
Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses - rmason
https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/japan-free-abandoned-house
======
iandanforth
The more interesting thing about this is that it is part of a new type of
economics, _contraction economics._ The global trend toward birth rates below
replenishment means that first-world countries are maintaining their
population growth through immigration. As some countries embrace restrictions
on immigration, and ultimately all countries plateau in their population
growth (projected to be around 2100) it means that the driving force behind
increases in property value (population increases) will be curtailed.*

As we saw in 2008 curtailing or reversing growth in real-estate can have major
impacts on society, but in the future this won't be just a correction it will
be a new phase of global economics. There will be _fewer humans each year_
making the total pressure on land values negative. Even before that an aging
workforce will cause the total working population to contract (as it already
has in Japan). Everything the Japanese do with more land and fewer workers is
a canary in the coal mine for the global economy.

One of the great predicates of modern economics (perpetual expansion) will
need to be re-thought. In some ways it's great news (more space for everyone
after the great pinch of the 21st century) but in others it will necessarily
wipe out the speculative aspect of many current growth markets. Contraction
economics means deflation becomes a norm not an exception.

* Urbanization means cities will lag behind this reversal.

~~~
jameslk
Japan is not a very good proxy due to their strict immigration policies and
preference to be an "ethnically homogeneous nation." As you mentioned, other
countries can just replenish their head count through relaxed immigration. I'd
wager, for example, that the US will remain highly multicultural with looser
immigration long term since it's baked into its identity[0], despite some
recent policy changes.

0\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melting_pot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melting_pot)

~~~
laurieg
"Japan has strict immigration policies" is often repeated, but I don't think
this is tells the whole story. Some of the policies are very permissive:

* If you graduated university and have a 'skilled' job in Japan, you are likely to get a visa. There is no cap on the number of these. There is no language requirement.

* If you live in Japan for over 5 years continuously you can apply for citizenship, though you must renounce any other citizenships.

* If you live in Japan for over 10 years you are eligible for permanent residency.

* If you are married to a Japanese national you can do any kind of work and get permanent residency in 3 years.

* If you have enough points on the highly skilled professional visa you can get permanent residency in 1 year. This is retroactive as long as you lived in Japan during that time, you don't even need to have had the highly skilled professional visa.

So, is it really an issue of policy? I think the causes may lie elsewhere.

~~~
swombat
Based on my experience visiting Japan and talking to both expats and expat-
friendly locals there, I think the issue is more cultural than political. If
you live in Japan but don't look Japanese you never really feel welcomed as a
Japanese.

Contrast that to countries like most of the West, where at least a solid
proportion of people consider it socially unacceptable to discriminate
socially based on someone's looks or origins...

~~~
jaredklewis
> Contrast that to countries like most of the West, where at least a solid
> proportion of people consider it socially unacceptable to discriminate
> socially based on someone's looks or origins..

Those things are also socially unacceptable in Japan. My experience is that
the often discussed "micro-agressions" against foreigners happen about as
often in Japan as they do in my own country (US, grew up in Texas).

Of course, the only complaints that foreigners in Japan can make is about
trivia. The US is so fucked up that we cannot seem to stop shooting unarmed
black men, we're separating mothers from babies, and as of last week now tear
gassing families at the border. So not sure if you are American, but many of
the foreigners in Japan that complain of discrimination are, and I just want
to say that I think it takes a lot of balls for an American in Japan to be
like "hey, you guys can do a lot better with the discrimination thing."

As horrifying as someone being impressed with your ability to use chopsticks
is, it's not quite so horrifying as being literally shot for walking on the
street.

Many people in the US freeze up if a black person so much as walks by them on
the street. And on the other side of the pacific? Ask a random stranger for
directions; 9 times out of 10 they will stop whatever they are doing and walk
with you to wherever you are going.

~~~
loveyourmother
>The US is so fucked up that we cannot seem to stop shooting unarmed black men

Twice as many white men are shot by police but I can't remember the last time
I saw a national news story about one of them. Name one in recent years you
heard covered in the national news. [0] I edited out "unarmed". That ratio
slightly favors white males.

>we're separating mothers from babies, and as of last week now tear gassing
families at the border.

Everyday, across this beautiful land, we seperate children from their parents
for commiting crimes. We have a legal immigration system.

What does Japan do to people who enter illegally? How many refugees did they
take in 2017? 20. Out of 20,000 applications. They could do a little more,
right? [1]

[0][https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/police...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/police-
shootings-2018/?utm_term=.3508fbf32b99)

[1][https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/16/japan-
asylum-a...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/16/japan-asylum-
applications-2017-accepted-20)

~~~
crc32
> Twice as many unarmed white men are shot by police

I visited your link and could not see a matching statistic.

