As we're closing in on the handover for our house, I thought it could be helpful to share the timeline for everything to give a better idea of how one could plan for the house building process.

Finding Land

We started looking for land in October 2022, mostly by looking at the Homes.co.jp and Suumo listings with our conditions. A few interesting plots had come up in that time that we requested information for, but the one we really liked and ended up purchasing only came up around the end of December.

It only took a couple months for us to find a great plot, but we probably got pretty lucky with that timing. It depends a lot on where you're planning to build on how hot the market is and what kind of buyers you have to compete with. Tokyo is expensive, attractive, and has enough buyers who can buy the land with cash that it could take a while to close on a plot.

Surveying Home Builders

Around the same time as we started looking for land, we were also researching home builders. We searched online for a couple that seemed interesting and within our budget, then scheduled consultations at their model homes in the model house parks like the ones found in Shin-Okubo or Toyosu. We also spoke with some local architects recommended by the agent.

The final selection didn't happen until after we'd put a deposit on the land and were committed, assuming everything went through as expected with financing. This was around early February 2023.

Buying the Land

Our initial request in December turned into a viewing on January 6th. When we decided to proceed, we then had to provide some supporting documents such as copies of my residence card, a photo ID, and recent payslips as well as my employment contract indicating the various parts of my income.

The agent used the documentation we provided to find some banks willing to work with us, and we found a couple of banks so we could negotiate within the whole lot. Part of this process included documentation of a health check and any existing health conditions, a full account of all my assets (and if applicable, debts) worldwide, and probably more information.

While we waited for the pre-screen results, we also had to put down a deposit on the land in late January.

We had preliminary offers in early February, and were able to negotiate bits and pieces out of the lot. The planned decision deadline was for the last week of March, but we had decided which bank to go with a couple weeks ahead of time.

The next step was then to buy the land! This also involved registering the land in our name, which requires some official document with your name in some kind of Japanese script. The Japanese land ownership registry still doesn't support non-Japanese entries, so for those of us who have neither a Japanese nor Chinese passport, this will likely mean you'll need a document with your name in katakana. We used the juuminhyou, which was kind of an ordeal all its own, but that's for another post! We also needed a registered stamp (jitsuin) to stamp the loan forms for the land portion as well as the forms for making a bank account (which got us an interest rate discount!).

One thing that may be interesting is the loan isn't for everything at once, but instead split into a land portion and a construction/house portion. This does mean you take on debt and start paying on only the land part in between the two phases, so do keep that in mind. Some banks allow you to get a bridge loan that smooths this portion out, but it's also possible to just start the mortgage early in a way.

The execution of the land portion of the loan took place in mid-April, at which point we became land owners! We also became house owners as the previous house was still standing, but we weren't going to be spending any time in it.

Designing the House

Starting in February, we had regular meetings with the home builders to plan out and design the house itself. This took 6 sessions on various weekends from early February to mid-May, most of them taking place at the builder's Tokyo office with one at a Kansai office.

I should also mention that for one of the sessions, we went on a little tour of some showrooms for shops like TOTO and LIXIL to get a better idea of what kind of toilets, shower room, etc. we could work with. We had done some prior research, because it's fun and the world of toilets is fascinating, but house builders may have some restrictions on what configurations they can install, so it's still worth the ride-along.

Most design sessions took most of the day, starting at 10AM and going until anywhere from 3 to 6PM. There's a lunch break of course, but still something to be aware of.

Blessing the Land

The previous house was demolished throughout May, and we decided we also wanted to have a jichinsai (land blessing ceremony). Well, it was mostly me, but it only costs around 5-man, and it's a fun little novelty. The ceremony took place in early June on a weekend.

As a side note, if you decide to do a jichinsai, you will probably get a box of food things, such as an onion, a carrot, and so on. This box will probably contain a raw タイ, as in a red sea bream, and you will have to prepare it from the very beginning. We found using a bottle cap to de-scale it worked best of the methods we tried.

More Granular Design Choices

Deciding on some things, such as curtains, kitchen cupboard texture, wallpapers, flooring, etc. was a little more complicated with the distance between where we are now and where the house is being built (and subsequently, where the house builder's regional branch is). Typically they'd give us at a design session, or mail us, a catalog of the thing we had to pick out, then we'd email them with the candidates we wanted samples of, and then they'd mail us the samples for us to make a final decision on.

Progress Viewings

As construction approaches the last six weeks or so, progress will likely be far enough along that you can get a viewing of the inside. The first one of ours was mostly to preview the structure and verify intended placement of sockets and other fixtures.

Our builders also scheduled another viewing after this, which will be the last one before we do a final inspection as part of the handover of the completed house. We haven't had this viewing yet, so I don't know too much about what to expect aside from a more "complete" preview of the internals. But that's still exciting!

More Loan Procedures

In the last three to four weeks of waiting for the house, our bank scheduled the execution of the construction part of the loan. This is a much less complicated process than the land portion, as you don't need to do any of the land registration procedures this time.

...Waiting!

In between all of this, of course, is waiting!