$33K vs $55K Osaka Apartments — Which Would You Buy?

$33K vs $55K Osaka Apartments — Which Would You Buy?

We’ve been to Japan multiple times, but today we are doing something we’ve never done before in Japan, but it’s been a dream for a little while. It has. Ever since 2023 after spending a month in Osaka had this little seed planted, what if when we came to Japan, we didn’t have to find a rental or a hotel. What if we just had a key that fit our own door? We are the learners and makers. And if you’ve been following our channel for a while, you know we love to travel in Japan. After many months of staying here, we’ve decided to take it a step further and have a base we can return to. Come along as we look at two potential apartments for our family of four. It’s always important to know what you’re looking for before searching out apartments, and we wanted to make the process as smooth as possible with limited time in Japan. So, this is what we’re looking for. Under $50,000 or 8 million yen, three bedroomedroom living, dining kitchen, preferably one level, no higher than the third floor, preferably with an elevator, urban, not rural, close to a train station, and walkable for day-to-day needs. You sneak up your shoes. We are in our first apartment. This is the dining kitchen and living room area with this lovely balcony behind me. Um, this is a little bit different layout than what we’ve seen before in homes when we’ve stayed in Japan, which is one of the bedrooms is right off the living room here. Is this brand new tatami mat? Um, it smells new to something that has this kind of like grass almost like hay or straw smell when it’s brand new. It’s actually quite lovely. Um, and so it looks really nice. A lot of this apartment seems to have been renovated fairly recently. The first apartment is a three-bedroom living dining kitchen, just what we were hoping for. As you enter the apartment, two bedrooms are off the front hall. We were told that a leak had happened in the apartment above. So, the whole apartment had been renovated before sale. In Japan, bedroom sizes are measured by number of tatami mats and either have the traditional tatami mats or western flooring. Both bedrooms near the entrance have western flooring. We prefer Tatami Mets, but there is a convenience and ease to the hard floors. This apartment priced at $33,000 sounds like a steal, but of course, there is a catch. We would own the apartment, but not the land. This apartment is a leaseold, which means we will need to pay a small amount to the land owner every month. The lease will be up in 20 years and at that time the apartment building is supposed to be demolished and the land returned to the owner cleared. Leasehold apartments are difficult to sell and don’t hold their value nearly as well without the ownership of land. Just doing a little walk through here just to get a sense of what there is, what we would have to think through like, oh, where’s the fridge go? Where would the washing machine go? Adding things like mini split, air conditioning, heating systems, all those little and big things that go into making a place a home. Your refrigerator. Oh, there’s the plug. I’m Where’s the plug? It’s up high. That makes sense. Maybe you could. I was thinking like where do the all the trash cans go? Uh like for trash cans or whatever to divide your trash up cuz that’s very important. That’s right. And maybe I guess maybe here. That’s probably what we would start with. Yeah, I know. It would be nice if we could have some sort of little cart or something to Although this is for Japan. This is not bad on the counter space. Okay. Yeah. A little bit. You got a little bit there. Mhm. Um and we probably just do a dish drainer in the sink. Most likely. That’s what comes to mind for me, too. Like put the dish drainer here when you’re doing the dishes and then put it in the sink when they’re drying, maybe. Yep. Yeah. Decent amount of prep space. Cabinets all look in really good shape. Yeah. That’s nice. And yeah, the natural light in here is really I know light is something you can’t change. Yeah. And so having the nice natural light in the front room here. And this is like where we put say one of the aircon heating units. So we do like a dining table here. We might have like a some more kitchen storage in this corner here. Yeah, that could very well be. I could definitely see that. Yeah, I could definitely envision dining area here. We got This is so cool, too. Kind of family room area over here. Tommy room. Couch. Could definitely TV. Imagine that. Yeah, could have. Yeah, maybe TV over in this area somewhere. Probably that One Piece watching. We got the tatami room here. Doesn’t the tatami smell so good? It’s got that new tatami smell. Yeah, it feels it feels lucky that we we’re getting a chance to see it when it’s Yeah, no kidding. Another day of looking at property in the Osaka area. It is so blooming hot, but excited to check out this next place. When you walk into this apartment, right away you come to the bathroom, shower, and sink area. This is really common layout in Japanese homes that we’ve encountered on many stays. This apartment is also a three-bedroom living dining kitchen, and it feels a little more spacious. All three bedrooms have tatami mats, but they are not new, and some might need repairs. Two of the bedrooms are connected so that they can be one big room or two separate rooms. While this apartment is more expensive, it isn’t a leaseold, so it could be easier to sell down the road if we want to. Something that is different about Japanese real estate is that it isn’t necessarily a great investment like it might be in other countries. In Japan, there is a long tradition of taking down older homes and building new ones. Between the humid environment, termites or earthquakes, older buildings can have significant repairs. So, the property can depreciate over time. The land typically holds its value or appreciate some, but not in the same degree that we saw with our house in Oregon. So, going into this, we knew it wouldn’t be an investment opportunity, but something we wanted to do to help us enjoy Japan more. This apartment needs quite a bit more work than the first apartment, so we would need to set aside money for repairs immediately. But it is two distinct kind of rooms. And so this would be the living space. Yep. And we would put a dining table in here. Yeah, we could definitely put dining table in here. And got kitchen area there. More kitchen space. More counter. Yeah. Okay. Definitely more used. Yeah. Too. Mhm. Yeah, definitely. Like is this older and more? I think it’s just the finish that is that original or did somebody put that on? Yeah, I don’t know. So, this property little more wear and tear, just some outdated stuff, a little more work to do. So, all things we’ll have to ponder together as we process going through this place. Hot day in Osaka. No kidding. We thought there would actually be a third place we’d be showing you in Wakayyama, a little south of Osaka. There’s a really great condo that we saw there. It was very central. It’s beautiful. Looked really