Vol.34 - Building a House

**CONTENTS**

-From the Editor
-Forex Weekly
-Yen Watch
-Events
-Job Watch
*Please scroll down below to read the disclaimer*

FROM THE EDITOR

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Building a House

This is last in this current series on buying property, and I wanted to talk briefly about building a home in Tokyo. Unlike buying a pre-built place, with building, the point of attraction is obviously that you get to do whatever you want so long as it fits within the space you’ve bought. So design aside, space and its utilization is a major consideration.

There are some interesting rules about land usage in Tokyo (and elsewhere as well – just we’re using Tokyo as the example). When you look at realtor ads in the newspaper or online you’ll see a building-land ratio for each location, which typically varies between 120% and 300% (in built-up areas). There is another ratio, which indicates how much of the property can be covered with the building, often this is 50% to 60%. Therefore, on a 50/120 property, which is common, you get to cover 50% of your land with 2-3 stories, the last story being an attic taking up the remaining 20% not used on the first two floors.

Note that this land coverage/building size ratio applies to your living space, and not to car parking and similar storage space. So if you plan to build a garage and can afford it, my advice is to build it underground, in which case you wind up with a whole extra floor. With adequate sky lights, this space can be quite usable later.

So, can you use the garage for anything else other than parking cars and tools? Well, just as in some states in the USA (e.g., California) so long as the space is not finished or built-out when you have your building inspection done, it appears that many owners do in fact partition, line, and finish such spaces and use them for extra bedrooms or whatever. It’s not within the code, but it seems to be allowed. You just need to remember to make the space compliant again before you sell, which is when the next building inspection will occur. Unlike the States, you can’t simply declare the space non-compliant. You do actually have to return it to an unfinished state.

Another factor in determining the size and shape of your house is the height. I mentioned before that on a 120% ratio for building size you will probably make a third floor attic. You won’t see the area height number on the realtor ads, but in fact the information is known to the realtor, so call and ask. Typically the height is either 10m or in some locations 15m. Practically speaking, 10m means three fairly low-ceilinged stories, so you need to consider this. Also related to height is right to sunlight for your neighbors, and there is a formula relating mainly to West and South-facing walls and also distance and height of the property ground level from the road. Again, your realtor has this information.

Lastly, to build, you will be wanting to find an architect. Just as with anywhere else, they are not cheap, and typically charge between 8% and 12% of the building cost. However, unlike other countries, Japanese architects really do take care of everything and are responsible for cost and quality control. This means that you don’t have to separately employ a project manager or to personally have to bird-dog the building process yourself.

That’s it for now. We’ll be back with a new related series in a few months about practical experiences related to actually building a house and what’s involved. Next week, we start a series on pre-IPO companies that are up and coming and some of which are open to foreign business and investment approaches.

Terrie Lloyd
・・・Investor in Training/

FOREX WEEKLY

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Team Tokyo Forex Weekly
November 2- November 9, 2005

On Monday afternoon there was a mood to sell off the yen in our office and make short profits through it's devaluation and sure enough the pair dropped and the yen became unstable jumping back and fourth. This type of minute by minute anlysis can only be done by real-time traders and the advice paid off. We were tipped off by our team leader and made a collective decision that you don't get when trading alone.

The general consideration here is that the yen is reaching it's peak against the USD and consolidation will take place to balance the market. Expect the yen to rally high and drop quickly as consolidation counters. This is a traders field here and unless you have a commissioned Trader on your team you are likely to miss solid profit taking opportunities.

Here is some interesting commentary by GCI Trading :

Japan’s Fin Min Tanigaki weighed on Tuesday the negative economic impact of rising long term market rates in a deflationary environment as markets anticipate an eventual ending to the Bank of Japan’s quantitative easing policy. We see the pair to have largely peaked and now faces interim support .

The yen moved higher against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday as the greenback tested bids around the ¥116.85 level after encountering offers around the ¥117.65 level. Stops were triggered below the ¥117.10 level, representing the 23.6% retracement of the move from ¥113.00 to ¥118.35.

