From our other sites
The story
A thread on 5ch’s “Nandemo Jikkyo” board blew up over the choice of buying a pre-built house (“tateuri”) instead of a custom-built one. It kicked off with a post from someone who picked a pre-built home for its prime location, and from there the discussion spread into the nuts and bolts of home buying: renovation costs after 30 years, a raffle for a newly built house going for just 5.8 million yen, and headaches around foreclosed properties. One poster also reported seeing a pre-built house under construction being left exposed to weeks of rain, sparking a split between those worried about construction quality and those pushing back on that concern.
What people said
Honestly, more than the floor plan, the location was just amazing
I don't want to sink 10 million yen into renovating a house whose structure originally cost less than 15 million, so once it hits 30 years old I'm thinking I'll skip renovating, tear it down, and just rebuild something sized for me and my spouse instead
Depends on the situation at the time
There's inheritance coming in too, and if the kids want the land for their own place I'd hand it over and move elsewhere
You don't need a full 10-million-yen renovation
If you're just redoing the plumbing/bathroom and the wallpaper, that can be as cheap as 3 million
Wait, those actually exist?
It's a prefectural capital, but it's a total car-dependent town
Being near the station doesn't add any value here
Though my place does happen to be near both the station and a bus stop
There are places where the strip along the national highway is more built-up than the area around the station
Foreclosed pre-built houses usually need serious repairs
Even replacing every last bit of wallpaper won't get rid of it
Dog smell or cigarette smell basically comes standard
If I were the one being evicted, I'd probably trash the whole place first
Oh really? I assumed the bank handled that when they enforced the mortgage lol
The budget's tight enough as it is, and good lots basically never come up for sale anyway
Can't you just buy from a well-regarded builder like Sekisui House or Sumitomo Forestry?
The pre-built houses from those big builders are only ever out in the middle of nowhere though
I'd guess it's going to polarize more
Rural areas keep losing population, so they'll just keep depopulating and losing value
Just buy used
Feels like more people in rural areas insist it has to be brand new
Out in the countryside, recently-built houses barely change hands
Even after an early divorce, both spouses are usually locals, so one of them just keeps living there in lieu of alimony/child support. Not many people work for companies with a transfer culture either, and even when there is a transfer, they're more likely to go alone and leave the family behind
And for older properties, once you factor in a full renovation, a pre-built house can end up cheaper anyway
Even through this stretch of endless rain they've kept building all day
and after they pack up in the evening they don't even cover anything — it's left completely exposed to the rain, pillars and interior walls soaked
And since it's been raining day after day, there's no time for it to dry out either
The wood's gotta be getting weaker (worse earthquake resistance), and mold's probably already growing
Once it gets sandwiched between the wallpaper and the exterior wall, it'll just keep cultivating in there
you know how sometimes you see a house where the wallpaper's completely covered in mold
or you tear one down and the insulation is caked in mold — this is exactly how that happens
Respect to anyone who actually buys a pre-built house
With custom builds there are seriously a ton of "landmine" clients like this too, wish someone would do something about it
It doesn't matter if kiln-dried lumber pillars or flooring get a little wet, but the builder's sales reps just go along with whatever the client says anyway
Normal rain wouldn't be a problem, but with a ridiculous amount of rain over this many days like right now, yeah, it'll flat-out rot and mold 😅
That's exactly what we did — 40 million yen on the land, 15 million on the building
The building itself will be worth zero in 30 years, but as long as inflation keeps going, the land should keep appreciating — that's my thinking
They really should let it dry for a few days at least, but yeah, that's rough
If you go with a home builder, it starts at 35 million
Even a tiny single-story house starts at 10 million, so with that budget a used container house is about the best you'll manage
Up until around the COVID era you could build one for 10 million
Now the same house would cost you 20 million
Omiya?
Is there even any land there an ordinary person could afford?
Probably the highland side of Asaka
The eastern half is all low-lying land
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Both custom-built and pre-built houses ultimately mean owning a detached house, but they differ greatly in how much freedom you have over acquiring land and in how the total cost breaks down. In the thread, some pointed out that because a pre-built house’s price is fixed together with the land, it’s easier to end up in a good location, whereas pre-built houses from major home builders tend to cluster in the suburbs. Opinions split over how rain exposure during construction affects materials: one side argued it’s fine once it dries out, while the other argued that moisture that has soaked into the wood’s interior or joints can’t escape without tearing the structure down, leading to mold and reduced earthquake resistance — the back-and-forth got fairly technical. The thread also touched on the structural backdrop in rural areas, where the secondhand market is thin and a strong preference for new construction persists, highlighting regional differences in the housing market that city-dwellers’ assumptions alone don’t capture.
※This article is an excerpt and summary based on the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “Guys who buy pre-built houses instead of custom-built ones wwwwww.”
Leave a Reply