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That seems like a very "wanting to have your cake and eat it too" setup on the part of the local municipalities. 'No summer homes' seems like an easy way for ma
by crooked-v 3y ago
That seems like a very "wanting to have your cake and eat it too" setup on the part of the local municipalities. 'No summer homes' seems like an easy way for many of them to get no people at all, especially since the country as a whole has very good housing policy and so doesn't have the same kind of home affordability crisis as the US.
- renewiltord 3y agoIt looks like their order of preferences is: Repopulate by old standards > take the L > become vacation community I don't think it's "wanting to have your cake and eat it too" so much as it being the same as sometimes I want something done but not if it costs too much. In that case, having it not done is better than paying too much for it.
- Ekaros 3y agoVacation homes might bring occasional injection of cash, but they do not really support local community and local services for most of the year. So it is understandable that unless community is build on that type of industry they do not want it and instead focus on those that bring more revenue.
- jrockway 3y agoI mean, you pay property tax whether you live there or not. I don't know how this works in other states or other countries, but at least in New York a primary residence has tax advantages. That said, I'm not sure what you do with a rich municipality that has no residents. You probably want the corner store to be open when you go out there for the winter for some reason, and with no customers, that's not an economic reality.
- polski-g 3y ago"Paying property tax" does not fund the local business revenue needs.
- jrockway 3y agoTax dollars can be used for pretty much anything. "We'll write you a check every month if you keep your store open," for example. I think infrastructure needs to come before people will come. "Induced demand" basically.
- fomine3 3y agotax valuation is almost zero.
- throwaway2037 3y agoThis is not correct. The house is worth zero, but the land has value. This will generate tax revenue.
- fomine3 3y agoRural land isn't technically zero tax value, but it's too minor as a revenue.
- throwaway2037 3y agoWhat? How else does local (rural) gov't generate revenue? It's land tax or nothing. In Japan, sales tax (VAT) is national.
- Ekaros 3y agoLand tax would be based on value of the land. If land has very low value then the tax would have to be extremely high to generate meaningful revenue. In worst case it could be more than value of the land.
- bobthepanda 3y agoOf all the things Japan has been doing, skimping on infrastructure is not one of them.
- Ekaros 3y agoNo income tax is paid. The central government is less likely to pay services. No economic activity happen, let's say barbers with enough users year round. And so on.
- ekianjo 3y agoTaxes still work if you have a summer house.
- gloryjulio 3y agoNot really. Their goal is for the local community first and foremost. You know what you are getting into if you trying to buy this kind property.
- crooked-v 3y agoMy point is that for a lot of these places, unless they can figure out some way to be more appealing, there will be no local community before all that long.
- gloryjulio 3y agoJapan is in population decline and people are moving to the city. There is no reversal of this trend. Compromise would not solve the problem anyway. Making sure the the current crops of the residents are part of the local community is a good goal. They are not gonna win, might as well preserve what they have temporarily.
- ekianjo 3y ago> They are not gonna win, might as well preserve what they have temporarily So they are betting on slow death. Thats a hell of a plan
- gloryjulio 3y agoHow is selling vocation homes to the outsiders who refuses to comply with local communities not a slow death anyway? You conveniently ignored the bigger picture that so many ppl mentioned: ppl are moving to the cities. If the local economy is gonna gonna die, might as well die gracefully
- ekianjo 3y agoThats just an excuse not to try to do anything. If you have more tax money you have more options than zero. > refusing to comply You are always free to change the stupid rules
- Unfrozen0688 3y agoNo? Its their land? YOU just want an ez cheap house.
- makeitdouble 3y agoWelp, those are empty houses for a reason. Home affordability is stil an issue, people working in the metro area while being homeless is a thing, but they still probably end up better than being jobless in the emptying and infra less countryside.
- phantomathkg 3y agoYou see this from a foreign, money-centric view, which may work for some locals in US maybe? For many Japanese local government, what they want is for the outsider, that includes people from other parts of the Japan, to come, and blend in to the community.