Japan’s old abandoned houses, or akiya, draw Hong Kong, foreign buyers looking for a bargain holiday home to let

Japan’s 8 million or so akiya can often be snapped up for a fraction of the price of a new or lived-in property

The prospect of moving into an akiya then letting out part of it as a holiday home has proved a draw for Hongkongers

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Parisian Coline Aguirre bought her dream traditional home in Japan for less than the price of a garage in France. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Published: 10:00am, 3 Sep 2023Updated: 2:18pm, 3 Sep 2023

Coline Aguirre, a Parisian, fell in love with Japan and its culture after spending a year there as an exchange student eight years ago. So when the opportunity to buy a 300-square-metre property in the central prefecture of Nara for just 4.9 million yen (US$33,000) came along, she knew she had found her dream home.

With enough savings in the bank, Aguirre bought the house – which had stood empty for several years – in 2021. The property, which dates back about a century, had two gardens and needed major repairs, so the 25-year-old reckoned on a total investment of 9 million yen.

The amount was still within her budget and nowhere near what she would have to shell out to buy a house in her home country.

“In France, if I want a small garage I will have to spend €100,000 (US$108,000),” she said. “I’m going to have do a lot of renovation in the house, but the price is still going to be much lower than if I had bought a house in France. So I was thinking to have a renovation budget twice the price of the house.”

Aguirre’s bargain property is one of millions of abandoned Japanese homes known as akiya. Lying vacant in mainly rural areas, the houses can often be snapped up for a fraction of the price of a new or lived-in property in a housing market that is already cheap compared to many others in the region.

Coline Aguirre gets down to work refurbishing her traditional akiya. Photo: SCMP Pictures

The prospect of moving into an akiya then letting out part of it as a holiday home has proved particularly appealing to Hongkongers.