With mortgage interest rates on the rise, a cost-benefit showdown between “buying” and “renting” a home became a hot topic on 5ch’s News VIP board (“Nupe VIP”). Using a scenario where the property costs ¥50 million, financed with a full 35-year loan, and the interest rate climbs to 5% from the 16th year onward, one poster calculated the total lifetime cost: about ¥93.2 million for buying versus about ¥65.5 million for renting — a difference of roughly ¥27.7 million in renting’s favor. The thread then spiraled into questions about whether the assumed ¥150,000/month rent was realistic for a home of that size, debates over paying cash upfront or using a corporation to save on taxes, and worries about rising crime as vacant homes multiply — with no side landing a decisive win.
・Property price: ¥50 million (35-year full loan, equal principal-and-interest repayment)
・Maintenance/property tax etc.: ¥15 million over 35 years
・Renting: ¥150,000/month rent (renewal fee of 1 month's rent every 2 years)
・Interest rate path: rises every 5 years, plateauing at 5.0% from year 16 onward
[Total cost comparison]
Total cost of buying: approx. ¥93.2 million (approx. ¥78.2 million total loan + ¥15 million maintenance)
Total cost of renting: approx. ¥65.5 million
In the scenario where the interest rate rises to 5%, "renting" comes out decisively ahead by about ¥27.7 million.
For a homeowner, the break-even point is whether the land and building retain at least ¥27.7 million in value when the loan is paid off after 35 years — but realistically, a 35-year-old property keeping over half its original value is hard to imagine.
That's clearly off — a ¥150,000/month rental is basically a 1-2LDK (living-dining-kitchen layout) with maybe 3 rooms. A house you own has more like 6.
It's not half.
30% at most.
That's the home-office expense apportionment ("kaji anbun") ratio.
Can't believe people this clueless exist lmaooo
If you own, just register it as company housing or sublease it to your own corporation. I do the latter — the company's profit gets wiped out as a deductible rent expense, huge tax savings.
And the rental income I personally receive nets out to zero once you factor in depreciation as a deductible expense, so that's tax-saving too.
Well, taking out a loan is a loss from the start anyway.
If you've got money to buy a house, you're better off putting it into other investments.
Exactly.
Put that money into investments instead and it'll keep growing.
Also, owning a home leaves you exposed to disaster risk.
I mean, you could just move lol.
Also what's the actual causal link between more vacant homes and worse crime?
Hmmm~~ lol, yeah right lol
It's only the suckers who bought out in the suburbs whose property values fall.
It will drop.
Rates are rising and vacancies are increasing — the real estate bubble is going to burst.
But rent at wherever you'd move to is going up…?
Do you not get how bad things get, security-wise, once vacant homes pile up?
That's exactly why — more vacant homes means rent goes down, I'm telling you.
Give me something concrete on how more vacancies makes rent worse.
Apparently in Kagoshima there are so many vacant houses nobody notices.
Well, if that actually works you could live rent-free forever.
Squatting in a vacant house beats renting, cost-wise.
I bought ¥50 million in government bonds, so next year that alone brings in about ¥1 million in income.
Lmao, investing the ¥50 million would've been the better move — owning a house is basically holding a bad debt.
If people can't afford to buy, more of them end up renting — landlords aren't gonna lower rent on purpose when demand's rising lol.
Per the supply-demand curve, house prices keep falling, which then pushes demand back up a bit.
So the rental share won't rise all that much, and since the population-decline trend structurally doesn't change, prices end up falling anyway.
Built mine 10 years ago, paid cash.
Had some circumstances that qualified for the ¥50 million special deduction.
Buying with cash is the better move.
Mine's subleased to my own corporation, so a home loan's a no-go either way.
Nowhere did it say it's obviously way bigger, lol.
There's useful life and depreciation to factor in too — if you're claiming an annual yield over 5%, show your math.
Re: #112
There's property tax to pay too.
Might want to sell early and switch to renting, yeah?
Also, in the same area, property tax is way cheaper than rent.
You'd probably be shocked if you actually looked it up.
Of course it's cheaper, that's obvious.
The point is you're better off selling before real estate prices crash and switching to renting.
I don't get what's supposedly "better" about that.
I'm not flipping land for profit here — having a stable place to live matters way more to me than cashing out.
I'm tired of renting and worrying about noise complaints and all that.
I never want to go back to it.
And on top of that, if you get kicked out once you're elderly, nobody will rent to you again.
Seriously, you don't even know this basic stuff?
Something's wrong with your head.
Lmao, this one got me.
That chart is literally exaggerated just to make the point easier to grasp lol.
Don't tell me your whole "this is common knowledge" claim is sourced from that one chart lmaooo.
That's embarrassing lmaooooo.
Background and Key Points of This Debate
The buy-vs-rent cost comparison is a perennial topic that resurfaces whenever mortgage rates climb, since rising rates inflate the total amount homeowners end up paying. The core of the thread’s debate was how sensitive the outcome is to the assumptions used — especially the rent and interest-rate scenarios — and many pointed out that the assumed ¥150,000/month rent looked too cheap for a home of the size being compared to. The assumption that the property’s value falls to near zero after 35 years also doesn’t necessarily hold, depending on location. In the end, which option wins out depends on the property’s location, the individual’s financial situation, and how often they expect to move, so readers should keep in mind that this isn’t a case where either side can be declared the outright “winner.”
※This article is an excerpt and summary based on the 5ch (News VIP) thread “[Sad News] Buy vs. Rent Ends in a Crushing Win for Team Rent as Mortgage Rates Skyrocket lmaooooooooooooooooo.”