lovely. More recent construction, but more expensive. But more expensive. We were all all ready to see it. go down there and check it out, but it got off the market. So, either somebody snapped it up or they just removed it. One thing that taught us, this is not something where you get to sleep on it too much. If you’re really serious about trying to find a place in Japan, sometimes there are properties, yeah, maybe they’ve been on the market months, years even, but often something comes up and if it is calling to you that it is the right place and the numbers work and all your priorities work and everything, you got to move. So, now is time for a big decision on which apartment we want to go with. And a few things that weren’t really shown in the walkthroughs are kind of the area that it was in and what it’s like because walkability and transportation were a big deal for us. They’re a big deal just from overall quality of life. They’re a big deal for things being more accessible for Jod getting around dayto-day. We want this to be convenient and fun and enjoyable so that it’s not only this place that we have as kind of like a vacation home. We want that to be like its own little mini destination for us. Yeah, we’re carf free when we travel generally most of the time. Really hard to pack a car. So, apartment number one, transportation. Okay, transportation. We know that apartment has like a couple bus stops in the vicinity. There’s proximity to a couple of goodsized train lines, major train lines, JR line, the Nonai line. Uh both of those are crucial for getting around Osaka, especially Nonai. There’s a lot of things going on the Nonai line, including going to and from the airport. Well, so we a little side note, we chose Osaka area because we didn’t want Tokyo. Sorry, Tokyo. We’re not Tokyo people, so we chose Osaka. Also, we love Osaka, but there’s the major airport right there. And so, apartment number one is pretty close to the airport. And we also love the Namba area of Osaka. And that Nankai line goes straight to the Namba area. It does. So, the other line that is close to is JR. I’m not certain like how much will utilize that there, but it is nice. It’s kind of in between these two. The JR station’s a little further away, so I think it’ll be what we use less. Well, and even better is not just that there are stations, there are station amenities, cuz stations are almost like their own little miniature communities for services, amenities, stores, things, all of that. Oh, the best thing about stations is there’s always bakeries. So, the apartment one feels really good transportation wise. Apartment number two has this more northern location. It’s kind of like between Coobe and Osaka. So, you’re farther north, which puts you in closer proximity to a lot of the transportation infrastructure that does go along the top of Osaka. of catching a shin kansen if we wanted to go to another part of Japan, catching the train to head into Osaka itself ostensibly. Those things could be easier from apartment number two. I do really like the idea of being kind of between Coobe and Osaka. Now, we’ve been to Coobe before. It’s an area we want to explore more. Plus, it’s near Himeji. Himeji Castle is one of Japan’s most iconic, beautiful, must-see castle areas. So, being closer to that, pretty cool. We like that it’s near Coobe and Osaka. Yes. But the train line that is walkable is just like a little offshoot train. It’s not a major line. Yeah, that’s true. There’s like the offshoot line. There’s a little tram that runs around. It didn’t Yeah, it didn’t strike us that there was a whole lot more. It’s a little harder to get to. It’s actually a little harder to get like into Osaka. Even though it feels a little closer and there’s like it’s a little closer to like Sheen Osaka where you go get the Shinkansen, it’s still like a little harder because you have this little offshoot line that you have to take first and then you have to transfer. Yeah. From what we’d seen so far as well, just kind of around where our apartment 2 is, there was a lot of residential area, a lot of residential developments, other apartment buildings and such, but it did seem that we were more removed from transportation infrastructure and amenities, too. That concerns me a little. It’s very residential, and so it has like I feel like maybe more, but it’s all further away. Yes. So, you know, we’re getting close to having to walk like a kilometer just to get our groceries, restaurants, all of that where the apartment one, it’s a little bit more interspersed. Yeah. It’s a little hard to know exactly what that’s like until you’re there because some things show up on Google and some things just don’t. Yeah. But, um, it definitely felt like apartment, apartment, apartment, you know, house, house, house. Yeah. all around apartment number two where apartment number one felt like yeah there was like apartment house restaurant. Yes the important stuff. Yes. Yeah. That that’s a good point. So the big thing I think that’s going to really make the choice is if we feel comfortable with the lease hold or not. That is the big big kind of sticking point. And we’ve looked at this in depth in spreadsheet off camera as you can imagine because it’s a spreadsheet. But there is a huge factor of this that’s a numbers play. So apartment one does cost less upfront but with the leaseold we do have a higher monthly cost. So kind of depends on how that pencils out. I mean, if if it’s just straight up less expensive to actually have the larger purchase price of apartment 2, but we don’t have the higher monthly cost. Financially, that could be more compelling. It is just potentially less out of pocket. But on the other hand, apartment one is less out of pocket straight away. There is more monthtomonth, but that’s spread over a long time. A long time. That’s spread over decades. Yeah. Yeah. So, there’s also money we just don’t have to spend. Apartment 2 does also have some construction cost or renovation cost. We will have some of that. So, there’s definitely some penciling out like how does that compare? Like, yeah, there’s the leaseold, but there’s renovation, there’s more monthtomonth, potentially less monthtomonth. Yeah. I mean, if you really want to pare it down to very basics, apartment one is less upfront and more long-term. Yeah. And apartment two is more upfront and less longterm. Yeah. And it’s a matter of if we want to like put that investment in right away and then it’s just done hopefully, right? Barring any other major repairs or something. Mhm. Or we put less up front and kind of do it out gradually and keep more money in our pocket for now. Yeah. And we just have more leeway with those funds, short-term or long term. That’s going to be the that’s going to be the thing. So, it’s going to come down to spreadsheets. Well, I want to know which apartment you would pick. Let us know in the comments because I’m interested in what you think. Oh, yeah. But also what questions you have about purchasing an apartment in Japan. And next time we will let you know which one we choose. Okay. See you next time. [Music]

