have 2018 in the title.