General Edition Sunday, September 11, 2005 Issue No. 342
+++ INDEX
- What's new
- Services lineup
- News
- Candidate roundup
- Upcoming events
- Property
- News credits
Legal Symposium Pacific Business Press is proud to present the second annual In-House Congress Tokyo. |
| +++ WHAT'S NEW |
If you've been in Japan any period of time, you've probably wondered if it wouldn't be a good idea to buy a house or apartment -- but somehow the fear of losing everything in an earthquake, the basic high cost of land, and the difficulties of a non-Japanese getting a loan put off all but the most determined. However, recently we've become interested in Japanese real estate again.
Here, in the middle of the second half of 2005, a confluence of events is occurring which is making it possible for foreigners to set down roots where they live and work. The events are a bottoming out in Japanese real estate prices and the availability of low interest home loans for non-Japanese. But is it really the right time to buy? Being here in Japan, it is easy to forget that we have been bypassed by a global house price bubble that in many places has seen a doubling or tripling of house prices. For all intents and purposes, it now costs the same to buy a near-inner city property in New York, London, or Sydney as it does in the Tokyo (Ok, you get a smaller space here, but better public and transport facilities). Thus there appears to be at least some head room for property prices to increase here.
Are we really at the bottom? In August, the government announced that in 2004 for the first time in 13 years, Tokyo real estate rose slightly, indicating that the real estate slump probably is over. Sure, the main driver of price increases within Tokyo is speculation by REITS rather than individuals, but if you think of the 5 million or so baby boomers about to retire in the next 3-4 years, and all the retirement money they will be holding, the pressure on inner-city land is bound to increase and even those areas too small or difficult for the REITs will experience demand. Thus, we feel that the timing to buy Tokyo real estate has never been better.
The missing piece of the puzzle for many of us has been the availability of a mortgage. Usually, mortgagees need to be Japanese or at least permanent residents, and have a substantial deposit. However, in the last 9 months, three organizations that we're aware of have started making unsecured, low-interest home loans to foreigners living here. These are Shinsei Bank, Suruga Bank, and Banner Japan. There are probably others: we've heard of several starting up operations in the last few weeks, but right now, these 3 firms are the ones actively financing people into homes. Of these, the most established is Shinsei Bank, which is offering loans of up to JPY100m at 1% interest and which will refinance existing mortgages.
In our companion PII newsletter, we are running a series of articles on how to buy a home and get a mortgage in Japan: http://www.japaninc.com/newsletters/index.html?list=pii, and you can get more details there. However, when we heard about Shinsei's system for both first and refinanced loans, in English and easy to use, we were excited enough to ask them to join us in producing a seminar about buying a home in Japan. The seminar will be held on Thursday, September 29th, at the Shinsei Headquarters building in Uchisaiwaicho (Hibiya), Tokyo, at 18:30. Presenting will be Darryl Knopp of Shinsei; Hiro Senaga of Plaza Homes, a well-known realtor with foreigner-sized properties; and Chris Cleary of Banner Japan with more mortgage options. You need to pre-register at http://www.japaninc.com/mortgages/index.html, so drop us an email and put it on your calendar.
Recently we interviewed a rapidly growing apartment sales company called Ardepro (article in the Fall issue of Japan Inc magazine, available next week) where the CEO told us that he has a very simple strategy for closing a sale with people thinking of buying an apartment. He simply has them compare the current cost of renting with the mortgage and interest repayments needed to buy their own place. In most cases, thanks to the low interest rates (less than 2%) in Japan over the last 6 years, it costs 40% less per month to own your own place. Thus a single person paying JPY150,000 in rent could get a JPY30m apartment using a 35-year loan, averaging about JPY80,000 in interest and repayments a month.
The same simple calculation works for more luxurious properties that a foreigner might buy, and at the 1% rate that Shinsei is offering, a JPY100m loan no longer looks so daunting. But what about rising interest rates you may ask? Because clearly it is the very low cost of money that makes property purchase in Tokyo possible. Yes, it is a risk and should define just how large a loan you're willing to take. The likely high point for interest rates is that of late 1991, when long-term rates peaked at 8%, something hard to imagine considering the rates at present. At the seminar, Shinsei will address how lenders are affected by rising rates.
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| +++ SERVICES LINE-UP |
Contact [email protected] if you want your company here.
