All of Toyama Prefecture, Ishikawa and Hida / direct purchase of vacant houses and kominka
We are the buyer, not an agent. A house with a sound frame is not demolished: we pass it on to someone who restores and lives in it, or a company that uses it. Repairs and disposal of any belongings left behind are on us.
The vacant houses and kominka we buy in Toyama go to people who restore and live in them, or to companies that use them as staff housing. Thick beams and posts, a wide earthen floor: houses with qualities today's homes lack become someone's everyday life again. A timber-frame house too damaged to live in is carefully dismantled, and its beams and posts go on to the next house as reclaimed timber. Founded in Yatsuo, Toyama in 1970, our company handles purchase, design, construction and the upkeep after handover in one place.
We don't deduct demolition costs because we have no intention of demolishing and discarding a house with a sound frame. Whether we restore it or reclaim the timber is decided after seeing the house (a house whose frame is too damaged to repair is appraised on the assumption of clearing the site). We also wrote separately about why a house an agent called "worth zero" can still have a price when demolition is not assumed.
What decides whether we buy a house as a “kominka” is not its age but its frame. Houses in Toyama are built with thick posts and beams to bear the weight of snow on the roof: the azumadachi farmhouses standing in the scattered settlements of the Tonami Plain, houses with a wakunouchi great room framed from thick posts and beams set like a well-curb, the gassho-style houses of Gokayama. Many are still structurally sound past 80 years old. Conversely, once the frame itself has rotted, the repair cost exceeds the cost of rebuilding.
We look at damage in three stages. Damage to the interior finishes and fittings — wallpaper, tatami, the kitchen, the bathroom — barely affects the building's value. Damage to components — roofing, outer walls, floorboards, gutters — we simply deduct the repair cost from the offer. And damage to the structure — posts, beams, the sill, footing stones, roof framing, the parts that hold the house up — decides whether it has a price at all. What makes a house look “damaged” is usually the interior: wallpaper, the kitchen and so on. A company that prices a house on a demolition basis doesn't separate out these three stages.
The site survey takes about an hour, and there's a set order for what we check: the roof framing, the base of the posts, the sill and footing stones, dryness underfloor. These four places decide the frame's value almost entirely; the wallpaper and kitchen come afterwards, as a question of how much it costs to redo them. Even if the base of a post has rotted a little, it can be spliced with new timber. Resetting footing stones or replacing the sill are jobs we do routinely too. We're a builder holding both a construction licence and a real estate licence, so we can repair the houses we buy ourselves.
Carved transoms, kumiko screens and a wakunouchi beam frame count in the appraisal, because they decide the value of the restored house. A kura storehouse has thick walls and can usually be kept as long as the roof holds; we take the kura with the house. How to tell the stages of damage apart is in Can a damaged house be repaired or not, and what to do with a collapsing storehouse in A collapsing kura or barn.
An agent's appraisal first treats the building as if it were not there, prices the land, and then deducts demolition and clearance. Demolishing a wooden house in Toyama runs at roughly ¥30,000–50,000 per tsubo (3.3 ㎡), so a 132 ㎡ house starts at about ¥1.5–2 million, and a farmhouse with a kura, a barn and a windbreak grove can easily exceed ¥3 million in total. Demolition costs vary little from place to place, but land prices vary a lot. So in Toyama's old villages, scattered settlements and coastal hamlets, the same house comes out at zero or below zero.
Our appraisal uses a different formula. A house with a usable frame goes to someone who restores it or a company that uses it, or its beams and posts are reclaimed, so we don't deduct demolition costs. Instead we value the posts, beams and layout, and subtract the cost of repairs and the risk of not selling to arrive at a purchase price. The value as land and the value as a building are different things. Houses that got no price through an agent often do get one from us.
