I remember seeing an article on these houses. The biggest issue is this house was built before the 1980’s, so it was built before modern earthquake (?) proofing standards. This makes the house unlivable and technically condemned, and the Japanese government won’t let anyone (including owner) from being able to live there until it’s been modernized to the standards.
While this sounds easy, you need to get the supplies and crew out there (no easy road access), which is expensive, and possibly not a real option (again, remote area and trucks might not be able to reach it).
So you end up with a house no one can legally live in, in an area that can’t be reached to repair/build anything. It’s just a lose/lose situation and causes the value of the property to be very low.
The last major earthquake revision was in 1981 so anything with planning approval before that is going to cause a ton of headaches. There have been many minor revisions since then, but they usually don’t apply when considering loans, insurance, etc.
I remember seeing an article on these houses. The biggest issue is this house was built before the 1980’s, so it was built before modern earthquake (?) proofing standards. This makes the house unlivable and technically condemned, and the Japanese government won’t let anyone (including owner) from being able to live there until it’s been modernized to the standards.
While this sounds easy, you need to get the supplies and crew out there (no easy road access), which is expensive, and possibly not a real option (again, remote area and trucks might not be able to reach it).
So you end up with a house no one can legally live in, in an area that can’t be reached to repair/build anything. It’s just a lose/lose situation and causes the value of the property to be very low.
The last major earthquake revision was in 1981 so anything with planning approval before that is going to cause a ton of headaches. There have been many minor revisions since then, but they usually don’t apply when considering loans, insurance, etc.