Man, I know Adamu is totally pumped about his FREE MONEY, but get this: a colleague in Australia revealed to me that she is thinking of buying a brand new, beautiful beachside condominium. I asked her what prompted the buy and here was her response:
only reason i’m thinking of getting something now is cos the government is basically giving first home owners free money towards buying something – $26,000 for an off-the-plan (ie, not yet built) place. the government’s grant is only until end of June! if it wasn’t for the free money, i would not be thinking of purchasing at this stage.
Wow, at present exchange rates that’s about 350x the benefit given here in Japan — although for a far more specific use, and only available to a limited number of people in a position to make such a purchase in the next few months.
wow, given that kind of money, I would probably buy an apartment in Japan (if I could secure an affordable loan, being gaijin without permanent residency, of course)
Well, the downside is that you have to buy your house in Australia, where it will burn down or be invaded by poisonous animals within a year.
Is there really no support for first-time home buyers in Japan? I know of a private deal that a friend stitched up with a construction company that owned land. Basically if he was willing to use their architects and construction firm he could get a discount. The U.S. also has deals like this. You get an $8000 tax refund (and a cheque for the remainder if you pay less than $8000 in taxes) as a first-time homebuyer in DC, provided you meet certain criteria.
In Japan, doesn’t the government stipulate that first-time home buyers get preferential rates (1-2% interest)? In Australia, 7% is considered “good” and given that house prices in Australia are high (the median house price is over 10 times the median household income in many areas) $26,000 wouldn’t cover the first year worth of interest on many places.
The key would be to take out a loan in a Japanese bank for use in Australia. The rates are crazy low in Japan, and the exchange rate probably can’t get better for those moving money from Japan to Australia. The key is just finding a bank that would give a loan for such use…
Actually the rates in Australia are a bit lower then that (4.5 – 6%). Australian banks are not known for doing the consumers any favours – however – because of that and conservative policies they are in much better shape then most of the banks in the rest of the world right now. The first home owners grant started over 10 years ago and is widely believed to have been a major driver in the property boom causing the prices to nearly triple in some suburbs over the past decade. Australian property in major cities, in relation to income, is some of the most unaffordable in the world.
And the kicker is all the taxes paid to the government when purchasing one. $26,000 would just cover taxes and conveyancing fees on the average loan in a city.
Seeing what happened to the entire country of Iceland has put me off the idea of mortgage arbitrage.
Thanks Citydweller, but didn’t the rates just drop lately from around 10%? I could be confusing with NZ.
Curzon, if you find such a place, please let us know. I had a well-to-do Japanese in-law investigate the potential of said move but they couldn’t give him a “mortgage” for an overseas property, just a line of credit of about $200,000 US at around 5% interest – not really worth all of the to and fro.
“The key is just finding a bank that would give a loan for such use…”
Wouldn’t that only be possible if you have a house or similar property in Japan that you could mortgage? Then you could take that money and use it to buy your house in Australia or wherever.
A few months ago the rate was 9.5 in NZ. Now it is about 5.5.
M-Bone, that could be worth it considering the exchange rate. But I’ll of course keep you posted if I hear anything.
Thanks Curzon and do keep me posted.
While it could be a good deal, I don’t have a Japanese income – which means that I could lose big if the yen appreciates further. I’m also in an area where, unfortunately, $200,000 won’t get you much in the way of property.
I’m sure that $200,000 would allow me to play the daily market spikes and drops to a decent profit (did a simulation of this last month and ended up +12% in a two week period), but in the end, I enjoy coming up with nefarious money-making schemes, but am too risk averse to actually do them.