In Japan, whether you can get a mortgage depends on the property as much as on you. YEN LOANS lends only against a strata-titled residential apartment (condo) built in reinforced concrete (RC or SRC) and completed in 1990 or later, in Greater Tokyo, Kansai, Aichi (Nagoya), Fukuoka or Hokkaido (Sapporo), and outside central Tokyo within a 10-minute walk of a railway station. Detached houses, akiya, hotel-condominiums, whole buildings and resort property elsewhere do not qualify today. If that is what you want to finance, register your interest.
In short
- The property must be a strata-titled residential apartment, built in RC or SRC and completed in 1990 or later, in one of five metropolitan areas.
- Outside central Tokyo, it must be within a 10-minute walk of the nearest railway station.
- A loan cannot run beyond 50 years from the building's construction. For example, a building that is 31 years old when the loan starts allows a term of 19 years at most.
- A second home in the five areas can qualify, at a maximum loan-to-value ratio (LTV) of 50% rather than 65%.
- Property criteria are eligibility rules, not credit decisions. The build-year and station rules are fixed. If your property is excluded today, tell us: we log every request.
Which properties qualify?
A property qualifies only when all five tests below are true. If one fails, the property does not qualify.
- Type: a strata-titled residential apartment. You own your unit, together with a share of the building's common parts and the land.
- Construction: reinforced concrete (RC) or steel-reinforced concrete (SRC).
- Age: the building was completed in 1990 or later.
- Location: the property is in one of the five metropolitan areas: Greater Tokyo, Kansai, Aichi (Nagoya), Fukuoka and Hokkaido (Sapporo).
- Station: outside central Tokyo, the property is within a 10-minute walk of the nearest railway station.
The five areas are defined city by city, not by prefecture.
Greater Tokyo
The 23 Wards and named cities in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba, such as Yokohama, Kawasaki, Kamakura, Urayasu and Kawaguchi
Kansai
Named cities in Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo, such as Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe and Nishinomiya
Aichi
The city of Nagoya
Fukuoka
The city of Fukuoka
Hokkaido
The city of Sapporo
The full city list is on the Eligibility page. If your city is not on it, the property does not qualify. Our guide for US military families with SOFA status shows which towns near US facilities are on the list.
The station rule
Central Tokyo means the 23 Wards, Musashino, Mitaka and Chofu. There, the station rule does not apply. Everywhere else in the five areas, the apartment must be within a 10-minute walk of the nearest railway station. Property listings in Japan state the walking time to a station at 80 meters of road per minute, rounded up, under the industry's advertising rules (site in Japanese).
10 minutes
A listing that shows 徒歩10分 (toho juppun, a 10-minute walk)
80 meters
Per minute of road, rounded up
Up to 800 meters
By road to the nearest station
The 10-minute limit is fixed, so a listing that shows 徒歩11分 (an 11-minute walk) does not qualify.
How building age limits the loan term
A building completed in 1990 or later can qualify, but its age still limits the loan. The term cannot run beyond 50 years from the building's construction. The term is also limited to 35 years, and you must be 80 or under at maturity. Whichever of the three is shortest sets your maximum term.
Building age and the loan term
The loan can run 50 years minus the building's age, up to 35 years
That is the longest term the building allows. Your age at maturity can shorten it further.
Longest term allowed by building age
A shorter term means the same loan is repaid over fewer months, so each monthly payment is higher. For an older building, model the payment on the shorter term with the calculator before you make an offer.
Property types at a glance
This list shows how each common property type is treated. Only the first item qualifies.
Eligible
Strata-titled residential apartment, RC or SRC, completed in 1990 or later, in one of the five areas
Outside central Tokyo, within a 10-minute walk of a station. Up to 65% LTV; 50% for second homes, short-term rentals and loans over ¥250M.
Not eligible today
Detached house
Excluded today in every location, including inside the five areas. If you want to finance a house, register your interest.
Whole building, such as a small apartment block
Whole-building purchases are excluded. The security must be a strata-titled apartment.
Hotel-condominium
Excluded as a property type, wherever it is.
Akiya, or other vacant or unmanaged property
Excluded as a property type.
Wooden or steel-frame building
Excluded regardless of build year.
Building completed before 1990
Excluded even if it is RC or SRC and in one of the five areas.
Leasehold land (借地権)
The building's owner rents the land from someone else. We lend on freehold strata-titled apartments only, so an apartment on leased land does not qualify.
Agricultural land
Excluded. The law limits who may buy it and how it may be used.
Re-building prohibited land (再建築不可)
Excluded. A new building cannot be put up if the existing one is demolished, usually because the plot lacks the road frontage that building rules require.
Any property outside the five areas
Excluded today, whatever its construction or price. Tell us the location when you register your interest.
Before you make an offer
How to check a Japanese listing before you make an offer
Most of what decides eligibility is printed on the listing. Japanese property listings use standard fields, so you can usually check a property in a couple of minutes, even before you contact the agent.