Demolish the house and leave just the land, and property tax on the land goes up from the following year, because the rule that lowers tax on land with a house standing (the residential land exception) no longer applies. Demolishing before you have anywhere to sell it is the most costly order to do things in. Our free appraisal can give you the figure for selling as it is, and, for comparison, a rough figure for the demolished case too. Demolish and sell; sell as it is; demolish and just hold the land. Please compare all three before deciding. The mechanism is explained in Seeing a house called ‘¥0’ or ‘negative’ on a no-demolition basis, and the demolition cost breakdown is in Demolition costs.
The discount is what we take on.Our price is lower than a sale through an agent, because we carry the repair cost, the risk of not selling, and the clearing out. If you are in no hurry, can clear the house, and road access and title are clean, an agent will leave you more. At the appraisal we tell you which suits you.
There are houses we can't take, too.If the damage reaches the frame and it can't be repaired, the appraisal may assume a cleared lot, or come back with no price at all. Most of the posts or beams rotted through, the roof framing collapsed, the whole thing leaning from the foundation up — in houses like that, the repair cost exceeds rebuilding. We never deliberately lowball a figure, and we never pretend a house is repairable, take it, and then demolish it. In that case we tell you so honestly and give you a demolition quote instead. Farmland or forest alone, or a house where we can't reach some of the heirs, also needs groundwork done first. Which one applies is something we can only answer after seeing the frame on site (How to tell a damaged house apart).
| Selling to us | Demolish and sell the land | Through an agent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The building | Restored for the next occupant, or its timber reclaimed | Demolished | The buyer decides |
| Demolition cost | None | About ¥1–2.5 million (paid by seller or buyer) | — |
| Value of the building | Beams, posts and layout are valued | None (land value only) | Depends on the buyer |
| Non-rebuildable lot | We use the building, so often possible | Cleared, it can't be built on: a disadvantage | Hard to sell |
| Storehouse, windbreak trees | We consider reuse or keeping them | More demolition and felling cost | Depends on the buyer |
| Disposal of contents | Not needed. We take them | Can be included in demolition | Usually the seller's cost |
| Brokerage fee | ¥0 | Depends how the land is sold | 3% of price + ¥60,000 + tax |
| Liability after handover | For damage you told us about before the sale, we don't ask for money afterwards | Unlikely, no building | If a defect turns up after the sale, the seller is liable |
| Time to sell | As little as 2 weeks from the site visit | 1–2 months demolition + sale | 3 months to years |
| What you get | Below market | Land value minus demolition | Close to market, if it sells |
You don't need to decide first whether to keep or demolish. Where the damage is deep and living on is not realistic, clearing the lot can be the better choice. Even then, we start by looking together at whether this house still has a future. If not, we help, including introducing a demolition contractor.
A few of the exterior and anything that worries you. Send them on LINE and we reply with our first view and how the appraisal will run. No name or full address needed yet.
| Plains (towns in Toyama City, Takaoka, Imizu, Tonami) | Mountains (Nanto, Yatsuo, Kamiichi, Tateyama, Osawano etc.) | |
|---|---|---|
| Main damage | Damp rots the sill and the base of the posts | Roof snow bends the beams and drops the eaves |
| Demolition cost | Machinery can get in | Roads too narrow for machinery. By hand, sometimes over ¥3 million |
| Via an agent | Sells if cheap enough. But the building is valued at zero | Turned away as 'unsellable' |
| Hidden value | Location | The building. Thick beams, a zelkova central post, a wakunouchi beam frame, a wide earthen floor |
The 2023 Housing and Land Survey counted 69,700 vacant houses in Toyama Prefecture, a record vacancy rate of 14.7%. Home ownership is 74.9%, third in Japan, and the average floor area per dwelling is 138.77 ㎡, the largest in Japan. Big, heavily framed houses are piling up unused. In Toyama it is common for a house to become vacant simply because it is too big to keep up.
Seventy percent of Toyama Prefecture's land is mountainous, and most of the family homes that become an inheritance problem stand somewhere between the edge of the plain and the hills. In the town centres of Toyama City, Takaoka, Imizu and Tonami, damp and condensation rot the sill and the base of the posts, and overhanging garden trees or falling roof tiles cause friction with neighbours. Through an agent, a cheap enough price will sell, but the building itself is valued at zero. A house fronting a road under 4 m wide, one with less than 2 m of road frontage so it can't be rebuilt, or one joined wall to wall with the house next door, will stay unsold even after demolishing it and clearing the lot. Areas like Yatsuo and Iwase in Toyama City, along the Uchikawa River in Imizu, and around Yamachosuji in Takaoka, have no shortage of lots like these.
