How We Bought Our New Home In Hokkaido, Japan As A Foreigner

At present there are no restrictions that prevent foreigners from buying property in Japan (but you do need to be a resident to live here full time), in fact, we actually bought our new home in Japan whilst we were still residing in the UK.

We have just moved to Hokkaido, Japan from the UK and having now done the process ourselves, we’re sharing the exact breakdown of how we purchased our new home here, and everything that we did to make it happen.

How We Bought Our New Home In Hokkaido, Japan As A Foreigner

Finding a Local, Reputable Estate Agent

If you’re interested in buying a property in Japan it’s likely that you will have stumbled across many online agents targeted specifically at foreigners on social media. Our best advice? Avoid them! Fees are typically higher as they are targeted towards helping foreigners, and similar to UK online estate agents – the service just isn’t the same, and you don’t always know what you’re getting into.

We began our house search back in October 2025, but we actually contacted a handful of estate agents in the Sapporo area right at the beginning of 2025 until we connected well with an agent that also spoke really good English. As we are still on our Japanese language learning journey this was imperative for us as it’s an expensive, and legal purchase that you don’t want to get wrong.

The best way to find a local agent in the area in Japan you want to purchase in is to search online, read reviews and send some initial emails out. We had an initial video call with the estate agent prior to viewing listings when we arrived into Japan.

There are multiple ways you can view property listings online too. We personally used At Home, it works in a similar way to most online platforms where you can filter by price, area and what size house you are looking at.

During this stage we would send listings to the estate agent to setup viewings for when we arrived into Japan. Seeing everything online beforehand gives you a good idea of what you like, and an opportunity to delve into the surrounding areas of the city. We already had a good idea of the area we wanted to live in, but viewing properties when we arrived and exploring the area helped to confirm that for us.

Viewing Properties

We headed out to Japan in October and had booked in to view a few properties with our real estate agent. It’s a similar process to what we have in the UK, but being Japan, expect to swap your shoes for slippers as you enter the home!

The two properties we viewed were completely different, one was listed at £35K and the other at £60K. Following the viewings we asked for the estate agent to submit an offer for the higher priced property.

We’ve shared our full house hunting experience and the types of properties we looked at on the video below if you want to see more. It sadly wasn’t meant to be with this property.

It later transpired that there were no building regulations on the double garage didn’t have any building regulations (it had acrow props holding it up so it felt like a bit of a hidden risk and costly additional surveys would have been required before we felt comfortable). It was also fine for cash buyers, but if we wanted to sell in the future, banks would not provide a loan for it so it would have been a risky investment for us.

It was then back to the drawing board when we arrived back to the UK, and we couldn’t do anymore viewings in person. We had 2 months until we would be arriving in Japan to live, and currently, nowhere to live!

Getting Our Offer Accepted – Next Steps

It was then a case of getting our real estate agent to view a handful of properties on our behalf, sending us images and videos back to us to review. Luckily, it is possible to purchase a house in Japan mostly from outside of the country. The time difference did make things a little more challenging as there would always be a day in between hearing further information, or reviewing properties. Well, time really was of the essence now!

We actually offered on another couple of properties which weren’t meant to be, we then found another house we really liked, submitted the asking offer price, and it was accepted!

It was then time to get to the paperwork part, and we were given a timeframe on how long it would tend to go through. It was now December, but in Japan things are a little bit quicker and it would be around 4 weeks from having our offer accepted which was divine timing for us entering Japan. This was everything that went into the property purchase next;

• An Affidavit was required to prove that we were who we say we are. This has to be conducted by a specialist notary in person where you provide your passport/ID and documents such as utility bills. We were able to get this done just before the Christmas period in the UK and sent this straight off to the real estate agent once it was complete.
• It was then time to send over the deposit which we did on Boxing Day (26th December, which is 10% of the property’s value and secures the contract. Once signed and paid, if you back out you lose the deposit and must also pay an additional fee equal to the deposit amount.International payments can sometimes be tricky, we always use Wise for them as they’re generally much quicker at processing payments, and super effective.
• We had a number of different documents to review and sign which could all be done online. The documents will be provided to you in Japanese, we had to translate these. On Boxing Day we had another video call with the estate agent to review the documents on the phone with us and ensure that we understood everything.
• Our estate agent also appointed a local scrivener to us to help complete all of the legal documentation, this was instructed by us.
• It was then 4 weeks until the sale went through, prior to this we had to then send the final full amount of the property price. We were buying in cash which makes the process that bit easier. It’s not impossible, but it can be incredibly difficult to get a loan in Japan, even if you are a resident, and even less options if you are buying from outside of the country.
• On the day that the property sale went through, I met with the sellers solicitors, my solicitor, and our estate agent. The house was then ours!

Overall, the entire process was incredibly smooth, and comparably easy and stress free compared to property transactions we have experienced in the UK. The whole process took around 4 weeks for us.

How Much It Cost

Of course, we’re going to be transparent about the costs too which might help you if you’re considering purchasing a property in Japan. We also purchased at a time that GBP was at its strongest against the Yen, so it made a considerable difference in our purchase price.

• Scrivener (local lawyer fees) – ¥132,225
• Estate agent fees – ¥385,000
• House cost – ¥4.5 million

There were some other odd costs such as the Affidavit back in the UK which was just over £100. Roughly for everything in GBP, it came to around £24K to get our 2 bed detached house with garage here in Sapporo, Hokkaido.

It is not what is considered an akiya property, although our home had been vacant for 3 years. Whilst we aren’t situated in the heart of the city centre, we are only around 25 minutes by car and are still in an area surrounded by supermarkets and shops.

Having a dog, it really is the perfect location for us as we are also surrounded by many parks and gorgeous green spaces to enjoy. It’s worth mentioning that as of March 2026, there are no restrictions or additional taxes for foreigners buying in Japan, however, there is talk of something like this being introduced later in the year.

We are so happy with our new home here and whilst we will be renovating our home slowly, and mindfully as we go, we hope you’ll stick around for the journey!

Have a look at our empty house tour on the video below and let us know your thoughts, and of course, if you have any other questions about the buying process here in Japan.