Purchasing a condo-hotel in Japan

[SantaCruz 0]

Does anyone have any experience purchasing a place in at a resort? A house or cabin is more than likely out of my price range, but something like a condo-hotel might be doable. Long term it seems like it could be a good investment, although who knows when the economy will pick up again.

 

I live in the US, so if you're not living in Japan then I'd be even more interested in your experiences in purchasing and owning.

 

Cheers.

[Jynxx 4]

Santa Cruz.

You are basically getting into a management contract. Sure, there are cheap condo's out there (ie; Naeba ) but remember people thought "long term investment" back then, too.

What exactly is long term I have no idea, 30 years? and I have no idea how new (old) the condos you are looking at, and how the resort will be in the long term.

Personally, I think there's lots of hype, and Niseko is an Aussie hype IMOH. With so much real state available in the US, if I were living there I would be looking something there.

I'm in Europe and I don't have THE EUROS but I can rent out apartments, houses and the freedom to do it out of so many places I've never been, and places I like to go. No maintenance problems, just spending my money on what I want to do and the freedom in that kicks ass than owning some illusion and false prosperity.

What is your definition of a resort? Have you found somewhere you want to be long term?

questions questions so many questions ...

[TJ OZ 0]

I suppose it depends on what you are after. You can pick up a house for 50-60 grand if you look around. Might need a bit of work but I have seen plenty of places that have a solid foundation and a good structure that the locals think should be torn down. I would tend to stay away from the Naeba big condo's as the body corporate fees can be huge. Saying that though there has been some good buys at the big condo in Hakuba which has reasonable fees. 20% returns can be common on rentals. Only time will tell on capital gain of the propertys. Know your market - is it a long term rental or a holiday rental. There are a lot of foreigners buying into Hakuba at the moment. Good opportunities still exist. The hardest thing is not being in Japan when properties come up for sale so you will not even see what is being sold and for how much so it is difficult to really understand the property market.

[SantaCruz 0]

Jynxx, you're right that there are a lot of these in NAmerica. I've seen many that are basically semi-like a hotel in terms of the physical building. When you purchase in you own a unit. There's variations on your rights and priveleages, but the ones I"ve heard of are either:

a) You can stay whenever you want. These seem more difficult to find and are more expensive.

You have a certain allotment of time that you can stay during a year/season

c) You have specific dates that you can stay. In this I guess you really "own" the time span.

 

A management agency runs the day-to-day and books people. So in any of the three scenarios if you weren't using the place then it'd be open to be rented out.

 

What's attractive to me about this is that you have a place to stay and it can (hopefully) pay for itself, or at least take the edge off since it's generating income. Longer term you can sell your stake although that's not what primary interests me. You're right though that maintenance issues, working with the resort management, etc would be a hassle. Not to mention being a foreigner having to deal with 2 sets of tax laws, etc.

 

Outright buying a house could be interesting as well, but I'd assume that it'd be easier to rent out a condo-hotel style unit easier rather than a full house.

[Jynxx 4]

I think if you wanna offset costs

-You will be looking at popular places where people want to go, there's rental demand, hence the property is more expensive.

- You will be renting your place at high season ... meaning you will be using it at low season.

 

"Time share" are like golf club membership and you can't play exactly when you want to play. They are not Real Estate. I am skeptical about the investment value in that in terms of money.

Do you actually own the apartment title or it's a company title (like a company share) even when you "buy" a condo. - another major consideration.

 

If you really want to offset the cost and also be self employed, you will start a pension.

If you think you can't afford to pay for ski accomadation, you shouldn't be buying one.

But if you really had the money, it wouldn't be an issue buying a condo or paying for expensive hotels. It's would be about, if you can get an reservation or not when you want to go.

[SantaCruz 0]

Good advice Jynxx. Everyone couple of months I get wanderlust dreams and something like this pops up

 

Still, it'd be nice having a base in Japan for boarding.

[Jynxx 4]

Mate, I can relate to that big time.

 

Also, I'd like to re- connect with Japan.

 

Dreams do come true SantaCruz !

[SantaCruz 0]

Word. What parts are u in now a days Jynxx?

 

I'm curious if anyone on here owns a pension, it'd be interesting to find out what it's like. To be honest though, it'd be hard making myself work and run the place instead of riding all the time

[Jynxx 4]

I'm in Muenchen (Munich) Germany.

40 min to local runs, 1 1/2 hr to Zillertal ( did it in 70 min sitting on 150 km autobahn) Austria and Italy is so close from here ....

 

I think shingaikokujin , his family owns a pension in St. Anton. Now that's prime location and an expensive place to stay.

I can guess if you were to serve guests dinner, that would be running a kitchen and you have to be into food... We went to a place where they served us such a good meal we will go back there for that, instead of just B&B and finding a yummy restaurant that is often expensive and not so close to where you stay.

[RobBright 35]

One of my "friends" owns a pension in Nagano - around the Goryu area. From his advice, he said that you should only really be investing/buying in one of these if you are fully committed to renting it out or using it. He struggles to rent it out throughout the winter season, when he isn't using it and is often worried that people might trash it when he rents it out.