- Personal International Investor -- a convenient source of ideas and information on how to invest profitably as an expat in Japan. Every Thursday, 48 weeks of the year. Completely free.
http://japaninc.typepad.com/personal_intl_investor/
- Advertise with Japan Inc newsletters. JIN and Terrie's Take cost just 2 yen per person to reach 51,000 people. Great for last minute offers and event advertising.
[email protected].
- Get a low-cost office in Tokyo, at the Venture Gas Station incubator. Just JPY80,000/month, in Minami-Aoyama. Spaces closing fast -- enquire now.
[email protected]
- J@pan Inc. magazine has gone quarterly. Subscriptions now just JPY3,600 a year. Sign up at
http://www.japaninc.com/mag/subs.html
- Find new bilingual sales staff -- a specialty for DaiJob.com,
[email protected]
- Anyone can buy a .JP domain...online...real-time...in English! Register now at:
http://www.JapanRegistry.com
JIC Sponsored Interviews You read Terrie's Take and JIN, and so do 54,000 other executives inside and outside Japan. Let them know what your company does, with our new Sponsored Interviews service. We create a lead-in for the interview, and run it within the newsletters, with links back to the page holding the full interview. For a small additional charge, we will also run it in the Japan Inc magazine, the www.japan.com website, and the www.japaninc.com web site for archiving. Cumulatively, your message will be seen by at least 120,000 English-language readers. |
| +++ NEWS |
- $324m acquisition for Access
- Jul-Sep GDP to increase 1.82%
- New remote TV over Internet
- Government employees pay less pension tax
- Expensive face cream in big demand
-> $324m acquisition for Access
Mobile devices OS maker, Access, has announced that it will buy handheld computer software maker PalmSource of the US, for $324m. Access is offering a bold 83% premium for PalmSource stock, causing the shares to soar 77.6% on the NASDAQ on the day of the offer. Access figures that PalmSource will give it an overseas platform to extend its mobile devices OS business. While this may be true, one wonders how they plan to absorb the costs of the purchase. Access' pretax profits were JPY2.2bn last year, and PalmSource's operating only profits were negative $700k -- which adds up to a very long amortization period... In our opinion, Access has made a mistake and over-extended themselves on this one. (Source: TT commentary from reuters.com, Sep 10, 2005)
http://tinyurl.com/db68x
-> Jul-Sep GDP to increase 1.82%
The government's Economic Planning Association has said that it expects Japan's economic growth rate to increase by 1.82% annualized, over the July-September period. This will be more than the 1.1% for the April-June quarter, indicating that Japan really is moving into a sustained growth phase. The EPA gets its numbers by polling 37 economists in various major Japanese and foreign financial firms. Many of these experts commented that they expect private spending, business investment, and exports to substantially improve. (Source: TT commentary from thebusinessonline.com, Sep 9, 2005)
http://tinyurl.com/bf642
-> New remote TV over Internet
Sony has announced that it will sell a new system, called LocationFree, which allows viewers to see TV programs at remote locations across a broadband connection. The company expects that the product will be used by Japanese living overseas, as well as for background imagery for cafes, restaurants, etc. The system consists of a base station which receives the TV broadcast or output from a video deck, and viewing software. The bundle will cost about JPY35,000. ***Ed: Typically, Sony has chosen to use proprietary viewing software rather than a standard browser. We think it will only be a matter of time before someone cracks Sony's video protocol and produces a regular browser version.** (Source: TT commentary from nikkei.co.jp, Sep 6, 2005)
http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/AC/TNKS/TNKSHM/newpro/av88.html
-> Government employees pay less pension tax
The Finance Ministry has said that government employees will continue paying 1-2% less for pension contributions for the next 20 years than do private sector employees. The comparative difference is not great, effectively 13.5% for national public servants and 12.7% for regional ones, versus 14.2% for private sector. But in fairness-obsessed Japan, anything smacking of favoritism is bound to make the average salaryman's blood boil. (Source: TT commentary from nikkei.co.jp, Sep 10, 2005)
http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/AC/TNKS/Nni20050909D09JFA09.htm
-> Expensive face cream in big demand
We've commented before about the spending patterns of a small rich segment of Japan which will pay over-the-top for the best. Kanebo has tapped into the well by releasing a new premium facial cream costing JPY126,000 for 40 grams! The company says that it has been surprised by the response for the Twany Century Cell Rhythm SP wrinkle cream, receiving more than 6,000 orders in just 3 weeks since it went on sale. Most of the buyers are reportedly women in their 50's and 60's, so maybe it really does work... (Source: TT commentary from nikkei.co.jp, Sep 9, 2005)
http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/AC/TNKS/Nni20050909D09HH881.htm
NOTE: Broken links
Many online news sources are now removing their articles after just a few days of posting them, thus breaking our links -- we apologize for the inconvenience.