Filtering by "unarmed" and hovering over "Race" I got a count of 19 White, 15
Black, 4 Hispanic.

I then also had a quick look at the article for "Brett Luengo", [0] (White)
which states i.e. "Luengo attacked a woman first..." etc. etc.; I mean it goes
on for quite a while. So seems like there's a big variation in the definition
of "unarmed man" shooting that doesn't preclude other kinds of violent or
aggressive activity/indications.

Looks to me like the statistics are not really telling the whole story there
so maybe that's why you don't hear them "covered in the national news".

[0] [https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/cleveland-
met...](https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/cleveland-metro/deputy-
involved-shooting-on-i-90-in-cuyahoga-couty)

~~~
loveyourmother
> I visited your link and could not see a matching statistic.

I was wrong. Police kill twice as many whites but I shouldn't have included
the unarmed qualifier.

> I then also had a quick look at the article for "Brett Luengo"

He did attack but I think it still qualifies. I personally didn't hear of this
one but a google search shows it was covered, even if not very extensively. It
was picked up on national news.

Even still, the comment that law enforcement is wholesale killing young
unarmed black males is just false.

~~~
mrunkel
Given that there are 5 times as many white folks as black in the US, that stat
isn't saying what you think it is.

Black people are still more likely to be shot than white people.

I don't think that anyone reasonable ever claimed that the police were
'wholesale killing young unarmed black males,' just that it happens too often.

------
bobthepanda
The US saw similar efforts in Detroit and other Rust Belt cities. That mostly
just resulted in asset flippers hoarding houses and letting them fall into
further disrepair. I wonder what steps Japan is taking to mitigate that
possibility.

~~~
ransom1538
Detroit: If you have a credit card and a want to own an apartment building, it
is the place to be. Just needs some elbow grease. There _MUST BE_ opportunity
at $5 USD per square foot -- but it is hard to visualize.

[https://www.point2homes.com/US/Multi-Family-For-
Sale/MI/Detr...](https://www.point2homes.com/US/Multi-Family-For-
Sale/MI/Detroit/Durfee/3707-WAGER-Street/51690101.html)

[I think you can talk this guy down to $10k].

~~~
discordianfish
If they’d throw in a working visa I’d be intrigued

~~~
dahdum
If you could pull that off, sounds like an incredible program to me. I don't
think anything could revitalize Detroit like large amounts of immigrants
would.

~~~
monocasa
And Detroit already has a large immigrant population, so it's not that much of
a culture shock.

~~~
dahdum
From Wikipedia looks like they are below the national average, but I'd posit
that means the upside is that much larger.

My favorite example of this process is booming South Florida, where more than
half of adults are foreign born. Houston is another great one, with 23%
foreign born.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Metro_Detroit#...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Metro_Detroit#Immigration_and_foreign-
born_origins) > 5% of people within the city of Detroit are immigrants, making
the percentage of immigrants in Detroit the lowest such percentage out of
those of the 25 largest cities in the United States. The national average is
about 13%

~~~
monocasa
The city itself has a very low immigrant population, but as is listed in your
source, surrounding suburbs have very large immigrant populations. For
instance Hamtranck has 43% born out of the country.

------
mettamage
So wait, there are places where there are houses being given away (e.g. US,
Japan and Italy as far as I know) and I'm a person that has the ability to
work remotely.

Am I missing something? Is this my ticket to cheap housing and a more stress
free life? At what point am I going to be scammed and/or disappointed?

~~~
pj_mukh
Is it just me or is the prospect of working from home in the middle of nowhere
terrifying?

When you work from home, you wanna leave home often, where do you go if you're
in the middle of nowhere?

I work from home in the middle of a dense city, pay a premium for it! You
leave home and there are about 100 places (cafes, theatres, museums, parks
etc.) I can go to that are walking distance. Is that possible in say rural
Michigan, where housing is apparently practically free?

~~~
freetime2
I work remotely from "rural" Japan. I am surrounded by rice fields and
mountains, but also only a 10 minute drive or 20 minute bike/bus ride to the
city center where there is shopping and night life. From there it's a couple
hours to Tokyo by bullet train, which I visit a handful of times a year.

There are old or abandoned houses nearby that can be had for very little
money.

