Owning your own home

I really hope that doesn't come across as snarky ^
100% not my intention :)

Would be interesting to hear how you went about it.

Did you have an engineer come in for the steel needed for the supporting wall? Considering similar myself.

Haunted.

Doesn't come across snarky at all good to get everyones experiences.
25k was prob an over estimation, I found everyone underestimated when I was looking so trying to counter balance to a degree (which prob doesn't actually help).
On a serious note I'm pretty sure my Kitchen was sub 10k and half of its custom so defo don't have to be spending crazy money.

Yep paid for an engineer to come and do the calcs for the steels - ca. £500

Builder did building work/roofing and sub'd the electrics/plumbing
Kitchen fitter sourced and fitted the kitchen (probably at a fairly competitive rate as he is a friend of an uncle of my partner)
I sourced the worktop separately and had it fitted by the same company (TOPSCO)
I arranged flooring skim and laying via Clarkes Flooring in Romford.
Appliances from AO - cheaper than Howdens and I bought the stuff that was better reviewed

I wouldn't rush to recommend the builder/kitchen fitter - both needed some nagging and there were a few snags but I'm over it now.

I had a through lounge created, inspected by BC, steels specced by a structural engineer, the whole lot plastered and it only cost me 1.8k.

I'm don't knock people that earn good money but some of these builders must be on 500/600 a day the numbers I've been seeing here.

Yes that's comparable with my experience.

Just thought I would drop in with something a bit different. Reading back through the conversations here made me really miss the UK and the thought of buying there...but oh well.

Currently in the process of designing and building my own place in Tokyo and it's a lot of fun but of course, stressful and time consuming. Buying a place/building here is completely different to the UK and it's interesting to see how it works on both sides.

Basically, we bought the land and the developer who sold it also build so we had the option to use them which we did. We have now decided and signed off on the floorplan and next meetings with architects will be to decide colours of floors/walls/external siding/roof etc.

Of course, much smaller than what we could get in the UK, but it sure feels good to own finally!

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That must be the dream! Would love to build my own place from scratch.

Quality! What goes in the service room?
Good luck with it!

It is awesome, but Japan regulates everything so heavily that you are limited on a lot of stuff e.g. land to building size ratio/how many floors etc. I wanted to go for a roof terrace to get some decent outside space, but local zoning means its a no-go.

Thanks! I was talking to the architect and he said they have to call it a service room because of the size of the windows/floor ratio. By law it can't be called a bedroom, but it's basically the same.

Right now the plan is to have my WFH setup/bike storage and a spare futon or two for when people visit.

I did speak to a bathroom fitter who wanted 600 a day.
Yeah nah mate.
My random guesstimates are for more than a supporting beam, was guessing taking pic a to pic b size wise (so a side return too).

Keeping out squatters.

Where in Tokyo are you? There is definitely a culture of knock down and rebuild new, have you been to any of those house showroom streets yet?

We are building in South Tokyo, Ota-ku, and that seems to be exactly what happened here, they knocked down a big older place and split the land in two. It's crazy, there are so many perfectly livable older houses around but nobody wants them.

We did visit a couple of those places outside of Tokyo, very bizarre, but good to evaluate all the different builders.

Borstal?

Only anecdotal, but aren't most buildings quite poor quality? Which I understood was part of the reason people knock down and rebuild.

Are the interiors really bland and full of white plastic gadgets and cheapo storage or is that just the youtubers I follow?

I think that used to be the case, especially with the number of earthquakes, people generally prefer something new and shiny, but I know people who bought older houses and they are still very robust. One thing here is they build for the summer rather than the winter so they can be quite drafty and cool in the winter, no central heating or double glazing as standard either unless you're in Hokkaido.

Haha, there are a lot of new places that look the same, almost prefab style where the developers pick everything from the same catalogue but there's a bit of room for building whatever you like if you pay. Definitely modern places lack the character of more traditional Japanese houses, especially in Tokyo where land is at a premium.

Once we get that far along I will share some pictures, hopefully it won't be too bland!

Hello thread I've been reading for years but never posted in.. Who's had a lovely time with an independent mortage advisor recently? Me and my wife both work full time so should be fairly straight forward...

Mike Brown at Crystal Clear went above and beyond for us, recommended in this thread, and he knows about this place

https://www.crystalclearfs.com/

I'm using Navigate Mortgages in NI. But that's only because my sister works there so am not paying the normal fee. But, initial impressions are good. Broker is technically independent and whole of market.