7 ms·

How come? Is it just cultural? Are there laws against it?

• michaelt 4y ago
  > Unlike in other countries, Japanese homes gradually depreciate over time, becoming completely valueless within 20 or 30 years. When someone moves out of a home or dies, the house, unlike the land it sits on, has no resale value and is typically demolished. This scrap-and-build approach is a quirk of the Japanese housing market that can be explained variously by low-quality construction to quickly meet demand after the second world war, repeated building code revisions to improve earthquake resilience and a cycle of poor maintenance due to the lack of any incentive to make homes marketable for resale. -- https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/16/japan-reusable-housing-revolution https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/16/japan-reusabl... Of course, houses can be renovated - as the article explains. But going along with a country's traditional building methods is often cheaper than bucking the trends.
• raincole 4y ago
  Because of earthquakes. Old houses are considered unsafe even after renovation. Of course things are changing as modern materials are getting more trust.
• barking_biscuit 4y ago
  It's just cultural.