I am currently awaiting my PR confirmation. I live in an area where there are very few people applying for PR and having checked the website that gives you an idea of how long it might take and how many are currently being processed compared to how many that have been submitted, it looks like it won't be long before I know. I realize that it is not a sure thing, but I am thinking about planning for the future. Thank you for taking the time to read my post and thank you even more if you have some insight into this matter.
Earlier this year my partner and I were looking to buy a mansion and we found one that we liked. It was newly renovated and it was listed at 3,330,000 Japanese yen. It is an older building, but the inside as I said is completely redone, except for the bathroom which is clean and still completely usable. I expressed interest to the realtor in purchasing the unit, but when she contacted the owner of the building he gave a response that indicated he did not want to sell, despite having a listing on the internet and a pamphlet that came in the mail for the exact unit we wanted. I told the realtor to press him further and he eventually said that he would sell the unit to us, but suddenly the price head jumped up to nearly 5 million Japanese yen. I don't know if it's because we're both foreign or a gay couple, or neither of those things in fact, but it was very suspicious. I realize this is very cheap for a mansion, but it seems that the owner of the building wants to offload it after doing renovations of the units. None of that mattered because I quickly found out that Japanese banks will not give loans to anyone without PR. I do realize that some credit unions do as I have a friend who bought a home without permanent residency for far more money than the unit I am looking to purchase is. So we agreed to rent it for 2 years and then possibly buy it after or if I get my permanent residency. My partner and I both work good jobs and make over 5 million yen a year, but we don't plan to retire in Japan but we would still like to have a property here. It doesn't have to be anything flashy or overly large.
For those of you who have gone through this kind of process, are there things that I should be aware of before buying a mansion here? We've also considered a house, but a house might be too large for what we're looking for. I do know that there is a fee attached to buying a mansion that is paid monthly for building upkeep or management costs, are current unit does not have one of those attached to it which lends further Credence to the owner wanting to offload the units and the building.
If you've made it this far, I apologize for all of the blather above, but pros and cons and a list of certain things people don't realize or any information at all would be really helpful here. I'm just planning for the future and would like some insight.
Thank you once again for reading this post. Have a nice day in extremely hot and humid Japan.
Edit: grammar
by Hitohira