From our other sites
The story
A thread went up on 5ch about a woman — an office worker in Tokyo whom the poster met through a matchmaking app — who took out a mortgage and bought a 1LDK (one-bedroom plus living/dining/kitchen) condo in the city. Her reasons: she wanted to move out of her cramped apartment and finally own her own home. Reactions were largely positive, with comments like “If you can afford it, there’s no reason not to buy” and “Buying time is worth it,” but plenty of others voiced concerns about the future of Tokyo’s property market, rising mortgage rates, and the fact that single-occupant units are generally seen as poor investments. Posters who actually own real estate chipped in with concrete accounts of how their purchase prices compared to current valuations.
What people said
Apparently she just took out a mortgage and bought a 1LDK condo in the city
Says she wanted to move because her old place was cramped, and she wanted to own her own home
Don't feel one way or the other about it
If you've got the money to buy, there's no reason not to
Used condo prices aren't likely to crash going forward
Tokyo condo prices have already peaked and are falling
Rates are climbing too, so taking out a loan now seems like a bad deal
If your job's in Tokyo and you're not living in Tokyo, you're just an idiot shaving years off your life with the commute
Just tell us what's bugging you about this
unless it's barrier-free by design from the start
She'll end up having the guy pay entirely for their new place together
Nowhere does it say she has two properties
You can renovate it to suit yourself
You should buy after that happens — buying recently means catching the worst possible peak price
The first one I bought new 20 years ago for 35 million yen is now valued at around 65 million yen
The other one I bought used 10 years ago for 11 million yen has also risen to around 18 million yen
It's understandable if you're young, but anyone who's gotten on in years and never bought property, just kept renting their whole life — I honestly look down on those people as complete fools
And for what it's worth, back then too there were idiots running their mouths saying 'anyone buying now is a fool because the population's going to shrink'
The junior baby boomers failed to reproduce themselves, so the drop-off is going to be steep
so yeah, seems fine to me
but if it's decades-old used property, there's a risk it becomes uninhabitable after an earthquake
Just rent it out
There's huge demand for single-occupant apartments in Tokyo
No, it's polarized
There's demand if it's a town with access to multiple train lines or close to a business district
but old properties near stations without that are high-risk
it really varies wildly depending on the location and distance from the station
So if you relate to this, does that mean you actually have the funds to buy a condo right now?
Which means, conversely, they're better value than renting
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Since the Bank of Japan ended its negative interest rate policy in March 2024, it has raised rates several times, putting upward pressure on the variable mortgage rates that had stayed low for so long. That’s the backdrop behind the thread’s worries about rising interest rates. Meanwhile, “buy vs. rent” is a perennial debate topic on 5ch, and this thread was no exception, splitting between posters sharing stories of rising property values and those urging caution, warning that “population decline will lead to an oversupply of housing.” One point that’s easy to miss just from the thread itself is that central Tokyo condo prices are also propped up by demand from single people and dual-income households, meaning they may move according to a different supply-and-demand structure than the nationwide population decline would suggest.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Is it worth buying a nearby 1LDK condo to work in Tokyo?“
Leave a Reply