TRANSCRIPT
When Australian expat Jaya Thursfield faced the question of where to put down roots for his young family, he was torn between Australia, and his wife’s home country of Japan.
“We decided to come to Japan mainly because the house prices in Melbourne were way beyond our budget. I'd heard about ‘akiya’, so we decided to move to my wife's hometown and find a cheaper place to live.”
Akiya are unwanted homes, mostly in the Japanese countryside, that have been abandoned as a side effect of Japan’s severe population decline - and a trend toward urban living, with 90 percent of Japan’s 125 million residents choosing to live in cities.
“In general, Japanese are not so interested in buying an akiya and moving into one, they would typically buy one and then knock it down and build a new house. “
The 47-year-old found his akiya in Ibaraki prefecture, about an hour’s drive north-east of Tokyo.
He bought it for $30,000, a fraction of the median Australian house price.
“Above all, the thing that I really wanted out of a house was a big backyard. Having grown up with one, I just wanted the same thing for my kids. I do feel like I've managed to get the Australian dream here in Japan – and that’s getting harder and harder in Australia now.”
Japan’s growing glut of empty houses is a problem the Japanese government has pledged to address, recently offering families who relocate from Tokyo to the countryside about 10 thousand dollars per child.
This is akiya consultant, Takamitsu Wada
“The population is on the decline. While the population is decreasing, many new properties are still being built. This creates more and more empty houses but nobody can stop it. “
Vacant houses are generally listed in government-run ‘akiya banks’.
But some entrepreneurs, like Parker Allen - a real estate consultant at Akiya and Inaka - are trying to make it easier for international buyers to enter the market.
“The more abandoned houses you see in a community, you just get this feeling of loneliness, of sadness. Mentally and visually, it hurts the community. We see that and we want to do something about it.”
There are no visa or residency requirements for foreigners to buy a house in Japan, but owning a house doesn’t mean an automatic visa or citizenship.
Originally from Brisbane, Dara Robinson currently lives in Tokyo.
“I don't think I could ever own a house in Australia - I mean, my friends are paying 600 or $700,000 for a one-bedroom apartment, let alone a house. I'd like a home to raise my children, so that's crazy, the prices here.”
She is one of a growing number of prospective foreign buyers… considering a more affordable sea-change.
