Young people this generation are snapping up low - priced houses in Japan for as little as 35,000 yuan, turning Japan into the new "Hegang".
Go to Hokkaido to Buy a House
Hokkaido has always been shrouded in a romantic winter filter in the hearts of the Chinese people.
Every winter, especially around the Spring Festival, a group of Chinese people will flock here. Like an assembly line, they go to Otaru to check in every scene that appeared in the movie Love Letter, overlook the coastal night view in Hakodate, and ski at the top ski resorts in Furano...
With its extremely beautiful snow scenery, Hokkaido has become the "white moonlight" in the hearts of some Chinese people. Some people are so infatuated that they have decided to buy a house here.
The photographer Ni Lu is one of them. As a filming location for movies and TV shows, Hokkaido has always been a "natural photo studio" for photographers. In the winter of 2019, when Ni Lu first came to Hokkaido for shooting, she was attracted by this snowy place.
Still from Love Letter, image source: Internet
Previously, when shooting in Tokyo and Osaka, Ni Lu could only rent a homestay for a short period or stay in a hotel. A single shooting session would cost at least about 10,000 yuan. She also had to carry a lot of equipment and props. Every time she changed a place, she had to move the props, which was very troublesome. Looking at the blue sky and white snow in Hokkaido, Ni Lu suddenly had the idea of buying a house. She roughly searched the housing prices in Hokkaido online and unexpectedly found that they were all around 100,000 RMB. Compared with those in China, they were incredibly cheap.
In China, Ni Lu opened a photography studio in Qingdao, located in Laoshan District, with a monthly rent of 20,000 yuan. Although the rent was not low, she had no mortgage pressure and lived a relatively comfortable life.
But her mother always "brainwashed" Ni Lu to buy a house in Qingdao. Unable to stand her nagging, Ni Lu also visited some sales offices. However, as an affluent area in Qingdao, the average housing price in Laoshan District was about 40,000 yuan per square meter. Ni Lu thought it was hopeless for her in this lifetime. She settled for the next best thing and looked at houses in other areas of the city. She finally found one that she could afford and liked, and almost impulsively bought it. But then she thought that she would have to bear a 30 - year mortgage and lower her living standard. Forget it, she thought.
The housing prices in Hokkaido suddenly made Ni Lu feel that buying a house was within reach. Moreover, if she could have a small house here, it would be so wonderful to keep warm and store things during shooting. But she only had a preliminary idea and didn't rush to make a decision. "There's plenty of time. I'll come back to buy it next time."
The sudden outbreak of the pandemic reduced Ni Lu's shooting work in Japan and suppressed her idea of buying a house. But she has been paying attention to housing sources in Japan and often sees people sharing their experiences of buying cheap houses in Japan on social media.
An accidentally seen sharing post made her aware of the concept of second - hand houses, known as "chuko - bu" in Japanese. The so - called chuko - bu refers to second - hand houses that have been lived in. Due to their long history, compared with newly built or semi - new houses in Japan, the prices of chuko - bu are much lower. But when Ni Lu saw chuko - bu houses priced at 100,000 or 200,000 RMB on the housing - buying app, she still had some concerns. Could such cheap houses be livable?
It was not until she talked with some Chinese people living in Japan that she understood the origin of these cheap houses -
Most of these houses are old ones from the 1980s. The landlords are mostly elderly people. Some have moved out of Hokkaido, and some have moved into nursing homes. Because they don't want to bother with shoveling snow anymore and don't want to pay the annual taxes and maintenance fees, they choose to sell their houses at low prices. "During the Japanese economic bubble in the 1980s, the Japanese were very rich. They were willing to spend money on building houses, so a large number of houses were left behind. Later, when they had less money, it was normal to sell them cheaply," Ni Lu understood it this way. "Just like second - hand luxury bags. When we come to Japan to buy second - hand LV bags, they are very cheap. We can buy a bag for two or three thousand yuan, and there are many sellers on the street. Maybe it would cost more than 10,000 yuan in China."
Of course, these cheap houses are not only found in Hokkaido but also in many villages and towns in Japan. Moreover, the prices will decrease as the remoteness and the age of the buildings increase, and they can even drop to 0 yuan. Searching for "0 - yen properties" on Japanese websites, you can find some houses being given away for free. Most of them are in remote mountain villages and have relatively shabby facilities.
Ni Lu's remote house - hunting lasted until November 2024. At the end of that month, for no particular reason, Ni Lu once again had the idea of going to Otaru to buy a house. She targeted two housing sources on the housing - buying app and contacted a local Japanese real - estate agent with the help of a translation app.
Worried about the inconvenience of offline communication, Ni Lu specifically posted a note on Xiaohongshu to find a Japanese translator. A woman who claimed to run a homestay in Japan contacted her and said that she could exchange her translation service for a photo - shooting session of her homestay. Ni Lu thought that this woman was in Otaru, which was convenient, and she didn't need to pay extra for translation services. Without much thought, she spent 1,600 yuan on a plane ticket, carried a housing - buying budget of 100,000 yuan, and boarded the plane to Otaru.
The Bumpy Road of House - Hunting and Buying
Ni Lu took a fancy to two houses. One was priced at 800,000 yen (about 38,000 RMB), and the other was 2 million yen.
Each house had its own advantages. The former was large, with a construction area of 200 square meters and a 500 - square - meter yard. It was built in 1987, which was a relatively low - age among cheap chuko - bu houses. The latter's advantage was that it was very close to Otaru Station. You could reach it in just a few steps, and the transportation was very convenient.
However, it was not easy to have a smooth two - way choice with the house you liked.
First of all, because the prices were so cheap, the competition for these houses was very fierce - of course, most of the competitors were Chinese people.
