Thanks everyone who 8 months ago answered my questions about house much would building a house cost in Japan.
https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/1hx36pq/how_much_did_you_spend_on_building_a_house/
I acquired land in Dec 2024 & decided on Jan 1st to build a house in 2025.
100 tsubo (330 square meters) land & wanted a house that was 50 tsubo (165 square meters)
From then almost every week we saw 1 or 2 out of 4 house builders.
Sumitomo Ringyo Forrester was too expensive for my budget,
We concentrated on Ichijo & Sumitomo Real Estate, we also saw one local person who said his options were not better.
I hate the cold so Ichijo was looking really good on what was inside the house but Sumitomo kept giving me a house design that I absolutely loved. Sumitomo also kept going way over my budget.
We in February we really thought we would go with Ichijo because they agent just wasn't listening to what was important to us & budget. Then Sumitomo did a sudden change & added a senior consultant to our account. They gave us what was important to me (The house outside was beautiful, I had 22 solar panels, floor heating (in key spots), & the size I wanted.)
We signed with Sumitomo Real Estate on March 20th. Had a second baby so we paused for one month.
Then kept meeting weekly to finish all the design plans.
Specs: 50 tsubo house, 3 floors (including a half loft on top), 5 bedrooms (1 master on each floor, 2nd floor is a guest bedroom for visiting family), my office on the second floor, floor heating in 4 rooms, Solar panels (paid upfront), they don't touch the yard, I'll do that separately next year. Bathroom on each floor, full bath on first & shower on the 2nd.
Cost: 55M Yen I put up 20M Cash rest loan.
Building Start: August 6th was the ground breaking ceremony (meet & say greeting to the neighbors)
Finish Date: Mid December
Move in Date: First week of January 2026
I just really want to say thank you & share my own experience. Nothing in my house was prefab or ready made. We resized lots & even got a custom balcony addition so it looks better. The price could have been a bit lower but we got them to handle the curtains, my balcony was upgraded & I got some cool wood panels & perks in my office to look nice.
Notes
Budget: You put up 1M yen at the signing & whatever down payment before they start construction. It doesn't need to be as much as I put up but I wanted to have a low mortgage
Subsidies: Our original start date was September but was moved up to try to get the energy efficiency subsidy. The budget actually ran out. Do not plan your budget based on getting subsidies (We didn't, & I kept telling them to think of my budget just in case we don't get it)
Don't like: They kept recommending lights that are LED & not easy to change. Multiple places in the house we'll supply the lights because I want to use Smart Bulbs
Timing: Most important is you really do need to meet often either online or face to face in 2 to 3 hour meetings.
Last is just plan realistically, but it can be all done within one year (excluding getting the money, I'm keeping it real).
by replayjpn