Comment by yulker

11 days ago

One thing that is critical is that the country hasn't turned home ownership into an ever growing financial asset that is meant to carry the majority of one's wealth into perpetuity

Well, it did at one point, it’s just that the crash that resulted was so nasty it disabused anybody of that notion.

At the peak of the bubble era, just the land underneath the Imperial Palace had an estimated real estate value larger than the entire state of California.

Unfortunately that does not seem to have helped them keep housing affordable. Looks just as bad as anywhere else.

  • Source? I've always thought of Tokyo as a rare example of abundant and affordable housing among major world cities. Their rent to income ratio is like 0.3 while most major global cities are 0.35-0.4

    • tokyo is cheaper than most cities relatively to the average income but you have to consider the fact that many apartments are like 20 - 30 m^2