Worked example · an illustrative listing, not a real property
物件概要 property summary, as printed on a typical listing
- 物件種目Type
- 中古マンションA resale apartment
- 構造Construction
- RC造10階建Reinforced concrete, 10 floors
- 築年月Completion date
- 平成17年3月March 2005
- 交通Station
- 「○○駅」徒歩7分A 7-minute walk from ○○ Station
- 所在地Location
- 神奈川県横浜市○○区Yokohama, Kanagawa
- 土地権利Land rights
- 所有権Freehold
Every field on this example passes. Check the same six fields on the listing you are looking at.
What to look for in each field
Type
物件種目 bukken shumoku
An apartment (マンション, manshon), such as 中古マンション (a resale apartment) or 新築マンション (a new apartment)
一戸建て (ikkodate, a detached house) or a whole building (一棟, ittō)
Construction
構造 kōzō
RC造 (鉄筋コンクリート造) or SRC造 (鉄骨鉄筋コンクリート造), often with the number of floors, such as RC造10階建
木造 (mokuzō, wooden) or S造 (steel frame)
Completion date
築年月 chiku nengetsu
1990 or later. In the Japanese calendar, from 平成2年 (Heisei 2)
Any Shōwa date (昭和), or 平成元年 (Heisei 1, which is 1989)
Station
交通 kōtsū
徒歩10分 (a 10-minute walk) or less to the nearest station. Inside central Tokyo, the walk does not matter
More than a 10-minute walk, outside central Tokyo
Land rights
土地権利 tochi kenri
所有権 (shoyūken), freehold
借地権 (shakuchiken, leasehold)
Reading the completion date
昭和
Shōwa era: every date is before 1990
平成元年
Heisei 1, which is 1989
平成2年
Heisei 2, which is 1990: the first year that qualifies
築25年
Some listings give the age instead (築年数, chiku nensū): here, 25 years old
A listing is a summary. Before you sign a purchase contract, ask the selling agent to confirm the construction and completion date from the property's documents. If you are not sure of either, the eligibility checker accepts "Not sure" as an answer, and you can mention it when you contact us. Once you have found a property, our guide to getting a Japan mortgage from overseas sets out the steps, documents and timeline.
Do resort towns and second homes qualify?
It depends on where the property is. Resort areas outside the five metropolitan areas do not qualify today. A second home inside them can.
Resort areas · not today
Niseko
and the rest of Hokkaido outside Sapporo
Hakuba and Karuizawa
in Nagano
Myoko
in Niigata
Okinawa
outside the five areas
The rule is about location, so it applies even to an RC apartment completed in 1990 or later. A resort detached house or hotel-condominium is also excluded on type.
Register your interest and tell us where.
Second homes in the five areas · yes
Up to 50% LTV
If the apartment passes all five property tests. The same 50% limit applies to short-term rentals and to loans over ¥250M.
On an apartment valued at ¥60M, that is ¥9M more in cash. Our guide to the down payment for a Japanese property works through the figures.
Are the build-year and station rules hard limits?
Yes. A property completed before 1990, or one outside central Tokyo that is more than a 10-minute walk from a station, does not qualify, however close it is. These are eligibility rules, not credit decisions, so a higher income, a larger down payment or a lower LTV does not change the answer. Check both before you pay any application fee.
Unlike some borrower questions on our Eligibility page, these two rules are never reviewed case by case. A property exclusion is not a judgment on you as a borrower: we publish the exclusions so an inquiry can be ruled out in a minute rather than after a two-week application.
Why do lenders care about construction, age and location?
A mortgage lender relies on the property as security for the whole life of the loan. So it asks three questions: what the property will be worth over that period, how long the building will stay sound, and how easily it could be sold. The points below describe how lenders generally think. They do not give the reason for each YEN LOANS rule.
Construction and age
In Japan, a building is valued partly on its remaining usable life, and that depends on how it is built. Reinforced concrete buildings last much longer than wooden or light steel-frame ones. Japan's tax rules reflect the difference in the statutory useful life used for depreciation, according to the National Tax Agency (page in Japanese; see the useful-life table linked from it).
47 years
RC or SRC residential building
22 years
Wooden residential building
That is a tax figure, not a lending rule. As a building ages, its remaining life shortens and its value as security falls. This is one reason lenders generally limit loans on older buildings. Our guide to the down payment for buying property in Japan explains how an appraisal reaches the figure a loan is based on, from recent sales of comparable apartments to the building's remaining life.
Location
A lender also cares about resale liquidity: how many buyers there are for a property, and how quickly it could be sold at a fair price. Demand for apartments tends to be deepest in large cities and close to stations. Smaller or seasonal markets usually have fewer buyers, and prices can move more with local conditions.
Register your interest
Outside our criteria today? Tell us what you want to finance
If we do not lend on your property today, we still want to hear about it. The range YEN LOANS can finance changes over time, and we log every request and come back to you if it fits, now or later. It is not an application, there is no fee, and it commits you to nothing.