In the mountain areas — Nanto, Yatsuo, Kamiichi, Tateyama, Osawano and the like — the weight of roof snow bends the beams and drags the eaves down. With narrow roads that heavy machinery can't get into, it's not unusual for a demolition quote to come in over ¥3 million even for the same floor area. An agent often turns a house like this away as “unsellable,” but what's sleeping there is the value of the building: thick beams, a zelkova central post, a wakunouchi beam frame, a wide earthen floor. Calculated on a demolition basis, a house in the hills tends to come out in the red. It turns into the black only when it's shown to someone who values the building itself. Figures for what's left in your pocket, in the plains and in the mountains, are set out in Family homes in Toyama: the right answer differs between the plains and the mountains.
Tax, registration, demolition. The order that doesn't lose you money, in one place.
We buy vacant houses in all 14 municipalities of Toyama Prefecture, Funahashi included.
In Toyama City the vacant houses differ greatly by district, from narrow-fronted townhouses in the centre to farmhouses in the hills of Yatsuo, Osawano, Oyama and Hosoiri. Takaoka has the earthen-walled storehouse buildings of Yamachosuji and the latticed townhouses of Kanayamachi, and large farmhouses ringed by windbreak groves in Fushiki and Fukuoka. The scattered villages of Tonami have azumadachi farmhouses inside their kainyo groves; Nanto has the gassho houses of Gokayama and the townhouses of Johana and Inami. The fishing towns of Himi have narrow lanes and high demolition costs, the classic case where a demolition-based appraisal gives no price. Snowfall, road conditions and farmland are covered on each municipality page. Our head office is in Yatsuo, Toyama City, and we drive to every part of the prefecture. In Ishikawa we cover Kanazawa and Noto and Kaga, and in northern Gifu Takayama, on the same terms.
A family home too far to look after. They valued it without demolishing
What decided it. They looked properly at the beams and posts on site and valued them. "It can be repaired and used" — that settled it. Everything left inside was taken care of.
Afterwards. Letting it go without demolishing gave me closure. And I'm free of the property tax and the worry of looking after it.
A worn vacant house, belongings and all. We didn't clear a thing
What decided it. Being told "as it is, belongings and all". No jargon in the explanation, and the reasoning behind the price was set out in writing.
Afterwards. They took the furniture and tools we couldn't get rid of. We should have asked sooner.
The ancestral house. The one thing I didn't want was a cleared lot
What decided it. They said outright, "We won't demolish it; we'll pass it on to the next user." They even talked about how the house might be used.
Afterwards. It felt as if they took on the feelings along with the house. Knowing the house would survive was more reassuring than I expected.
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Selling requires the consent and signature of every co-owner. But it's fine to consult us before that's settled — in fact, that's exactly where most people get stuck. We can even help put together material to explain things to your siblings. If you like, we'll join and explain the terms in person.
We can still appraise. Registration must be completed before handover, though (it has been compulsory since April 2024). We can introduce a judicial scrivener and give you a cost guide with the appraisal.
Leave them. We buy the house with the contents and dispose of them ourselves, so no clearing is needed. For a Buddhist or Shinto altar, we may ask you to arrange only the closing rite (the "removal of the spirit" before an altar is disposed of). If you don't know how, please ask us about that too.
Farmland needs the agricultural committee's permission and follows different procedures from a house lot. Sometimes we can take it, sometimes not; we check the registered land category and give you a clear answer. If you don't know it, we look it up.
→ Selling a family home with rice fields or forest, in detail
Sometimes. Because we repair and pass the house on rather than demolish and clear, land that cannot be rebuilt on can still be worth something to us. We judge after seeing it.