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| +++ CANDIDATE ROUND UP |
DaiJob, Inc's executive placement team, AMBITION Consulting
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DaiJob has great candidates. Contact Alex Burr at
[email protected], or Ph: 03-3499-3040 for details.
[No listings this week. Back with fresh candidates from next Sunday.]
| +++ UPCOMING EVENTS/ANNOUNCEMENTS |
ICA Event – Sept 15 Presenter: Daniel Lintz, Director of Corporate Communications in Japan for Visa Int’l Asia Pacific Ltd. Topic: Security Threats in Japan: Changing Attitudes, the Legal Framework, & Credit Card Industry Countermeasures Complete event details at http://www.icajapan.jp/ Date: Thursday, Sept 15, 2005, RSVP |
Yen Mortgages for Local Properties A Roundtable Event with Industry Specialists from Shinsei Bank, Plaza Homes, Banner Japan & PLATINUM. |
IT events announcements are priced at JPY50,000 per week. |
| +++ THIS WEEK'S PROPERTY |
-> Tamborine Mountain Mansion
Wonderful sophisticated home in the hinterland behind Queensland's famed Surfer's Paradise. Very private location, a spectacular entertaining venue, with optional income-earning capability as licenced bed and breakfast. Fully furnished and equipped, including ride-on mower and gardening tools. Six large ensuited bedrooms, four with spa’s, additional powder room. Idyllically located on four acres of landscaped gardens.
This top quality home is breathtaking. From the ground floor grand atrium entry hall the living areas open. A formal lounge with large open fireplace to the left, a leading/gallery room on the right, along the wide marble & granite hallway a formal dining room with central hanging crystal chandelier, the room opening onto a private walled courtyard.
The beautifully appointed kitchen features granite bench tops with wrap around bar area. Top of the range appliances, an electric and microwave/convection oven, gas cook top with wok burner, dishwasher, and plenty of cupboard space. This bright and open kitchen forms the centerpiece of the family lounge and meals area.
In addition to the family dining and lounge room, there is a tall ceiling, spacious and very sunny breakfast room with floor to ceiling see through bi-fold doors opening out to the beautiful gardens. The ground floor has three ensuited bedrooms all with private entrances and courtyards.
Climb the spiral staircase to the second floor, a wide carpeted hallway featuring two crystal chandeliers to find two more very large bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms and spas. The master suite is especially beautiful with a lovely view over the land from the private balcony. A spacious bathroom complete with spa, enormous dressing room, large bed sitting area and separate study.
The grounds have been beautifully landscaped with rain forest and exotic tropical plants. Wandering pathways take you into the garden to discover its many secrets and onto the magnificent lagoon with its own family of ducks. A round ornamental pond with fountain is another lovely feature of the gardens. The spring fed well provides sweet drinking water and an endless supply to keep the gardens and water features in pristine condition. A large car shed built to blend in with the house also houses the ride on mower and garden tools.
This property has a Bed and Breakfast license and is currently operating on weekends as a very successful income earning hobby. Expansion in this area has potential and forward bookings have been taken. Everything needed to continue with this hobby including website and current advertising is included in the overall price. This is a very special property and an inspection will reveal its many splendid features.
SPECIAL FEATURES
• Six bedroom suites all with bathroom four having spas
• Additional Powder Room on lower level
• Three formal reception rooms one with fireplace
• Spacious family room, with gas fireplace
• Family meals area and great cook's kitchen
• Sunny breakfast room opens with bi-folds to garden
• Separate bed sitter with bathroom
• Magnificent gardens with lagoon and water feature
• Gas operated instant hot water.
• Natural spring well provides quality drinking water
• Established income earning weekend hobby.
• Fully furnished inside and out.
http://japaninc.typepad.com/australian_properties_e/
E-mail us at [email protected] for more details on any property listed here.
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MAGAZINE INTERNSHIP Japan Inc magazine is offering a journalism internship. The Intern will write and edit articles under the direction of the Editor-in-Chief. The Intern will work in the magazine’s editorial office twice a week and be reimbursed for travel. For further information, contact Naomi Shirogane (03-3499-2099) or email [email protected]) |
END
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| +++ ABOUT US |
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