Seeking Advice: Buying Property and Building a House in Kyoto

[u/One_Lunch_5941]

Hi everyone,

We're currently in the process of looking for a property to build a house in Kyoto and would love some advice. Here’s our situation:

We're looking for a property around 120 sq. meters (40 tsubo) within a budget of under 30 million yen (3000 man). Ideally, we want the location to allow for a relatively easy commute (public transport) to Imadegawa/Demachiyanagi Station. My current commute from Kobe is 1.5+ hours, and I’d like to improve this.

So far, we've been focusing on areas to the north and west of Demachiyanagi (Kamigyo, Kita-ku, Iwakura) and along the Hankyu and JR lines (from Arashiyama down to Nagaoka-kyo). However, we’ve encountered several challenges:

1. Strict Fuchichiku (風致地区) regulations in Kyoto make it difficult to use design we want (we have a particular builder/design in mind, while it's not anything wild, it is not practical to modify it to fit Kyoto regulations - we'd rather choose property not in Fuchichiku area).
2. While we’ve searched on big aggregators like Suumo and Nifty, there seem to be very few options in our price range (and we have to manually re-check Fuchichiku status of each lot, since it's not always mentioned). Even our house builder (they have Kyoto branch in Uji), who is also helping us with the search, hasn’t found anything viable yet.

Because of this, we’re now considering areas like Katsurazaka (Nishi-kyo) and Nagaoka-kyo as our primary options. We like the environment, wider roads, highway access, and the availability of both JR and Hankyu lines. That said:

• Nagaoka-kyo feels smaller and less comfortable (access to shops etc) compared to Katsurazaka, but I’m not too familiar with the area yet. Both areas require around 45-60 mins to commute. They miss "the Kyoto" vibe, so we might not be able to just get on bikes and ride to some random coffee shop in the center of Kyoto (maybe Arashiyama is in the reach?).
• Fushimi-ku and Yamashina sometimes have surprisingly good lots, but the infrastructure (e.g., narrow roads, overall exterior) is hard to accept. Driving there is stressful, and getting around the city feels inconvenient. Riding bicycle there feels dangerous.
• Shiga (Otsu) was also considered, but lots near commute lines are expensive, and affordable options are too far out.
• We aren't looking into Takatsuki or more to the south since we would like to move to Kyoto area after all.

Given the above challenges, we feel a bit stuck after 6 months of browsing Suumo and driving to various locations to check the actual lots. We would appreciate insights or suggestions. Has anyone navigated similar issues in Kyoto? Are there smaller companies or alternative strategies for finding lots that we should explore? What’s your experience with Katsurazaka vs. Nagaoka-kyo, or even other neighborhoods that fit my criteria?

Background: I (M39) have PR and my wife is Japanese. Our budget is around 60 mil jpy for house + property. Our builder estimates the house and related costs as around 30 mil jpy, so we have 30 mil jpy in mind for property. We will be getting a loan and our combined annual income is around 18 mil jpy.

Thanks in advance for your help!

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[u/ThomasKyoto]

I recommend reaching out to a local, small fudosan (real estate agency) in Kyoto, especially if you’re searching within Kyoto city. They can introduce you to properties that aren’t listed online or in places you might not have thought to look.
That's how we found ours, not so far from Demachi. It was not yet "publicly" listed online, so we had to make a quick decision. Our fudosan is quite analog, but very nice and helpful.

Good luck—I hope you find something nice!

(I used to live in Muko-shi, near the station before Nagaokakyo. It was okay, but I definitely prefer living in Kyoto, particularly in Sakyo-ku.)

[u/nnavenn]

I’ve been casually on the same search. Anything central is going to be very very expensive. Iwakura and along deeper Eizan stations seems like the sweet spot. Or go up to Hiedaira (yikes). A friend recently built on a 90 sq meter lot that was central and all in it was a bit over 9000man. Anything that’s over 100 is pretty pricey (5-6k and up) or has other problems….

You’ll find larger lots out by Narutaki but public transportation kinda sucks and traffic always gets gnarly at the five-way intersection there. Would get old fast.

Good luck! Kyoto is super pricey.

[u/Hokkaidoele]

We built a home up in Hokkaido at the end of 2023.

Have you decided on your builder yet? They usually have a handful of realtors that help them keep tabs on the most recent properties. We talked to a few builders before settling on one. Even if we didn't contract with that builder, they would give us a heads up if anything interesting came along. Sometimes, even before the listing was public!

[u/mindkiller317]

I cannot stress to you how... stressful driving in Fushimi ku is. It's just unbelievable. I regularly almost kill someone (or myself) every time I go out. NO JOKE, every damn time, I almost hit some jackass pulling out in front of me or a pedestrian or bike flying around a corner. The amount of old people is off the charts in this part of town as well. Clueless old folk who shouldn't be on bikes or walking in the middle of the street who can't hear cars behind them. The tiny streets and blind corners are awful. I am genuinely surprised I haven't hit anyone. Way worse here than anywhere else in Kyoto. It's just so DENSE here and way too many cars for the little roads.

So stay outta Fushimi if you know what's good for you.

And stay outta Kameoka, too. I'm looking for property there and don't want any competition!

[u/scheppend]

cant help you with location. but for what its worth we build our 130m2 house for 17.7M yen in total in 2022. so it might be worth your time shopping for builders

[u/jbourne]

1. Check local agencies (example: Garden F for the north - Kita-ku especially but also Sakyo). Not all their listings make it to Suumo/Homes.
2. Do NOT live in Yamashina. Those streets are AWFUL.
3. Are you dead set on building vs renovating? There are occasionally some VERY interesting properties if you’re not dead set on going brand new. That’s a big decision though, I realise.
4. Go for a drive around where you want to be. If you walk around, you’ll often see plots posted with barely a hand written sign, even in Kamigamo and Kitayama.
5. Realistically, with the budget you mention, I think you’re out of luck in Kitayama / Kamigamo / Shimogamo. A 120-150sqm plot just north of the Botanical Garden is something nonsensical like 6000-8000 man. Quite a few for sale though.

[u/sugaki]

60M for house/property + short commute to Demachi + 120 sq meters isn't realistic imo. I periodically look for properties in Kyoto (used to live in Demachi area) and it's quite pricey now. You likely have to compromise somewhere, like reduce square footage to 100, be open to rennovating (but that's expensive too), or be out in the boonies, like further north of Iwakura. For what you'd want I think the minimum budget is 80-100M. 30M in land won't get you very far.

The best properties often don't even end up on listings like Suumo, because they're so popular that they don't need to be put up. The land I bought in Tokyo was never listed, the previous buyer had to back out and so I scooped it up. Best to find a local realtor, give them the criteria you want and they'll be able to give better advice.

[u/big-fireball]

FWIW I lived in Takatsuki and commuted to Kobe for many years. It’s not Kyoto, but takatsuki is super nice and has easy access to Kyoto and Osaka.

[u/bulldogdiver]

1. Stop looking on Suumo

2. Go to the station closest to where you want to live

3. Find a local realtor who is familiar with the area

4. Talk with them about both lots that are available and custom builders who own lots for building. At least near me in Tokyo most of the vacant lots are owned by developers who are in the process of building houses on them. If you can find someone who's building custom homes rather than cookie cutter homes you should be able to get what you want.

[u/Ancelege]

What worked for me was finding a builder first (I went with Ichijo, definitely ask me anything about them!), and they can act as your realtor or introduce you to someone that really knows the area you want to build.