I love being in the mountains. I get outdoors for cycling, hiking, running, or
skiing almost every day.

The language barrier is a bit scary, but fortunately I knew enough to get by
on day-to-day tasks. Google translate is also a godsend.

~~~
inawarminister
Wait, you do this before getting an N3? How is that possible?

~~~
rococode
Not sure if this is what OP used, but the Google Translate app is nearing sci-
fi levels of accuracy and speed. The conversation function is good enough that
you can talk with someone while both using different languages and actually
understand each other with minimal delay.

~~~
inawarminister
Yes but I was under the impression that Japanese long term work visa was only
granted to those that had achieved N3 in Japanese language, seems I might be
under a mistaken impression...

~~~
asp_hornet
OP probably has N3.

I have no idea why anything other than N2 and N1 exist. N3 is basically
useless, I got it in under 6 months of studying and I’m a slow learner (my
Korean and Chinese peers were going for N2 at that time). I still couldn’t
function well with it. I was so disappointed by it I skipped 2 and went
straight to N1.

------
arkitaip
This sounds great but you have to factor in that up to very recently, houses
have been fairly poorly built in Japan as they prefer to demolish and build
anew. Average lifespan of a house in Japan is 20-30 years. Which means that it
doesn't always make sense to renovate these abandoned houses.

Some reading:

[https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/16/japan-
reusabl...](https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/16/japan-reusable-
housing-revolution)

[https://www.economist.com/finance-and-
economics/2018/03/15/w...](https://www.economist.com/finance-and-
economics/2018/03/15/why-japanese-houses-have-such-limited-lifespans)

[http://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-are-japanese-homes-
dispo...](http://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-are-japanese-homes-disposable-a-
new-freakonomics-radio-podcast-3/)

[https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-
business/disposable-...](https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-
business/disposable-homes-japan-environment-lifespan-sustainability)

[https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2014/03/31/how-
tos/ja...](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2014/03/31/how-
tos/japans-30-year-building-shelf-life-is-not-quite-true/)

~~~
masklinn
> This sounds great but you have to factor in that up to very recently

Has that changed?

I assume you get the actual property, not just the house sitting on it. The
land is what japan generally values.

~~~
ska
Houses are depreciating assets. It's the land that has value most places.

~~~
TheGRS
Japan seems to be the exception actually, in the US houses certainly are
appreciating assets, market crashes and such notwithstanding.

~~~
ska
Usually the _land_ they are on is appreciating. The houses themselves
depreciate.

Sometimes the distinction doesn't matter - but here one of the things we are
talking about people knocking down serviceable houses to build new ones. This
approach can sometimes even be compelling if land prices rise to a degree
completely out of character with the homes originally built on them. See, for
example, SF bay and Vancouver.

------
ArtWomb
This is cool. Would not know where to begin with gut renovation in Japan,
though. And some of these look quite weathered.

In US for example, you can typically sub-contract parts of the renovation to
get decent pricing. One team for the basement flooring. One for waterproofing
/ sump pump installation. And then perhaps install drywall / paint DIY.

Of course this is aided by close availability to Home Depot, Lowes, and wide
array of contractor grade materials and fixtures ;)

~~~
ComputerGuru
Japan doesn't renovate. It's probably the only country in the world where
"used homes" are considered something to be ashamed of. People buy homes only
to knock them down and start over, even if they're only a year or two old.

EDIT: You can read about it here: [https://www.economist.com/finance-and-
economics/2018/03/15/w...](https://www.economist.com/finance-and-
economics/2018/03/15/why-japanese-houses-have-such-limited-lifespans)

~~~
onetimemanytime
Insane, every 22 years house goes to zero value. Probably adding relatively
little money can extend the life to 40-50 or so. If I'm 30 and buy a house,
makes no sense to need to tear it down when I'm 52.

~~~
TheGRS
Its just thinking of your house as a depreciating asset instead of an
appreciating one. Much like a car. I actually can't imagine wanting to live in
the same house for more than 10 years.

~~~
ghaff
>I actually can't imagine wanting to live in the same house for more than 10
years.

Why? Unless your needs/life change so much that you either need to move
somewhere or want a fundamentally different property. (Which of course aren't
uncommon.)

But, in my case, my needs haven't radically changed. I've updated my 200 year
old house to be like I want it. I can imagine a lifestyle change but it
certainly wouldn't be to another house in the same area.

~~~
TheGRS
I probably worded that poorly, I meant I can't personally imagine living in
the same house for 10 years. I can see why others would want to.

------
techaddict009
The title says "Japan Is Giving Away 8 Million Abandoned Houses — Here's How
to Get One (Video)" there is nothing explained in the article nor in the video
how to get one!

