After Italy, Japan, Who’s Next?

In the age of technology and modern lifestyle, one cannot deny the basic necessities of life; food, shelter, and clothing. A colossal difference is visible from the past to the present as we evolved but the need remains the same.

What if one of the basic essentials is made available, so cheap and affordable like buying a bottle of water. When it costs us a fortune to build the home of our dreams, the striking news from Italy has shocked many of us, creating history by selling off abandoned houses for as low as €1.

However, it is not the only country to entice citizens across the globe with cheap real estate. Corresponding to a piece of recent news released by the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the local government is poised to sell off abandoned houses in rural Japan, being offered to anyone willing to buy. In terms of price, these houses may not be as enticing as Italy, but a decent USD 500 $ is adequate to tempt residents from all corners of the world. All thanks to international news agencies and other media platforms, as they created sufficient publicity and spread the news like wildfire.

Image Credit: Nippon.com

According to Japan’s Housing and Land Survey, the country logged 8.49 million empty houses in 2018 which must have exceeded 10 million as of 2021. These abandoned houses are referred to as “akiya”, meaning an empty house in a small town or countryside. These houses are enlisted in the official“akiya website” from where one can find their desired property. The filtering options are immense, permitting people to choose from different prefectures as per the local government involved, old or a new house, urban or countryside location, near Sea, Wildlife and Mountains, fertility of the soil with agricultural potential, special feature with attractive views, etc.

Recent blogs reveal that two official websites that are user-friendly claim ownership of these abandoned homes by holding almost 558 municipalities.

The local government also offers help by providing subsidies to renovate an “akiya”, grants for renovation, assistance in all sorts of documentation, ownership transfer, purchase-related grants if the bid price is higher in few cases due to the location and condition of the house.

This entire program is an initiative to revitalize Japan’s rural areas as part of a socioeconomic plan by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.

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