[Image: PXHere]
While homes in Cape Town may be flying off the shelves, Japan is confronting a real-estate paradox: a surplus of homes in a nation where the population is shrinking.
The latest numbers show there are just over nine million empty homes across the country – roughly 14% of all housing. That’s up from 8.49 million in 2018 and highlights a bigger issue: Japan’s population is shrinking fast.
Fewer births, more elderly people passing away or moving into care, and younger generations heading to the cities have left rural areas full of abandoned homes.
These empty houses, called akiya, are mostly found in small towns that have been hollowed out by urbanisation, especially in places like Wakayama and Tokushima, where vacancy rates top 20%.
The problem is made worse by tax laws that actually make it cheaper to leave a house standing than to tear it down. Add to that the legal mess of inherited homes with no clear owner, and it’s easy to see why so many just sit and rot.
It’s not just an eyesore either, akiya bring down land values, strain local infrastructure, and can even become safety hazards.
The government’s been trying to get a handle on it. A law passed in 2015 gives municipalities the power to demand repairs or demolitions on dangerously neglected homes, and more recent updates let them slap higher taxes on properties that stay empty too long.
Some savvy buyers, especially from abroad, are now taking advantage of the problem, scooping up akiya for dirt-cheap prices (sometimes even under $500) and turning them into guesthouses, vacation spots, or even remote work retreats.
So while Japan’s got more homes than people to fill them, a new wave of interest could give some of these forgotten places a second life.
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Local authorities are now luring residents back with relocation and business grants, with families who relocate and buy a home being offered 2 million yen (R250,000) in grants. Some cities also give residents who start a business up to 1.8 million yen in subsidies.
Despite this, experts believe that 1 in 3 homes in Japan could be abandoned by 2038. With local house prices getting more absurd every day, perhaps it’s time for South Africans to look beyond Yzerfontein and buy a holiday home in Japan.
[Source: CNA]
