Yes. There is no restriction on Joint Name properties, but each property owner is responsible for his/her personal income tax.

All these are abbreviations to describe Japanese apartment layout:

1R = 1 Room apartment

1K = 1 Room apartment with Kitchen

1DK = 1 Room apartment with Dining and Kitchen area

1LDK = 1 Room apartment with Living, Dining and Kitchen area

1SLDK = 1 Room with Store Room or Walk-in Closet, Living, Dining and Kitchen area

2K = 2 Rooms with Kitchen

2DK = 2 Rooms with Dining and Kitchen area

2LDK = 2 Rooms with Living, Dining and Kitchen area

3LDK = 3 Rooms with Living, Dining and Kitchen area

4LDK = 4 Rooms with Living, Dining and Kitchen area

To ensure consistency, the Real Estate Transactions Act has rules that real estate companies must follow when displaying property floor sizes on advertisements and in contract documents.

Apartment:

1. Center-wall measurement

- This is the floor area measured from the center line or middle of the apartment’s outer walls. It does not include balcony space, elevator hallways or car parks, although it may sometimes include a trunk room storage closet located outside of the apartment. This is the official measurement to be used in all real estate materials including advertisements and contract documents. Support pillars and ducting space may also be included. Because this measurement includes part of the solid wall, it may be slightly larger than the actual usable space within the apartment. As a rough estimation, this size may be around 5% larger than the inside-wall measurement.

2. Inside-wall measurement

- This is the floor area measured from the inside walls of the apartment. Although it is closest to the actual usable space of the apartment, this measurement is used only for official registration purposes. This size is recorded on the property title documents and will also be indicated in contract documents.

3. Taxable floor area

- This is used by the tax office to calculate property taxes. It includes a share of the building’s common areas, such as lobbies and elevator halls, so the size will be bigger than the actual apartment size.

House:

1. Center-wall measurement

- This is the house’s total floor area measured from the center-line of the exterior walls. This measurement is recorded on the property title documents as well as the building approval and completion certificates. This is the official measurement to be used in all real estate materials including advertisements and contract documents. If the building’s eaves or balconies are over 2 meters deep, the portions over that size may also count towards the floor size.

2. Taxable floor area

- This is for tax purposes only. The size is usually the same as size recorded on the property title documents, although there are cases where the tax office uses a different measurement.

3. Footprint / building area

- This is the size of land that the building takes up. It is used when calculating footprint ratios that apply to land. If the 2nd floor is larger than the first floor, e.g. with overhanging rooms, the 2nd floor size will be used for the footprint.

Wooden Structure

- It refers to the building that primarily use woods as main material.

- With the structure, posts and beams of a building serve as core parts of the building.

- Many of detached houses in Japan are made of wooden structure.

Steel Structure

- It refers to the buildings that primarily use steel materials for the framework of a building.

- Steel structure is suitable for buildings with large spaces.

Reinforced Concrete Structure (RC)

- It refers to the buildings that primary use concrete with iron reinforcing bars inside for the framework of a building.

- The structure takes advantage of both reinforcing bars and steel frame. Reinforcing bars that are steel material bars with tolerance against stretching forces reinforces concrete that resists compression forces of the weight of a building.

Steel Reinforced Concrete Structure (SRC)

- It refers to the buildings that primarily use concrete with iron reinforcing bars inside and iron frames for the framework of a building.

- With SRC structure, iron frames construct poles and beams, which will be reinforced with iron reinforcing bars, later filled with concrete. The structure is often applied for high-rise buildings because it provides excellent seismic resistance and is also solid and durable.

Building management fee is for the management and maintenance of the common area of the building. It includes the regular checking and maintenance of building and facilities, appointment of cleaning service, utilities of common area, insurance premium, appointment of building management, etc. 

Building sinking fund is purposed for long term maintenance of the building. It aims to maintain the building safety, good condition and value of the building. Owners of each unit of the building are required to pay the building sinking fund on monthly basis, the fund amount will be accumulated and saved for the time which is necessary to use the fund. 

The amounts of building management fee and building sinking fund to pay are according to the share of right of the unit owned. These two monthly expenses are required for apartment / mansion and office / shop which is under a building with different owners. 