The requests we most want to hear about
Detached houses
In the cities we already lend in, or elsewhere.
Other locations
Apartments in cities, resort areas or prefectures outside the five metropolitan areas, or beyond the 10-minute station walk.
Other property types
Whole buildings, older buildings and anything else in the list of property types.
Company borrowers
Purchases through a company or another structure, on a property outside our criteria.
The form takes about a minute. Choose the property type, then give the address or the city, ward or area you are looking in, and the approximate price or loan. If you would borrow through a company, say so in the property details. We cannot say whether or when a property type or location will become eligible, and registering is not a promise to lend.
If you plan to borrow through a company
Our published terms are for individual borrowers. Borrowing through a company, a special-purpose vehicle or another structure is assessed separately, and we do not publish terms for it. If the property meets the criteria in this guide, contact us before you apply and we will tell you whether your case can be accommodated. Your eligibility as a borrower is covered in our guide on whether foreigners can get a mortgage in Japan.
Other ways buyers finance property we do not lend on
These are the routes buyers generally use for houses, resort homes and other property outside our criteria. YEN LOANS does not arrange them or advise on them.
Frequently asked questions
Can a foreigner get a mortgage on a house in Japan?
Not from YEN LOANS. It lends only on apartments: strata-titled units in reinforced concrete (RC or SRC) buildings completed in 1990 or later, in five metropolitan areas. Detached houses are excluded today in every location, whatever the price or the borrower's income. If you are looking at a house, please register your interest. We log every request, and we will come back to you if our criteria change.
Can I get a loan for an akiya?
Not from YEN LOANS. Akiya and other vacant or unmanaged property are excluded as a property type. Many akiya are also detached wooden houses, which fail the type and construction tests as well. A larger down payment does not change this, because the exclusions are eligibility rules, not credit decisions. You can still register your interest and tell us what you are looking at.
Does YEN LOANS lend in Niseko, Hakuba or Okinawa?
Not today. YEN LOANS currently lends in five metropolitan areas: Greater Tokyo, Kansai, Aichi (Nagoya), Fukuoka and Hokkaido (Sapporo). Niseko, Hakuba, Karuizawa, Myoko and Okinawa are outside them, so we cannot finance property there at present. The locations we lend in can change, and resort areas are among the requests we most want to hear about: register your interest and tell us where. We log every request and come back to you if it fits, now or later. A second home inside the five areas can qualify today, at up to 50% of the valuation rather than 65%.
Can I get a mortgage on a new-build apartment in Japan?
Yes, if it meets the same tests as any other apartment. A newly built apartment (新築マンション, shinchiku manshon) is completed after 1990, so the build-year test is met. It must still be a strata-titled apartment in a reinforced concrete (RC or SRC) building, in a city on our list, and outside central Tokyo within a 10-minute walk of a station. A new building also allows the longest term, up to 35 years, subject to your age at maturity.
Japanese terms in this guide
- マンションmanshon
- A condominium apartment: in Japan the word means a unit in a concrete apartment building, not a large house.
- 一戸建てikkodate
- A detached house. Detached houses are excluded.
- 区分所有kubun shoyū
- Strata title: ownership of one unit in a building, with a shared interest in the common parts and the land. A qualifying apartment is held this way.
- 鉄筋コンクリート造tekkin konkurīto-zō
- Reinforced concrete (RC) construction. Steel-reinforced concrete (SRC) is 鉄骨鉄筋コンクリート造 (tekkotsu tekkin konkurīto-zō). Both qualify.
- 築年月chiku nengetsu
- The year and month a building was completed, as shown on a property listing. A qualifying building was completed in 1990 or later.
- 空き家akiya
- A vacant house or dwelling, often left unoccupied or unmanaged. Akiya and other vacant or unmanaged stock are excluded.
- 借地権shakuchiken
- Leasehold land right: the right to use land owned by someone else, typically to keep a building on it. Property on leasehold land is excluded.
- 再建築不可saikenchiku fuka
- Re-building prohibited: land on which a new building cannot be put up if the existing one is demolished. Such property is excluded.
Written by Kyle Steele · Reviewed by Mark T. Drabkin, Representative Director & CEO · Last reviewed .
YEN LOANS K.K. is a money lender registered with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government under the Money Lending Business Act (MLBA), license Governor of Tokyo (1) No. 31998. This article is general information, not financial advice, and is not an offer of finance. Worked examples are illustrative. Rates are indicative, reset monthly, and subject to credit assessment and security review. Effective annual rate (実質年率) within 14.6%, calculated on the principal net of fees; late-payment charge up to 20.0% p.a. All loans are full recourse to the borrower. Applications are subject to careful review and may be declined. Please check the terms of your agreement and borrow within your means. 慎重な審査の結果、お申込みの意に沿えない場合がございます。ご契約内容をご確認のうえ、ご利用は計画的に。 Full product terms are set out under Loan terms, all costs under Fees, and the approved Japanese disclosure under 貸付条件の表示.