We’ve decided to buy a vacation home in Japan! Come with us as our family looks at 2 Japanese apartments. We’ll share what we are looking for and weigh the pros and cons of each condo.

More Japan family travel

🇯🇵 Watch our full Japan Family Travel video playlist – https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVJgvPIhm85YPiYd4Tph3jt0r6BbHciq-&si=xwRt1sfABo7aRsB7

🇯🇵 Japan guides and more at the Learners and Makers blog – https://www.learnersandmakers.com/destinations/asia/japan/

0:00 – Dream Apartment
0:27 – Intro
0:47 – What we’re looking for
1:23 – Apartment 1
5:57 – Apartment 2
8:45 – Apartment 3
9:58 – Transportation 1
11:14 – Why we choose Osaka
12:26 – Transportation 2
13:59 – Walkability
15:12 – Leasehold apartment and money
17:30 – Which would you choose?

Here’s to finding everyday adventure wherever you are!

Who are the Learners and Makers?!
We are a family of 4 who believe in learning through our life experiences and making our own destiny. In August of 2022 we packed up our home of 16 years and sold our cars to travel the world full time. We are living the digital nomad lifestyle while worldschooling our 2 kids. Anthony, writer extraordinaire is the reason we were inspired to travel in the first place. If he decides to do something everyday, he’ll be building an impressive streak in no time. Jodie is video editor and social media manager. As an above the knee amputee, she hopes to show how amazing travel is possible with a mobility disability. Connor loves his long hair and is becoming an adventurous eater. He’s up for trying almost anything. If you have any questions about Minecraft, he’s your guy. Aster is full of joy and we swear she must have springs in her feet. She loves animals.
Thank you for joining us!

Follow behind the scenes:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/learnersandmakers/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@learnersandmakers
In depth blog articles on our travels: https://learnersandmakers.com/

Subscribe to see future videos. ❤️