Real Estate Japan | Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya Properties For Rent & Sale

Every foreigner in Japan has heard the horror stories from a friend, colleague, English magazine or website around foreigners attempting to get finance from Japanese banks to help them buy their little piece of Japan.

The lack of clarity, the moving goal posts, the last minute issues the local bank brings up around residency status, life insurance requirements, time spent in Japan, proof that you can read a contract in Japanese just to name a few.

The good news is that a small number of foreign banks have entered the Japanese market with foreigner friendly mortgage products which take the fear and uncertainty out of what is already a stressful time in your life- the purchase of property in a foreign country.

The trade-off in dealing with a foreign bank is the product range will be more limited and the interest rate will be slightly higher for primary residence while being very competitive for second homes and investment properties, but still incredibly low by international standards.

Here is a handy checklist of some key items a bank in Japan will be looking for, what banks can provide you simply & swiftly and what you would need to do quickly get your mortgage pre-approval so you can confidently start looking at purchasing real estate in Japan.

What Japanese Bank will expect

- You live in Japan – You have Permanent Residency or are you married to a Japanese Citizen – You speak, read and write Japanese fluently – You a full time employee (as opposed to run your own business) – You been continuously employed for over 3 years with the same company – You have / can procure Japanese life insurance – You will sell the property if you move from Japan – You are comfortable with legal documents in Japanese

On an exception basis some Japanese banks will waive some of the above criteria. This however may not be clear until weeks if not months into the process.

This follows on from a previous post regarding how to obtain financing in Japan and investment opportunities in Japanese property, and is kindly shared by Hank Daaboul of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. You can reach Hank directly, here.

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