Kyushuu house dreams

Hello all!

I've had a plan to buy a house in Kyushu for a long while now. Until now it's been just a plan, but finally I've gotten around to doing some proper research.

The plan is to mainly use it as a vacation house for now, whenever I have holidays from work, and to enjoy life in Kyushu while having a place of my own.

I've set the estimated goal price for the house (including renovations) to around €30,000–€50,000, as it seems like a somewhat reachable goal.

I'm finally getting around to coming to Kyushu for a month after a while. I'll get a rental car, drive around, and hopefully meet some realtors I could chat with regarding my plans.

I have a few questions, and maybe someone here has experience with these topics:

It seems like renting a car for one month from local Japanese sites mainly requires a Japanese driver's license, which I do not own. Renting from English tourist sites is quite costly, as they only offer daily rates. Are there any companies that rent by the month to foreigners, and what kind of prices should I expect to pay for a full month?

I'd like to find a local realtor who deals with akiyas or renovated houses in the Kyushu area, instead of foreign companies. I can manage in Japanese, but if I found one who spoke even a bit of English, that would be a fantastic plus to fill in the gaps in my Japanese skills. Does anyone have recommendations for a company, or suggestions on where I could start looking? I'd like to send them a few emails and potentially even set up a brief meeting during my stay in Japan this year.

I've done thorough research regarding the costs of upkeep for the house while I'm away from Japan, but I'd like to hear more details about the expenses involved from some of you who currently have a holiday house in Japan. This would help me get a concrete list of things I need to keep in mind.

Thank you everyone in advance for your answers, and thank you to the host of the YouTube channel for bringing such a motivating series to life for the rest of us dreaming of a little escape to Japan!

In reply to kyushuunoyume

Hi and welcome to the Forum!

Which nationality is your passport? I ask because it actually matters for the car: most countries just need the International Driving Permit (that's what I do — UK licence + IDP), but a few (Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium and a couple of others) can't use the IDP in Japan at all and need an official translation of their licence through JAF instead.

I use Orix, you can book in English and don't even pay until you collect. I've used them 20+ times, various locations:

https://car.orix.co.jp/eng/

You can rent up to a month, and if you need longer just do back-to-back rentals.

With that budget you should be able to find something decent. Do you know where in Kyushu you'd like to buy? Kyushu is quite large! I personally like Fukuoka and the immediate area — 1st tier city but still relatively affordable, and one of the few Japanese cities actually growing in population rather than shrinking. Quite a "young" city too, attracts a lot of younger people.

For renovations I can recommend Ontex who did my roof, but it depends on the location.

I think first you need to narrow down which part of Kyushu you're considering. My Japanese friends helped me a lot with agent and renovation company interactions — if your search overlaps with their area, drop me a message via the contact page and I can see about putting you in touch, all depends where you're looking.

Also, do jump into the other threads — Timleedude and CaptainCanuck have been posting really good stuff and may not see this one. The forum's very young so it'll take a while before there are lots of people helping each other, but replying to their posts is a good way to get more eyes on your questions.

Thanks for the great answers!

I have a Finnish passport, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be allowed to drive with an IDP, but I’ll double‑check. I’ll also look into Orix’s pricing for a monthly rental.

So far I’ve mostly been looking at houses around Fukuoka, Kumamoto and Saga. I’d like to have a fairly big city within train reach, but not right in the middle of a bustling area.

At the moment I’ve only been browsing listings on Japanese empty‑house sites (with some help from AI) and haven’t contacted anyone yet. I'd be delighted to get some contacts who could possibly help me with this as soon as I've looked into a potential house, I'll be sure to drop you a message in that case!

I’ll check the other threads too, it’s nice to see other people with similar plans, and some who’ve already bought a house!

In reply to kyushuunoyume

Hi, I am sorry for delayed reply, I flew in to South Korea for a couple weeks, I am exploring an option of buying a property there as well, perhaps towards second half of next year - need to save up first!

My Japanese Fukuoka friends are joining me this weekend, so I will mention you to them if you want when they arrive. If you want, use the "Contact" option on here to send me the email address you want them to reply to see if they can help.