How an Average Family in Tokyo Can Buy a New Home

Why HN readers recommended it

It is the standard citation in HN housing debates for showing that dense cities can still have affordable single-family homes.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel

Life Where I'm From

Topic

tokyo housing affordability

Format

explainer

Level

general

HN recommenders in dataset

3

HN mentions in dataset

13

Recommendation years in dataset

2017–2023

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

• Decent family houses in Tokyo are definitely more expensive than this, but not hugely (also Kyoto surprisingly). There's some interesting things about the Japanese housing market, for example, many homes become "worthless" after the end of the mortgage -- so they depreciate and are more …

• Check out this video explaining why you can buy new detached homes in Tokyo for about 300k usd. [VIDEO] * Land owners have an absolute right to develop their own land - neighbors can't block you. * You can build a 60 m^2 x 3 …

• Here is a nice video explaining housing affordability in Tokyo: [VIDEO] Notes: * No one thinks of residential housing as an investment, so there is no speculation. * Building codes are such that residential can be built almost anywhere. Japan has zoning, it is just …