~~~
laurieg
The article title is misleading. A better title would be:

"Japan has 8 million abandoned houses. A small fraction are being given away"

The article then links to a blog which occasionally links to empty houses for
sale for very low prices. The blog gets its information from local government
"empty house banks". Many local governments have these, but lots of them are
not web based, you would have to go to the government offices in person to ask
about empty houses.

In reality, the best way to find an empty house in Japan is to go driving
around the countryside and talk to some locals. They know who owns what and
who might be interested in selling.

------
innocentoldguy
I went to Japan in March to buy one of these houses for a vacation home (I go
to Japan once or twice a year). I could have bought a decent sized house in
rural Japan for about $20,000 at the time, but most of them I looked at needed
a ton of work and there weren't many shopping areas and other amenities
nearby. I ended up buying an older condo just outside of Tokyo and fixing that
up instead. It cost more, but it works for me.

~~~
samstave
Mind sharing what you had to spend? This would be fascinating to do, but would
be great to know the actual costs involved.

Also, would you share, more in depth, the experience as a whole: Do you speak
Japanese, married to a Japanese citizen/are one? What was the biggest
unexpected etc...

Basically, a blog post about such an endeavor would be great reading...

THanks

~~~
innocentoldguy
Sure. I'm an American, I'm fluent in Japanese, and I'm married to a Japanese
citizen. However, I think it would be easy enough to find an English-speaking
guide to go around with you and look at houses. I could suggest some people,
if you're interested.

Regarding the houses, there were different requirements depending on the city
we looked at. For example, in Sadogashima the cost was about $20,000 for a
house, but then the city would pay you $10,000 to $15,000 just to move there
because their population is dwindeling, so the house would only end up being
$5,000 to $10,000 dollars. The only requirement for the deal in Sadogashima
was that you had to commit to live there for at least a year or two. Other
areas we looked were between Tokyo and Sendai. The costs were about the same
everywhere we looked, but some areas would only sell these abandoned homes to
people with young children, or between childbearing ages, because they wanted
their kids to settle in those towns as well.

I think the most unexpected thing was the zoning laws in some of the areas.
For example, in a few cases, the house was in the middle of the block and the
only way to access it was via a narrow alley between two other houses. Zoning
laws allowed the existing house to be there, but prohibited it from being torn
down and rebuilt, and some of them were in desperate need of being rebuilt. If
you do decide to look at these free/cheap houses in Japan, make sure to do
your due diligence so you don't get stuck with crap heap that you cannot do
anything with.

We ended up buying an old condo just outside of Tokyo for about $100,000. It
was cheap because it had been neglected and was in bad shape and somebody had
died there. I put another $30,000 into it to gut and remodel it. It cost more,
but I figured I'd have to get a Japanese drivers' license, buy a car, register
it, and insure the car if I lived in a rural area, whereas I could get by with
just a bicycle and the trains if I live around Tokyo. I opted for a higher
immediate cost and a lower long-term cost by buying where I wouldn't need a
car. There's a lot more to do around Tokyo as well. So far, I've been happy
with the decicion.

I thoroughly enjoyed traveling around rural Japan for three weeks, talking to
people and looking at houses. I'd do it again just for the experience.

~~~
NovaS1X
Thanks for this. I'm Canadian and married to a Japanese. We're starting to
think long term about something like this, as I really want the life
experience living in Japan and she's not super comfortable where we are now.

Do deals like this happen often? What do you do for work? I'm a sysadmin so
I'm worried about work options, but that's a different conversation.

~~~
innocentoldguy
I’m a writer and software engineer. I’ve never seen deals like this before and
I find it sad that their population is shrinking so much the these deals
exist.

You should be able to find a job in one of the big cities. You’d have to
commute, but the trains make that easy enough, I think.

------
mirimir
The site opens with a message that probably violates GDPR. In that access
requires agreement to third-party tracking by US firms. So here's an archive:
[https://web.archive.org/web/20181128233021/https://www.trave...](https://web.archive.org/web/20181128233021/https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-
news/japan-free-abandoned-house)

------
beager
Isn't it prohibitively hard to reside in Japan as an outsider? How can they
expect to move up to 8mm houses unless predominantly to existing Japanese? Am
I missing something?

~~~
titanix2
Yes, you're missing that foreigners are not the target of these deals. Also
it's not terribly complicated to get a visa to come here: you basically need
at least a bachelor degree and to find a job. Given how the job market is
starving for employees, it is not really hard. I know a half-dozen people of
my country and my age that did it.