Of course. There is no charge at all. We contact you once; say "no thanks" and you won't hear from us again.
We hold the key, check the house and report with photos and video. The contract can be done by post or online. Many of our clients are far away.
Consultation, site survey and appraisal are all free, and there is no brokerage fee when we buy. If a survey or boundary confirmation is needed, we set out who pays what in writing before the contract. No extra charges afterwards.
A sale to us is not advertised, so no listing goes out and no sign goes up. If the neighbours need to be told, we decide when and how with you.
Yes. We buy vacant houses in all 14 municipalities of Toyama Prefecture (the whole prefecture, Funahashi included). We are a builder in Yatsuo, Toyama City, and drive to every part of the prefecture. All of Ishikawa and northern Gifu (the Hida region) are on the same terms. Our terms and the way we set the price are the same in every municipality. But snowfall, whether there is a windbreak grove, and whether water and sewer reach the house differ by area. So what we check on site changes from area to area. Each municipality has its own page above.
We look at the frame, not the age. Houses in Hokuriku are built with thick posts and beams to bear the snow, so many are still structurally sound past 80 years old. On site we check four places: the roof framing, the base of the posts, the sill and footing stones, and dryness underfloor. If only the base of a post has rotted a little, we can repair it by splicing in new wood there. But if the sill and the base of the posts have rotted extensively, with the roof framing itself collapsed, the repair cost comes to about the same as rebuilding. In that case we may not be able to put a price on it — and if so, we say so honestly and give you a demolition quote instead.
An agent's appraisal is a formula that subtracts demolition and clearing costs from the land price. We don't demolish the houses we buy, so where the frame can be used, we don't deduct a demolition cost. We value the posts, beams and layout, and arrive at a figure by subtracting the repair cost and the risk of not selling. Within a week of the site survey, we give you the amount, and the reasons for it, in writing. Our price is lower than a sale through an agent, because we carry the repair cost, the risk of it going unsold, and the clearing out. For comparison, we can also give you a rough figure for the demolished case.
Yes. You can consult us while it stays listed on the bank, and decide whether to keep it listed after seeing our offer. In most municipalities, only a house that's “ready to live in” or “livable with minor repairs” can register on the vacant house bank (the scheme where a municipality introduces vacant houses to buyers). In practice, a house that's still full of belongings, or damaged, rarely finds a buyer there.
Yes, you can. We buy the house as it is, contents included, so you do not need to finish estate clearance first. If you get an appraisal first, you can tell whether it is better than paying for clearance. If you are considering renouncing the inheritance, consult a lawyer or judicial scrivener before disposing of any belongings. For details, see Before estate clearance, sell the family home with its contents.
If you are in no hurry, can clear the house, and it faces a road with no problems with ownership, an agent sale usually leaves you with more money. A kominka with damage, belongings still inside, or one an agent valued at 0 yen may still get a price from a purchase that does not involve demolition. We will tell you which suits you at the appraisal.
We check the house on site for about an hour and give you the amount in writing within a week. If you agree, we sign the contract. In quick cases, everything from the on-site survey to the sale is done in about two weeks. We buy the contents too, so there is no waiting for you to clear the house. A house where inheritance registration is not done takes longer by the time that procedure needs.
Ask five things. Do they buy as it is, contents included? Do they subtract demolition costs from the price? Do they give the reasons for the price in writing? Does saying no cost nothing? If damage is found after the sale, will they ask you for money? We buy with the contents, do not subtract demolition when the frame is usable, and give you a price in writing within a week.
There are three: relist at a lower price, also list it on an akiya bank, or switch to a direct purchase. Even a house an agent called worth nothing, or less than nothing, can get a price from a buyer who does not plan to demolish. A direct purchase pays less than a brokered sale, but needs no clearing out and no repairs, and the sale can be done in as little as two weeks from the site survey.
Faster than typing. A few of the exterior and anything that worries you — that is enough for a rough view.
A house with a sound frame is repaired and passed on, so there is no demolition cost to deduct. What restoration involves is here.