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Same thing is happening in Asia. I know a few local towns, one in particular where some foreign guy now has his Japanese real estate license and access to a bun

Same thing is happening in Asia. I know a few local towns, one in particular where some foreign guy now has his Japanese real estate license and access to a bunch of foreign investors looking for places. It's becoming an unmitigated disaster. The population of the town is somewhat severely aged; However, rather than that being an opportunity for young people to get a start, this property snake steps in an steals everything at a higher price than the locals could afford and makes up a bunch of stories of why he should have it. He pays people for information so we can get the jump on places. It's really quite stressful, it seems there is nothing that can stop the guy. A second similar property snake has arrived too, with a similar back story, access to huge pool of money from China/Hong Kong/Maylasia. We moved here recently because we wanted to live in a community, but it's getting pretty hammered now, we wil hang on for the time being and try find a place, not ready to give up yet.

dustintrex 5y ago
I don't think your view is representative of "Asia", or even Japan. Housing in Japan is by world standards extremely affordable and generally depreciates in value instead of appreciating, making it a terrible investment. If your town is "somewhat severely aged", that means the youth have already made the call to head for the cities and it's lack of jobs, not lack of affordable property, that's driving that. There are a couple of foreign-investor hotspot blips like newly trendy ski town Niseko, but for the vast majority of the country, prices are down, down, down. Many rural towns are now handing out essentially free houses because they've been abandoned (akiya), although the costs of renovating them into something livable are often considerable.
- bamboozled 5y ago
  In "most" of Japan, that might be the case, but the article is about Ski towns. There is plenty of young people who have tried to move to ski towns from large cities and have already been priced out. I'm not talking about some random country side spots, I'm talking about mountain towns, inline with the article. "There are a couple of foreign-investor hotspot blips like newly trendy ski town Niseko" Do you have any idea how much money has gone into Niseko? It's not new and trendy, that's been going on for quite some time now and continues to do so. The people who have made their money screwing that place over are now looking for their next victims.
  - dustintrex 5y ago
    Well, "new" as in over the last 20 years, not too long on the Japanese time scale. You obviously have strong feelings about this, but can you expand a bit more on who exactly the "victims" here are? I'll readily admit I haven't been in the area for a long time, but my understanding is that the Niseko boom largely involves the construction of net new housing (Swiss-style chalet apartments etc), since the Australian/Chinese jet set fueling it is not particularly interested in typical cramped and disposable Japanese-style housing.
Wiseacre 5y ago
Are you not also the foreigner pushing out locals? Couldn't you have that sense of community back where you moved from?

dustintrex 5y ago

I don't think your view is representative of "Asia", or even Japan. Housing in Japan is by world standards extremely affordable and generally depreciates in value instead of appreciating, making it a terrible investment. If your town is "somewhat severely aged", that means the youth have already made the call to head for the cities and it's lack of jobs, not lack of affordable property, that's driving that. There are a couple of foreign-investor hotspot blips like newly trendy ski town Niseko, but for the vast majority of the country, prices are down, down, down. Many rural towns are now handing out essentially free houses because they've been abandoned (akiya), although the costs of renovating them into something livable are often considerable.

bamboozled 5y ago
In "most" of Japan, that might be the case, but the article is about Ski towns. There is plenty of young people who have tried to move to ski towns from large cities and have already been priced out. I'm not talking about some random country side spots, I'm talking about mountain towns, inline with the article. "There are a couple of foreign-investor hotspot blips like newly trendy ski town Niseko" Do you have any idea how much money has gone into Niseko? It's not new and trendy, that's been going on for quite some time now and continues to do so. The people who have made their money screwing that place over are now looking for their next victims.
- dustintrex 5y ago
  Well, "new" as in over the last 20 years, not too long on the Japanese time scale. You obviously have strong feelings about this, but can you expand a bit more on who exactly the "victims" here are? I'll readily admit I haven't been in the area for a long time, but my understanding is that the Niseko boom largely involves the construction of net new housing (Swiss-style chalet apartments etc), since the Australian/Chinese jet set fueling it is not particularly interested in typical cramped and disposable Japanese-style housing.

Wiseacre 5y ago

Are you not also the foreigner pushing out locals? Couldn't you have that sense of community back where you moved from?