~~~
blocked_again
Aren't software engineers treated badly in Japan?

~~~
0x8BADF00D
All workers are. It’s practically indentured servitude, based on what I’ve
read. It is also exceedingly difficult to be an entrepreneur there. Don’t get
me wrong though, it’s a beautiful country to visit.

~~~
chasontherobot
Whenever people say this, its always "based on what they've read".

Real work culture varies from company to company here, and isn't that
different than US work culture overall.

------
nihonde
Homes in Japan are generally depreciating assets with a roughly 20-30 year
lifespan. Some of these homes being given away are older, but when you take
ownership, you’re basically getting land value. Whether or not the land is an
appreciating asset is unknown, but the fact that no one wants it today says a
lot. On the other hand, satoyama lifestyle is pretty special and amazing. I
wonder if that culture can survive without a continuous lineage?

------
rayraegah
This is just one of the many initiatives by the government or a local body to
give away houses. The population in remote areas of Japan (aside from tourism)
is declining quite fast.

I've had friends who have bought houses for as cheap as $600 in remote areas
of Japan. [1]

If you are interested in owning a house in Japan then Okutama (a town close to
Tokyo) is giving away houses with certain conditions. [2]

There are at least five other programs scattered around the Kyushu island and
around the Tohoku region. You may want to check areas affected by natural /
man-made disasters such as Rikuzentakata, which are "reviving" its cities or
towns.

If you are a tourist you'll get accommodation and travel tickets to these
"reviving" towns (free of charge) as well (just need to know where to look).
[3]

[1] [https://imgur.com/74zVNlE](https://imgur.com/74zVNlE)

[2]
[https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/11/04/national/social...](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/11/04/national/social-
issues/aging-tokyo-town-lures-young-residents-offers-houses-land/)

[3]
[https://www.detouur.com/rikuzentakatamain/](https://www.detouur.com/rikuzentakatamain/)

~~~
pax
> If you are a tourist you'll get accommodation and travel tickets to these
> "reviving" towns (free of charge) as well.
> [https://www.detouur.com/rikuzentakatamain/](https://www.detouur.com/rikuzentakatamain/)

This particular example you gave, while probably cheap, is not free
(~$225/day)

~~~
rayraegah
oh wow, didn't see that charge added there. We took the trip for free but that
was six months ago.

------
usaphp
These houses look incredibly depressing and pretty old [1]. Not sure anyone
would want to live in the middle of anything in a house that looks even worse
than some places in Detroit.

1 - [https://inakanoseikatsu.com/wp-
content/uploads/2017/11/sagis...](https://inakanoseikatsu.com/wp-
content/uploads/2017/11/sagishima_in-1024x527.png)

~~~
freetime2
Not free, but I ran a search for nearby used homes and this is the cheapest
one that came up:

[https://www.rakusumu.com/sale/detail/00088-200291](https://www.rakusumu.com/sale/detail/00088-200291)

That's about $7000 USD, and while I am sure there are many issues, it looks
livable at least. It's also a decent enough location, close to the beach,
shopping, a train station, schools, etc. It's not for me, but for someone
looking to eliminate rent/mortgage payments from their life it could be an
option.

Or if you're willing to step up considerably you could do something like this:

[https://www.rakusumu.com/sale/detail/00007-200159](https://www.rakusumu.com/sale/detail/00007-200159)

That's about $95k USD... and with no down payment and a 35 year fixed loan at
2.05% [1], your mortgage payments would be about $320/mo. Much cheaper than I
suspect many HN readers pay in rent and you would own a fairly large and newly
renovated house. Note however that to get a loan as a foreigner in Japan you
would probably need to be a permanent resident. Also... I cringe a bit to
think of how cold that house must be in winter.

Anyway - my point is not to disagree with you because I think you're right
about probably not wanting to live in any house you can get for free. Rather
just to point out that if anyone is really interested in moving to Japan,
there are lots of affordable housing options to be found at number of
different price points.

[1]
[https://www.shinseibank.com/english/housing/loan_kinri.pdf](https://www.shinseibank.com/english/housing/loan_kinri.pdf)

------
HillaryBriss
> _If this continues, at some point it may be necessary to consider limiting
> new construction. But that would have a substantial impact on the economy._

Lots of housing no one wants, but, we still need to keep building other
housing that people do want.

Reminds me of the US labor market. Lots of people companies don't want to hire
so we gotta bring in other people that companies do want to hire.

But, what should the US do with those unwanted people?

------
tagami
What the article is missing are the restrictions being imposed on age and size
of family. They hope young families will come into the rural areas and
reinvigorate these towns. Here is another article with more specific details.

[https://www.rethinktokyo.com/free-houses-japan-
countryside](https://www.rethinktokyo.com/free-houses-japan-countryside)

------
RobertRoberts
Late comment, but I have a relative in Japan and I asked about this:

"The empty houses are caused by two factors. Aging population with younger
people moving to the cities and the the way property taxes work. Empty lots
have much higher taxes than ones with houses on them. So if a house becomes
empty because of people dying off, it’s cheaper to just let an old house be
abandoned and wait until you are ready to rebuild than to tear it down and pay
high taxes. Houses aren’t worth much in Japan. Average houses aren’t built to
last as earthquakes and humidity tend to cause deterioration. However the
government will take the property if the taxes aren’t paid on it for a certain
period. The free houses isn’t really a thing."

------
squozzer
In Detroit some people - actually, Bill Pulte - are razing dwellings with an
eye on redevelopment.

[https://www.theblightauthority.com/](https://www.theblightauthority.com/)

------
ChristianGeek
There are only 49 million homes in Japan according to Google. 8 million
abandoned homes means that almost one in six homes are abandoned. Is that
possible?!