On the one hand, the Japanese don't have a strong obsession with buying houses. Mengmeng, who came to Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture, to study at a language school in 2023, told "Post - Wave Research Institute" that for the Japanese, a house is not an investment but a burden. After the parents of Mengmeng's language - school teacher passed away, they left a mountain. Although the family members didn't want to inherit it, they still had to pay taxes on the mountain every year and be responsible for any emergencies on the mountain.
Japan's MBS TV station also reported a news story. In Asago City, Hyogo Prefecture, a small city with a population of only 30,000, there were many vacant houses. After the original owners passed away, the heirs didn't want to spend extra money and energy on maintenance and taxes, so they chose to give up inheriting the houses.
On the other hand, as a small town, Hokkaido has suffered a serious population loss. According to official population statistics, as of January 2024, the population of Hokkaido has been declining for 26 consecutive years, with a total population of only 5,088,470. "The climate there may not be that good. For example, there may be snow disasters. And in Japan, everyone goes to Tokyo (for development). All young people will head towards Tokyo," Mengmeng explained.
But the Chinese can't resist low prices. In October last year, a Chinese person on social media was selling a Hokkaido property with a construction area of 33.65 square meters and a land area of 331.01 square meters for 140,000 RMB. After the post was published, it received more than 6,000 comments. Some were shocked that the houses in Hokkaido were so cheap, and some were inquiring about the housing - buying conditions in Hokkaido.
After learning that foreigners can buy houses in Japan without any restrictions, since the end of last year, many Chinese people have been eager to try. They flew to Hokkaido with tourist visas to buy houses. This also invisibly increased the competition for buying houses in Hokkaido. So on the third day after Ni Lu flew to Japan, the agent told her that the 2 - million - yen house had been booked by someone else and an intention letter had been signed, and she had no chance anymore.
Secondly, due to the language barrier, being deceived is also a possibility.
Ni Lu's plan was to buy the house and move in within half a month. In order not to miss the second house, she quickly contacted the translator woman to go and see the house. After seeing the house, Ni Lu thought it was the house of her dreams. It was fully furnished and had good lighting, and she wanted to sign the intention letter quickly.
But Ni Lu didn't expect that the translator woman had her own agenda.
The translator woman first started making various decisions for Ni Lu. She said that she had already contacted a decoration company, the furniture needed to be replaced, and she even helped Ni Lu contact a garbage collector. Then she told Ni Lu not to go through the agent she had contacted online and instead go through an agent she was familiar with. But it wasn't cheap for the new agent to come over, so Ni Lu needed to give the new agent some tips.
Ni Lu agreed to everything. On the one hand, it was out of trust in the translator woman. On the other hand, she was worried that the house would be snatched away by others and wanted to finalize the deal quickly. Subsequently, it became the translator woman who directly communicated with the agent. Whenever Ni Lu asked her how the process was going, the woman selectively ignored her.
On the fourth day, the woman suddenly contacted Ni Lu and said that there was a problem with Ni Lu's materials. To buy the house, she needed to transfer the house under her company's name. Ni Lu disagreed, and the woman confiscated Ni Lu's materials and even called the police, reporting that Ni Lu was working illegally.
Fortunately, the police didn't believe the woman's one - sided story and helped Ni Lu get back her materials. But the woman couldn't swallow her anger and falsely accused Ni Lu of forging her documents to the agent. The agent then told the landlord, which annoyed the landlord. Why are the Chinese so troublesome? Buying a house and forging documents? The landlord terminated the house transaction and didn't intend to sell the house to Chinese people anymore.
Ni Lu felt that the sky was falling. She also tried to find new housing sources on the house - viewing app but never found a more suitable one. There was no other way, so she had to settle for the house next to the house of her dreams - an old house built in the 1960s with an area of only 170 square meters.
The house Ni Lu finally bought
Of course, the price was also cheaper, only 700,000 yen (about 35,000 RMB). Just like that, after staying in Japan for a month, Ni Lu finally had a house of her own.
Finding a house that is not inferior in all aspects among a bunch of old houses is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Even Alex, who had lived in Tokyo for 8 years, couldn't find a suitable housing source at first when helping a friend buy a house in Otaru, Hokkaido.
In July last year, Alex and his friend also discussed opening a photography studio in Hokkaido. Since houses in Japan must be viewed offline before a purchase application can be made, in order to improve the purchase efficiency, the two of them specifically stayed in Otaru for nearly a month and visited 5 or 6 houses one after another. Of course, each house had some imperfections. Some were in too remote locations, and some had very shabby interiors. "Otaru is a city by the sea and at the foot of the mountains. Many houses are built on the mountains, and it is an early - developed city in Hokkaido, so many houses have a certain age, which makes the interiors look very shabby," Alex told "Post - Wave Research Institute".
The only advantage is that the prices of these houses are not high. The cheaper ones are around 30,000 - 50,000 RMB, and the more expensive ones don't exceed 500,000 RMB.
Finally, considering the location and cost - effectiveness, the friend chose a single - family house built in the 1980s with a construction area of 110 square meters and a total area of 270 square meters from the 5 houses. Alex helped him bargain down more than 20,000 RMB from 85,000 RMB, and the house was finally sold at a price of 63,000 RMB.
The signing scene of Alex and his friend buying a house, image source: Xiaohongshu @JX - Z
Buying Instead of Renting: Snatching Up Low - Priced Houses
Because the housing prices are so attractive, many Chinese students studying in Japan have also started to buy houses instead of renting.
In January last year, Bill, who was about to apply for a university, spent 700,000 yen (about 33,000 RMB) to buy a house built in 1924 in Shimane Prefecture on the main island of Honshu, Japan. The land area was 200 square meters. There were two small buildings, five rooms in total, and there was also a plot of land and a backyard.
