/me has "owned" (mortgage) two single dwelling houses in Southern California and on his third house in the Tokyo area.
Another reason for general dislike of second hand houses is that these houses are poorly designed. Older houses in the Tokyo area (Kawasaki included), from even ten to fifteen years ago have have a raft of design problems from lack of insulation to using too low cost of materials. The first and third house was a bespoke build and I was met with bewildered architects when I specified designs that they considered appropriate only for Hokkaido (northern island that get cold air from Siberia). Other crazy things I had to make them modify was moving the fresh air intake vent away from the fuel cell generator, that doubles as hot water boiler which has a backup burner. They didn't seem to realize that a backup burner exists. There were a number of other mistakes that I pointed out that seemed to have left the builder in a puzzled state. I made my sales guy work for his pay. Walking around the new development area I'm in, I could point out any number of usability flaws that most of the house have. If these were missed, most likely a large number of technical flaws crept in as well.
The second house was second-hand. (ha!) Very bad decision under somewhat forced circumstances. Very cheap specc'd floors that scratched easily. Practically no insulation. Poor air control, with vents pulling in air directly from the outside with no filtration or pre-conditioning. One of the reasons for moving on.
And while I'm here, the first place we bought (place 0 in Japan) was a room in a mansion (aka an apartment). We bought this new, upgraded to durable floors. I was lucky to have been able to sell the place five years later for nearly the same price as I purchased it. Unlike California, the all buildings depreciate to nothing in 30 years. The HOA (home owners association) is only run professionally for the first 10 years. The next 10 years is a hand off to the residents. From what I now understand, while under professional management, the fees while high are spent well and banked for renovations to be done every decade. But the pattern is that after the second decade, under home owner control, the association votes to cut the fees. The association quickly runs out of money and the building falls into disrepair, accelerating the depreciation. The apartment becomes nearly worthless and difficult to sell, leaving people with 35 year mortgages under water. Nuts.
I've also been in rental apartments and they have been cheaply made.
Regarding rentals, I think the attitude is that the owner would rather deal with someone who is known to pay rather then having to deal with an unknown entity. It's a risk averse culture.
Another reason for general dislike of second hand houses is that these houses are poorly designed. Older houses in the Tokyo area (Kawasaki included), from even ten to fifteen years ago have have a raft of design problems from lack of insulation to using too low cost of materials. The first and third house was a bespoke build and I was met with bewildered architects when I specified designs that they considered appropriate only for Hokkaido (northern island that get cold air from Siberia). Other crazy things I had to make them modify was moving the fresh air intake vent away from the fuel cell generator, that doubles as hot water boiler which has a backup burner. They didn't seem to realize that a backup burner exists. There were a number of other mistakes that I pointed out that seemed to have left the builder in a puzzled state. I made my sales guy work for his pay. Walking around the new development area I'm in, I could point out any number of usability flaws that most of the house have. If these were missed, most likely a large number of technical flaws crept in as well.
The second house was second-hand. (ha!) Very bad decision under somewhat forced circumstances. Very cheap specc'd floors that scratched easily. Practically no insulation. Poor air control, with vents pulling in air directly from the outside with no filtration or pre-conditioning. One of the reasons for moving on.
And while I'm here, the first place we bought (place 0 in Japan) was a room in a mansion (aka an apartment). We bought this new, upgraded to durable floors. I was lucky to have been able to sell the place five years later for nearly the same price as I purchased it. Unlike California, the all buildings depreciate to nothing in 30 years. The HOA (home owners association) is only run professionally for the first 10 years. The next 10 years is a hand off to the residents. From what I now understand, while under professional management, the fees while high are spent well and banked for renovations to be done every decade. But the pattern is that after the second decade, under home owner control, the association votes to cut the fees. The association quickly runs out of money and the building falls into disrepair, accelerating the depreciation. The apartment becomes nearly worthless and difficult to sell, leaving people with 35 year mortgages under water. Nuts.
I've also been in rental apartments and they have been cheaply made.
Regarding rentals, I think the attitude is that the owner would rather deal with someone who is known to pay rather then having to deal with an unknown entity. It's a risk averse culture.