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"I'm looking to buy a building close to a station near Shinjuku, for around ¥200 million. Do you know any good properties?"
"Please hook me up with a used condominium located in an area slated for redevelopment. Anywhere is okay."
The seminars target affluent individuals in major Chinese cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. Some are held online and others organized by agency offices around the country.
A reporter for Shukan Gendai (Oct 21-28) infiltrated an online seminar earlier this month to see who's buying what.
Before the seminar begins, the computer screen showed an image of Kyoto's old Gion entertainment quarter, atop of which, the message "The first step toward realizing your dream of Japan" in red Chinese characters.
Promptly at 7 p.m. the seminar began via the Chinese application WeChat. The image of Gion was replaced by a man and woman clad in dark suits, appearing to be in their mid-30s. The woman served as moderator.
"It looks like we have 1,428 participants logged on. That's awesome! Thank you all very much," the woman exclaimed, adding that for the over 15 years her company has been introducing customers to properties in Tokyo.
The first 15 minutes were devoted to an introduction to Tokyo geography. Using a map, she explained the city's 23 wards and sub-cities on the periphery.
At that point the seminar was opened to questions from the audience.
"I want to buy something that I can turn into a minpaku (bed and breakfast place). Are there any properties like that near stations on Tokyo's Yamanote loop line?"
"That's a good question," came the reply, which suggested properties around Tabata Station in Kita Ward. It's on the Yamanote line but for some reason unpopular with Japanese.
"But it's great for tourists," he added, "since from there they can easily get to such places like Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ikebukuro within 30 minutes. Or they can take the JR Keihin Tohoku line all the way to Yokohama on the same train. Or, they can get from there to Asakusa (a popular tourist destination) in 15 minutes by taxi."
Most of the properties introduced at the seminar were priced in the ¥200 to ¥300 million range, well beyond the price of many Japanese, but probably what wealthy Chinese are accustomed to paying.
Interest has been stirred for properties located at several stations on the Seibu Shinjuku line, including Numabukuro, Arai Yakushimae and Nakai. The going rate for many of these is in the ¥400 million range, but prospective buyers are assured they can expect their investments to appreciate.
From the lively seminar, the reporter noted, it was clear that Japanese properties are a hot item for Chinese investors.
One reason may be that that the values of housing in 52 Chinese cities are in free fall, with prices fluctuating crazily. Which makes Japan all the more appealing.
"There have been cases where people bought a property going for 25,000 renminbi (about ¥510,000), only to see it fall to 20,000 (¥410,000) in one week's time," an immigration consultant told the magazine, adding "Chinese economy is in a downturn, but even before the bubble burst investors had already taken notice of the stable property market in Japan."
The coming wave also promises to lift the boats of Japanese-owned businesses. "Chinese investors are wary, and don't really like dealing with their compatriots," the aforementioned consultant said. "When dealing with big Japanese agencies, things tend to go pretty smoothly."
The article adds that the acquisitions are by no means limited to Tokyo. Chinese buyers are also shopping for properties on the Boso Peninsula of Chiba, in Kawaguchi City in Saitama, and Bashamichi in central Yokohama. And also resort areas even further away from the metropolis, such as Komoro, a city of around 40,000 close to Karuizawa in Nagano Prefecture, and the scenic Tsumagoi Village in Gunma Prefecture.
As new investments heat up, Shukan Gendai predicts, your next landlord just might be a Chinese.
© Japan Today
31 Comments
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runner3
This practice has been banned in Canada. All it did was over inflate the price of homes so that average Canadians were priced out of the market. In the article a lady wants to buy a condo to turn it into a bed and breakfast place. Again that causes problems with locals looking to rent a long term rental at a reasonable price. In British Columbia you can only have a secondary suite for a bed and breakfast in the house that you live in.
wallace
Non-residents should not be allowed to buy property they won't live in.
Redemption
I thought China restricted sending money abroad?
JeffLee
Chinese citizens are only allowed to bring 50,000 dollars a year, around 7.5 mil. yen, out of the country under China law. So much of the mentioned above would be dirty. I hope the Japanese authorities are aware of this. Their moron counterparts in Canada certainly weren't, and now millions of low and middle income Canadians are paying a harsh price.
quercetum
As you can see, this is and was not only happening in Vancouver, Sydney or elsewhere in the world but also Beijing and Shanghai and other areas in China. Affordable housing is a basic need for the people, the foundation of the economy.
Xi has put the people first and put the foot down on property speculation. Evergrande and likes deserve to fall. They only drive up prices for locals.
runner3
Jefflee,
I wonder how "students " from China buy 5-10 million dollar homes in Vancouver?
quercetum
Money is not the only way to acquire property. There are several ways of circumventing these restrictions which are ingenious and legal. For example, a developer in China can sell a property in China and “give” the buyer an overseas property in a 1+1 deal. There is no need for the individual to move fund across border, but he still ends up with a property abroad.
Also, 50K per year per person is nothing, so a normal Chinese family with at least 6 adults the couple and parents/in laws on both sides which makes 300K per year per family. This might would make it enough for the downpayment.
Another way is to buy it at the end of the year so you can use the 2 years quota in 1 month which would double this to 600K.
