Foreclosed Property of the Week: Bunkyo Ku
Posted: Friday, 03rd of August 2012
Firstly, fantastic central location, Bunkyo ku is one of the most stable wards in Tokyo. Many universities and schools so has quite a suburban feel to most part of it off the main roads. The property itself is only a seven minute walk to Toei Mita Line's, Sengoku Station, and less than 15 minutes to 2 other very convenient and interesting stations, including Shin-Otsuka with the Marunouchi Line and of course the one and only Sugamo with JR Yamanote Line. Komagome Station which also sports the convenient Nanboku Subway Line is a 20 minute walk.
We also like the layout. 47m2 so you can assume 50m2 if you were equating with real estate agent measurements, features double sided light with a wide, south facing balcony. Separate Toilet, bathroom, and even space for your washing machine!! A simple layout with nice size Kitchen (DK) combining well with the western-style room to make a comfortable and bright living Area. If it were me, and i were living there, i'ld probably lose the sliding door completely and cut a nice size window in the short partition between the kitchen and Living Room just to give it a more "open" feel. Not forgetting the essentials, good storage in both Living and Bedrooms and a definite bonus for those of us living in Tokyo a window over the kitchen.
Ok so let's talk about the money side of things. The building is 34 years old, with 11 years left on it's depreciation clock. The Building fee is a little strong for our liking at 21,660JPY/ month but it's good to know that over half is "kitty" money for repairs and building upkeep. From a "Google Street View" perspective the building looks very clean and well maintained, typical of this well reputed property manager. Nontheless a site visit is essential to ensure that infact this is case and there are no structural surprises either! The appraisal value of the property is at 8,430,000 JPY which is particularly low for an apartment this size and location. The building is tenanted by a family currently paying 128,000JPY. This could be a positive or negative depending on the prospective buyers intentions and there would be various ways to handle this down the line. However as a safety you may be best served, as always, by incorporating worst case scenario in your calculations. That is, not being paid rent for 6months (say 800,000JPY) although this may possibly not happen. You will also want to allow for arrears which at the time of settlement(around end of September) will be around 380,000JPY. It is difficult to estimate the selling price at auction on this one but if i had too, I would expect it to sell in the high 12 to mid 13million JPY. If i really wanted it, 14Mill (166% of appraisal). Excellent value from either investors (approx. gross ROI of 10% after buying costs) or owner occupiers for such a stable, reputable, superbly positioned property. If you were buying this property through a conventional realtor expect between 20 early 21Million JPY.
Your bid and deposit must be in by 5pm Thursday 23rd of August, 2012.
If you do bid on this property don't forget to budget for associated fees, possible lost rent and of course the arrears. Good Luck and Bid to Win!
Disclaimer: SleepWell has not thoroughly investigated this property and accepts no responsibility of loss due to purchase or attempts to purchase this property. It is absolutely imperative that the prospective buyer undertakes his own investigation or requests the assistance of SleepWell Consulting in procuring this property for them.
To see details of this property and many others visit SleepWell Homes' website, sleepwellhomes.jp
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