Transcript
Speaker: We work with many like lifestyle homebuyers. So people just want a home for their vacation. In their case, many of owners don't use the property a lot.
Speaker: And that's why they also want to do Airbnb while they are not using it. It makes sense. In our perspective as a homeowner, having it run as an Airbnb, at least someone's coming in there Once in a while, you know, you're getting some attention, it's getting cleaned. But that if you want to do Airbnb, it's going to be important to have a good hands-on managers. If we have a client, they are buying a vacation property that they'll use a few months out of the year, the rest of the time they want to Airbnb it.
Speaker: Can we help them? Yes. Yes.
Speaker: Welcome back to the Buying a House in Japan podcast, the number one Akiya podcast in the world. Today, we are joined by our legendary Akiya Mart direct exclusive agent, Ryosuke Takemoto.
Speaker: Yo, welcome back to the pod. I think this is your fourth appearance, maybe fifth? Yeah, fourth or fifth. Take, yeah, thank you for having me again. Longtime friend of the podcast, legendary real estate agent, Ryosuke Takemoto. No, we've been working together for maybe two years now. Is that sound about right? Close, right? More than two years, maybe a little more than two years. To everyone out there listening, Rio crushes it. Rio is one of the best real estate agents I've ever met.
Speaker: Absolute crushes the game. Since we've started working with Rio, he's also had two kids. So congratulations, Rio. I think we haven't recorded the podcast since you had your last one. think we visited you in Tokushima. I'm not sure when we did that last podcast.
Speaker: Yeah, maybe we did something in Tokushima where I'm country based. Yeah, so many things. Two babies and then, yeah. you know For the people who have not listened to any of your podcasts yet, can you give us a quick re-intro of yourself? Yeah, I'm Ryo Takemoto, real estate agent based in Japan.
Speaker: And we support international like home buyers. And we also support like Airbnb like setup management, yeah as well as the like remodeling, other stuff. So today's episode, we are going to go over our most frequently asked questions for everything Airbnb, Minpaku, short-term rental, Ryokan related. So this is the podcast for you if you are Airbnb curious, because we have an expert here, Ryô, who has helped.
Speaker: think you've helped at least like... 80 to 90 customers of us of of ours like through the Akiyamart Direct program. Quick plug, our Akiyamart Direct program, we can help you buy anywhere at any price in Japan. But, you know, tell us a little bit about um your Airbnb, Minpaku setup experience the past couple of years.
Speaker: The Airbnb setup management, I think we started like two years ah two, three years ago. And we also got a license of the Airbnb manager, like Minpaku manager.
Speaker: on the Now we are managing um like around 10 properties across Japan. And we support it from the setup for all properties.
Speaker: So you mentioned licenses. What licenses are involved here? There's the management license, which you just mentioned, but also the homeowner needs to get a license for the property, right? Yes, exactly. Homeowner needs to get the license and i needs to get the permit from the government. ah But in order to get the license, um you need to make a contract with the licensed Minpaku manager. If you are not managing the property by yourself,
Speaker: Like on site. So either you live at the property and you can manage it. Or if you're not living at the property, say a vacation home where you're in your home country for most of the, of the year and you want to Airbnb it out. You need a management company to do that and that management company needs its management Airbnb management license.
Speaker: Exactly, to get a Minpaku license. But yeah, it's kind of confusing, but Ryokan license is a kind of a different like structure. Let's go into that. So can you describe to the audience, what is Minpaku license and what is Ryokan, Ryokan license? What is Airbnb? like How do they all go together? So Minpaku licenses is kind of like a newer, like a legal framework created five, six years ago. Before like Airbnb, we didn't have like this concept, like a short term rental. But after Airbnb came, it became ah like a, you know, big, big trend.
Speaker: Then the government created the new Minpaku law. So yeah, basically Minpaku license only allows you to um operate or run your property up to 180 days for one year.
Speaker: And also the Ryokan license is ah like older. So maybe you have stayed in like Aapa Hotel or like any other like Ryokans, traditional Ryokans. They all have this like Ryokan license. It doesn't have any like limit ah for the operational like days. You mentioned 180 days on the Airbnb Minpaku license, but sometimes it can even be more constrained, right? That's in the most generous case, the 180 days. Yes, that's the generous case. For example, some world in Tokyo, um they don't they only allow like weekends, like basically like Saturdays only.
Speaker: So what are the pros and cons of the Airbnb license versus the Ryokan license? So I would say if you can get a Ryokan license, I would do definitely they recommend recommend to get a Ryokan. But the benefit of Minpaku license um is there's a chance that you can get Minpaku even in the area you cannot get Ryokan.
Speaker: You recommend Ryokan license if you can get it because you have full the full year you can book out the property, right? Is that why the main reason? Yeah, that's the main reason. Also, the legal framework is more stable.
Speaker: So there are less risk to be affected by the current trend of the Japanese like a government. What are the cons of the RyoKan license? Well, stricter or higher yeah requirements. So yeah, you have to have someone who can like be at the property within like 10 minutes or 20 minutes. Also, the zoning results are limited compared to Minpaku.
Speaker: So the ryokan license is basically the equivalent of like a hotel license, right? That's kind of how I've mentally attached this to So like all the APA hotels, they have a ryokan license? Is that correct? Yes, that that is correct. There are couple of types of the license. but So they they either have a ryokan license or a hotel license or a guest house license. APA hotels should have a hotel license.
