Financial Matters

     The price tag attached to our dream piece of land had us plunge into all kinds of calculations and financial projections.  Buying property in Tokyo is costly!  Most banks are reluctant to loan past a certain amount, but they are willing to consider it if you can provide a sizeable downpayment, in our case, 20% of the cost of the land and house. After submitting our request for preapproval last week, we got good news today!  Our formal loan application was successful!  So now, there is no way to back out of this...

     What makes this purchase financially plausible and emotionally manageable is that the location of the land is outstanding and so is the reputation of the neighborhood.  And that's not even considering the fact that it's located only 8 minutes walk from Kichijoji station.  So, if at some point we were to decide to move to some other place, like say Bolivia (a bit unlikely), we could easily sell!  Here's  a photo of the beautiful stairway leading from Inokashira Park to our street.

     Now we need to start designing our home!  One of the conditions of our bank loan is that we start builiding 6 months from the signing of the contract and finish building within a year. A fun but slightly overwhelming project, considering all the ground we need to cover.  Let's now  focus on finidng a good architect and builder that will not default midway through the construction...