The quoted brokerage fee of Purchase Price x 3% + ¥60,000 (plus 10% consumption tax) is an easier way to explain the real calculation for brokerage fee as below:

- The first ¥2,000,000 = 5% + 10% tax

- ¥2,000,000 – ¥4,000,000 = 4% + 10% tax

- Over ¥4,000,000 = 3% + 10% tax

For example, the calculation of brokerage fee on a property purchased for ¥10,000,000 is broken down as below:

- ¥2,000,000 x 5% + (10% tax) = ¥110,000

- ¥2,000,000 x 4% + (10% tax) = ¥88,000

- ¥6,000,000 x 3% + (10% tax) = ¥198,000

Total Brokerage Fee = ¥396,000

This is the same as ¥10,000,000 x 3% + ¥60,000 + (10% tax):

(¥10,000,000 x 3% + ¥60,000) x 1.10 = ¥396,000

1. Property Purchase Price

2. Agency Brokerage Fee

- For Purchase Price at or above ¥4,000,000: 

(Purchase Price x 3% + ¥60,000) x 1.10*

*1.10 refers to an additional 10% Consumption Tax

3. Land Registration Fee & Legal Fee

- It is about 2-3% of the Purchase Price.

4. Buyer Stamp Duty

- For property from ¥1,000,000 to ¥100,000,000, the stamp duty ranges from ¥1,000 to ¥30,000.

5. Acquisition Tax

- Up to approximately 2.6% of the property annual assessed value by the government.

The assessed value is usually 1/3 to 1/2 of the property market price, it may be slightly vary every year and depends on the age of the property, its designated purpose, location and size.

*Acquisition Tax statements will be received approximately six months’ post-purchase.

1. Building Management Fee (Monthly)

- Amount depends on the premise size and determined by the Building Management Association.

2. Building Sinking Fund (Monthly)

- Amount depends on the premise size, units of the building, financial condition and any planned maintenance project of the building management and determined by the Building Management Association.

3. Agency Management Fee (Monthly)

- We will charge 5% of the gross rental + consumption tax as agency management fee. Our management services include:

1. Advertise and recruit new tenant (1 month rental amount as agency commission)

2. Handles enquires and complaint from tenants, neighbours and building management company

3. Arrange contractors for quotation, reporting to landlord, monitor the repairing.

4. Tenants move out arrangement and handling, check premises for any necessary repairing or claim from tenant.

5. Insurance application, claim and reporting.

6. Rental collection and arrange remittance to landlord (twice a year, remittance fee borne by landlord)

7. Pay monthly expenses, taxes on behalf of investors (owners).

8. Prepare monthly statement for investors (owners) and deliver by email.

1. Agency Brokerage Fee

- For Sale Price at or above ¥4,000,000:

(Sale Price x 3% + ¥60,000) x 1.10*

*1.10 refers to an additional 10% Consumption Tax

Yes. It is a common practice to buy insurance for the purchased property as an owner. The insurance should includes 2 parts of protection coverage:

1. Building structure (damaged by earthquake will be covered for 50%)

2. Indemnity (Third-party liability)

The insurance premium cost is low and it can safeguard the liability of your premise. 

In the leasing market of Japan, there is a mature mechanism to protect the benefit of landlord. In most cases, when a tenant started an application of leasing a property, landlord can require the tenant to join a “Guarantor Company”, and the function of Guarantor Company is to compensate the landlord while tenant late or default in rental payment.

The process of dealing with late or default of rental payment:

1. Management Company confirm whether the rental has been received.

2. While management company confirm that the tenant did not pay the rental, Management Company will contact Guarantor Company immediately.

3. After Guarantor Company received the notification from Management Company, management company will transfer the due rental payment to the Management Company.

4. Guarantor Company will request and chase the tenant for the due rental.

Guarantor Company always try to reduce the risk of late or default of rental payment by performing a strict  filtering regarding the creditability and integrity of the tenant. The costing of joining Guarantor Company is totally borne by tenant.

New Minpaku law  (Private Lodging Business Act) has been enacted as of June 15, 2018. For those property owners who want to engage in Minpaku business must meet the specified requirement and register to the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. Here is a link for more detailed information: 

http://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/minpaku/index_en.html

You can consider to buy a property with Minpaku licence or hotel licence obtained with us. Please check on the property listing in the Minpaku / Hotel section for more detailed property information.