Still the way it’s done is through Hong Kong or Xiang Gang. It is extremely easy to convert Chinese currency in Hong Kong and Macau to foreign currencies. Money laundering is huge throughout every country in Asia. If you’ve got money, there are ways and services for you, including Japan.
You’re probably thinking from a U.S. homeowner’s point of view and trying to get a mortgage loan. The banks will come calling. They come to you not the other way around.
garypen
Japan didn't seem to mind Japanese buying up properties in NYC in the 80's and 90's. What goes around comes around.
piskian
@garypen
Seconded.
ClanPsi
What? Since when can non-residents buy property in Japan?
CuteUsagi
The realty topic is about Japan. What is with all the comments on Canada, America, and HongKong, etc.?
Let the Chinese buy if they want to as the properties are not being sent to China. And if no Japanese are picking them up, I see nothing wrong with flooding their monies here.
OssanAmerica
Many nations that historically have allowed foreign purchasers to buy homes, property, real estate in their countries are now having an issue with Chinese buyers and their effect on the market.
OssanAmerica
Since the Meiji period (1868-1912). Property ownership is not connected to Visa status.
NipponIchiGo
Places like Tokyo will just end up like NY and London. Lots of empty apartments owned by foreigners while the locals cannot afford to live. It is a waste.
kaimycahl
Chinese can buy anywhere and be treated humanly but if you want to buy in China forget it!! Watch out for the eggs thrown at you.
GBR48
These purchases won't inflate the Japanese market for three reasons.
The Japanese property market does not move in lock step with market forces the way Western ones do.
Most Japanese cannot afford to buy these properties anyway. Wealthy Chinese do not buy ordinary properties.
Japan has stacks of surplus properties, residential and commercial.
So quit worrying and get your kids into selling real estate.
daikaka
They are being scammed big time. The locations being mentioned are some of the worst and poorest locations in all of Kanto, e.g. Kita-ku. Not to mention high risk of floods etc.
they will lose 90% of their value in 10 years.
Sven Asai
Less money to grab or tax for Xi and his CCP, that alone is surely a very big merit, although at cost of slightly higher accommodation costs in an already expensive metropolitan area.
NCIS Reruns
A friend of mine, visiting here on a tourist visa back in the early 1980s, met me for dinner and told me he had bought a condo in Azabu, a 1DK for under ¥10 million. If he had sold it during the bubble it would have been the equivalent of about US$1 million, but he held on to until the mid-1990s, so he barely recovered what he'd paid for it. But for a non-resident both transactions were fairly simple and straightforward, and the only thing he had to do, aside from paying cash for it, was to make a hanko (personal seal) for the various contracts, etc.
NCIS Reruns
Re the legality of monetary transfers: Many Chinese deal with an underground banking system that swaps credits and debits without going through conventional banking channels. I watched this play out when I woman I knew in Saitama transferred ¥400,000 to Shanghai to pay for her father's surgery.
runner3
CuteUsagi
I question your comment. Did you not understand the posts about what happens in the country's where the government let's Chinese money pour in and over inflate property values?
GillislowTier
I mean if you price out the locals the only ones who can afford it will buy it. I don’t mind randomly wealthy or well to do people buying land/homes in other places, that’s perfectly fine. But something about groups of thousands looking for “life hack” style seminars to do so enmass Ike’s me
TigersTokyoDome
I wouldn't let them anywhere near the domestic property market. They have ruined the rental and purchase market in London. China is in a mess with over-inflated prices and dirty money so now they try to do the same around the world. In the UK we should have capped the number of Chinese students and property purchases.
There is a good reason why the restrictive Chinese government money transfers are being worked around. The Chinese government WANT their people to buy up around the world. They are permitting it in order to expand their footprint.
Ever wondered how so many Chinese students can afford to live in the centre of your cities? They are being subsidised by their own government and spreading their web.
Mr Kipling
TTD....
Not the Chinese, No1 in London in 2022 was US buyers followed by Gulf states and Russians.
JRO
As with everything else when it comes to China, governments really needs to start putting restrictions on countries not participating in the open market. Companies and individuals will always go after the money, doesn't matter who you are selling to. We all want an open market, but it doesn't work when some countries can buy up companies and land in other countries but they don't allow foreigners to do the same in theirs. In China as a foreigner you are only allowed to buy a property if you have lived there for a year or more, you are only allowed to buy one property and you are not allowed to rent it out. Also all land is owned by the CCP, so after 70 years it's not yours anymore.
Martimurano
Never, ever trust the Chinese - the CCP are perfectly comfortable with the fact that they allowed the Chinavirus to be released as their gift to the world, killing approx. 7 million people, infecting 4 billion people, with no possibility of an apology being offered, ever...... pretty much hands them the award of the most deceitful bunch on the planet.
1glenn
A fellow I know sold his house to a Chinese customer. The buyer showed up at the closing with a suitcase of cash, and paid in full at the signing. Neither good nor bad, but interesting. Myself, I would not want to go out in public with that much cash.
isabelle
No, thanks. Don't want any more dirty Chinese money here.
Yeah, right - sure he has. He's a real humanitarian. Just ask the Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kongers, Inner Mongolians, or anyone who wants human rights and democracy.
Septim Dynasty
This is something that I have been saying for years. I have seen this happening since 2014.
kurisupisu
I say let the Chinese buy all the overinflated earthquake prone Tokyo real estate that they want!