GimmeHeadPeace,

Interested to here that you managed to get a 1.5% interest rate,(after marriage?)

Very interested as it sounds like I am in a similar position, =wife works as a temp, so wouldn't qualify for a decent mortage, and I'm doing various part=time jobs that wouldn't look great on a mortgage application...

I don't know if Gimmeheadpeace(Kevin) will read this but if you do, any chance of putting a few figures up on the post, how much you borrowed, what deposit will you pay the bank, what term is your mortgage to be paid over? Can you pay the mortgage off early eg what types of restrictions do you have?

I should be searching banks myself for this kind of info but if you have any figures to hand that would be of great interest.

Cheers.

Kenny123

I have taken the mortgage out over 30 years as I want to keep the payments low so that I can save money for the future. The apartment is 12 years old and is 13,000,000 yen this is after we got a discount of one million.

I am not paying any deposit which is another great bonus. The fees for the estate agent tax etc will be about 1,300,000 yen to be paid after I sign for the loan.

The 1.5% interest is not with the bank who is issuing the mortagage. It will require us to change banks which will be well worth it. We have the opportunity to pay off the mortgagge sooner if we so choose but we have to keep it at the present rate for at least three years then we can arrange to change our payments therefore reducing the number of years we'll be paying for it.

I hope this helps...

Thanks for all the info!
Does that mean it is all approved and happening now?

UPDATE

At this stage we have received the go ahead from the bank and the guarantor company. The only thing left is to pay the estate agent fees and the tax then return to the bank for the final interview and sign for the mortgage. After this is completed we have been told that we should receive the keys by the begining of June.

From start to finish the process has taken about six or seven weeks with a lot of waiting but as the outcome is positive it has been well worth it. No more renting for me- this fact alone gives me a very good feeling.

Good one

I am hearing that dealing with the CBA bank is similarly time consuming.. I guess that is OK if it all turns out to be worthwhile

Turns out CBA required loads of paperwork of every description and then rejected the application because there was not enough "evidence" for them

Our man tells us that tax returns were not enough.. said they treated him like a liar..

He says don't waste your time with them.