Data released in Japan saw September industrial machinery orders climb 62.9% y/y to ¥978.33 billion while October bank lending was off 0.7% y/y, the 94th consecutive monthly decline.

Also, the October M2+CD money supply decelerated to +2.0% growth last month from +2.1% in September. The yen also notched gains on its major crosses and many believe the dollar and other majors will undergo a period of consolidation before traders may try to push the yen lower. Q3 GDP and October CPI data will be released on Friday.

The retail inflation data are very important because positive year-on-year inflation is the main criterion Bank of Japan will cite when it finally begins to unwind its long-standing quantitative easing policy.

The Nikkei 225 stock index climbed 0.25% today, just shy of a fresh 52-week high. Dollar bids are cited around the ¥116.30 level. The euro moved lower against the yen as the single currency tested bids around the ¥137.60 level and was capped around the ¥138.30 level. The British pound and Swiss franc depreciated against the yen as the crosses tested bids around the ¥203.75 and ¥89.15 levels, respectively.

The Chinese yuan appreciated against the U.S. dollar as the greenback closed at CNY 8.0857, down from CNY 8.0867. People’s Bank of China reported it expects GDP will exceed 9.0% this year with CPI printing around 2.0%. PBOC also reported it will work to keep the yuan at a “reasonable and balanced level.” The yuan’s value will likely be on the agenda when President Bush and his administration visit China in about a week.

View Our Team Tokyo Forex Chart here.

Editor : Jason Bainbridge
[email protected]

YEN WATCH

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Currency	10/31 Mon	11/1 Tue	11/2 Wed	11/3 Thu	11/4 Fri
USD	116.70	117.58	117.85	n/a	118.48
GBP	208.15	208.88	208.79	n/a	210.46
EUR	141.12	141.25	141.90	n/a	141.78
CAD	99.77	100.20	100.86	n/a	100.91
HKD	15.33	15.44	15.48	n/a	15.56
SGD	69.25	69.65	69.77	n/a	70.02
AUD	88.59	89.06	88.70	n/a	88.73

(The above TTS Exchange Rates has been brought to you by the courtesy of GoLloyds TSB)
The above rates were posted at 10:09 on Friday, November 4, 2005 and are valid for funds received before 3:00 pm on Friday, November 4, 2005. All funds received after 3:00 pm are remitted the following day at the following day's exchange rates. The exchange rates provided are intended only as a guide. The Bank reserves the right to apply a different exchange rate if the market is particularly volatile.

EVENT

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ICA Event
November 17th, 2005

Speaker: Greg Tarr - Founder & Chief Executive Officer, SecureMobile and Partner, CrossPacific Capital
Topic: The Next Threat - W-CDMA/EVDO Mobile Security

RSVP Complete event details at http://www.icajapan.jp/
Date: Thursday, November 17, 2005
Time: 6:30 Doors open, buffet dinner included
Cost: 3,000 yen (members), 5,500 yen (non-members),
Open to all - Location is Foreign Correspondents'

Club http://www.fccj.or.jp/static/aboutus/map.php

JOB WATCH

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Brought to you by DaiJob, Inc – providing jobs for bilinguals.

- Consultant - Treasury (JPY 7-10M)
- Project Manager - Professional Services (JPY 7-12M)
- Supervisory Analyst (Negotiable)
- Business Analyst (JPY 7-8M)
- Manager of Technology Purchasing (Negotiable)

Check out these and other jobs like these here!

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Disclaimer: This commentary is designed to help foreigners living in Japan understand the financial and investment opportunities available to them. It is NOT intended to constitute professional financial advice or an inducement to purchase the services and products mentioned. A condition of subscribing to this newsletter or reading this web site is that any actions taken by readers as a consequence of reading this column shall be the sole responsibility of the reader and no liability, implied or otherwise shall be assumed by Lloyd, Japan Inc. Communications, or other business entities related to either person.

© Japan Inc. Communications, 2005

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