~~~
baybal2
Yes, that's better than China (22% vacancy rate, without counting rural
regions)

------
aaroninsf
Not immediately seeing any information on whether foreigners can acquire these
houses, or if it's limited to citizens or permanent residents etc.

~~~
sparkzilla
There's no restriction, but these properties are really in a bad way. You
might also want to look at Japan Real Estate:
[https://www.realestate.co.jp/en/](https://www.realestate.co.jp/en/)

------
zawerf
Is “Wolf Children” an accurate portrayal of what it will be like to renovate
one of these houses? (minus the wolves)

------
norswap
So could any foreigner (non-Japanese national with no particular business in
Japan) seize one of those up?

------
danschumann
If something violent happened in a house.. and people believe that this is bad
luck.. does this make those people more likely to commit violent acts against
the next home-owner, like self fulfilling prophecy?

------
jordache
Sucks to be a current home owner in the general vicinity of these free homes.

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samirillian
I lived in one of these! My friend was married to a Japanese woman and they
got a free 10 year lease on an abandoned house. It was very romantic,
especially with the tanuki running around in the ceiling.

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sexy_devil
How would one actually go about purchasing one of these 'free' houses? It
doesn't seem to be a very foreigner friendly website.

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mrnobody_67
Solution to SF homelessness problem.

~~~
megaman8
i don't know why this is being downvoted. the core idea is a good one. Start
moving people away from expensive areas and have them populate areas like the
rust belt where housing is much cheaper. Detroit is pretty cost effective as
others have mentioned.

~~~
brixon
Rust belt and Detroit get cold in the winter. Homeless people gravitate to
places that will not kill them in their sleep. The climate (temperate/weather,
government, and population) are what draw homeless to specific areas.

~~~
ggggtez
The parent is implying you'd buy them the property, not just move them and
still have them sleep outside.

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timwaagh
i think landlords would still buy some of these at a discount (but not
nothing) just to gain market share. thats assuming they dont get taxed very
much.

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ajobforme
there are only 6 properties listed for free. 6 < 8M

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desdiv
Out of those 6:

\- 4 have already been transferred, so it's only free if you have a time
machine

\- the other 2 are dead links

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ezoe
If you want to live in a off-grid area. Sure.

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onetimemanytime
as soon as I sell my $5 Detroit homes :).

There's a reason they're being given for free...

~~~
hinkley
I always felt like The Walking Dead was missing an opportunity to do some
good.

Years ago I read about a movie production crew that got permission to demolish
a rundown public building as part of filming in exchange for rebuilding it
afterward.

For TWD you could use several of those abandoned Detroit neighborhoods for a
sequence and then bulldoze the neighborhood to the foundations afterward,
reducing the health and safety concerns.

~~~
lostgame
Ha. The idea of using Detroit for TWD, or even perhaps it's own spinoff
series, is pretty gold, tbh.

~~~
SirLJ
It's not about the location, but about the tax credits...

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antidaily
Gov Snyder (with house) got rid of tax credits.

~~~
SirLJ
= no Walking Dead in Detroit :-)

