Having lived In Japan for three years I have decided to make it my home for the forseeable future. With this in mind I was was not willing to just keep forking out money to a landlord for mediocre accomodation.

I am here in Japan on a 'specialist of humanites visa'. When I first thought about buying I was told that it would be almost impossible to buy property in Japan without a permanant visa or a spousal visa. Although there are many banks who won't consider foreigners there are some who will only if you can tick the following boxes:

A: earning around or more than 4,000,000 yen per Year
B: be a fulltime employee of a sucessful company
C: have a Japanese person to be your guarantor
D: have the ability to understand all contracts or have a translator to help you

In the begining it was my plan that my fiancee was to be the signee so ultimately making her the owner. Sadly since she is a part time employee, but works more hours than me, she couldn't find a bank who would give her a mortgage because her wages were too low.

At this stage we had almost given up and were arranging to have our 500,000 yen deposit returned. While we were waiting the estate agent had been contacting banks on our behalf to see if he could find somone who would offer me a mortgage. Gladly that bank was Kansai Urban Bank.

After having gone to the bank and filled in the appropiate forms (if you are doing this in the future you'll need your 'hanko' (see informative video) and the ability to write your company and present address in kanji).

A week later we were told that the application was approved. Then we had to fill in application papers for a guantor company. Now we are waiting for their response. We were told that if th bank says yes then the guarantor company will also agree ...we are still waiting though

We should find out from the estae agent any day now. If the outcome is in out favour we will return to the bank and fill in the final papers then get the keys about 5 weeks later.


If I can answer any questions I'd be glad to!

Interest 2.7%
after marriage 1.5%