Speaker: When people say Airbnb, it could either be Minpaku or it could be Ryokan. But the ah origin, I think, of the Minpaku law was kind of to target Airbnb type properties and build some structure around it. Is that right?
Speaker: Yes, that is correct. To regulate that sort of business. Yeah, i think there was like a boom in 2016, 2017, it sounds like, when a lot before Japan came up with the Airbnb laws and there is just this explosion of people doing Airbnb. And I think the government wanted to provide some structure there. They saw this as getting a little bit out of hand. Potentially the hotel lobby wanted to to rein it in a little bit.
Speaker: Yes, exactly. i guess the government had many compliant complaints from the like local, especially in the residential neighborhood. you I guess, how hard is it to get the licensing, let's say for Minpaku and Ryokanye, or just generally? Like, I want to buy a property in Japan and I I want to get the licensing. I've looked at Akiyamart and it shows that it's right in the zoning. Quick plug, as an Akiyamart Pro subscriber, you get zoning maps that we've worked with Dio and his wife actually on, ah overlaying Minpaku laws all over Japan. but Let's say, you know, I found a property and it's in the Minpaku 180 days. Like how hard is it to get a license?
Speaker: It's ah not easy, ah but it's like a legal framework. So there is ah like a certain procedure we need to follow. Basically, we work with we have to work with the public a local public health center and the fire department.
Speaker: So first, ah we visit the fire department to consult what kind of fire code equipments and we need to install. After that, fire your department come and visit and they issue the certification of being like compliant.
Speaker: After that, we will prepare all the application. That's kind of hard work. I mean, yeah it just takes time. We need to prepare lots of like paperwork. And then including the like fire code certification.
Speaker: How long is the process from someone comes to you with a property, it's not it doesn't have the emergency lighting or the fire code stuff. The optimal best case, how long do you think it would take?
Speaker: Optimal best case, I would to say three months. What's the biggest part of that slowdown? Renovations or... Paperwork, I bet. Yeah, paperwork or fire code, ah like a renovation, fire code remodeling.
Speaker: All right, Rio. Obviously, people are going to want to know um your opinion on location on where they should... go for an Airbnb and obviously it's going to be, you know, where there's a lot of tourism, but also, you know, favorable Airbnb laws. What are your top two, given all that, what are Ryo's top two picks for a successful Airbnb?
Speaker: I work um for one of the AMD, like Akiya Mart, like direct owner. His name is Nin. and he bought a property in like Izu, Shizuoka. Specifically, it's like Ito city. That's first pick. The second pick is gonna be maybe Nagano city.
Speaker: We went to Ito. just Sorry, just a quick anecdote. We went to Ito last summer. Take got ramen for breakfast. We went to like a cafe. They served coffee espresso. Hold on. I was not the only one. The table behind us, there's two chicks. They were also getting ramen. It was like 11 a.m., 10.30 a.m. Ito ramen, breakfast ramen is a thing.
Speaker: Is there ramen village cafe or something? It's kind of suspicious. Yeah, exactly. He knows what we're talking about. They have really good ramen. Yeah, I know. Yeah.
Speaker: All right, segwaying into our next question. So yeah, we've had Nin on the podcast. He's a very successful investor. He knows what he's doing. He's been in I think he has a couple rentals in Hawaii and stuff like that.
Speaker: Would you recommend like first time homeowner to who's buying a Japan for the first time to try to Airbnb or what kind of background would you recommend someone for pursuing the idea? So like in Nguyen's case, um he is mainly was looking for property for like investment. So like ah his criteria was ah like set for the investment. But at the same time, we will also work with many like lifestyle, like homebuyers.
Speaker: So people just want a home for their vacation. even In their case, I think most like many of owners don't use the property like um a lot. And that's why they also want to do want one of like ah Airbnb while they are not using it.
Speaker: It makes sense. It keeps the water running. has you come in and clean. I think it's more from a maintenance perspective and in our perspective as a homeowner, having it run as an Airbnb, at least someone's coming in there once in a while, you know, you're getting some attention, it's getting cleaned. But also on the flip side, the reality is I'm i'm not sure we haven't necessarily run an Airbnb ourself in Japan yet. So ideally it sounds good though on paper.
Speaker: Yeah, ideally sounds good, but I think you you don't want to like message with like problematic, I guess, like comp complaining, like for your property or your equipments.
Speaker: So I think it's important to if you want to do Airbnb it's going to be important to have a good like hands hands-on like managers Rio if we have a client coming to us who is interested in setting up an Airbnb purchasing a property let's take the most likely case they are buying a vacation property that they'll use a few months out of the year the rest of the time um they want to Airbnb it can we help them yes we can help them everything from licensing to property management is that correct Yes, but I'd like to confirm the zoning and other regulations first. Unfortunately for some cases, we cannot help because that zoning is wrong. So it's really important to do the due diligence before you actually buy. On top of that, utilities as well, correct? So the full package deal from keys in hand, setting up utilities, doing the property during the proper fire renovations to get the Minpaku license to property management, the full suite, correct?
Speaker: ah Yes, we do root suite for our owners. What about interior design? If someone um doesn't have the time to fill the house with furniture and get everything you know tatami mats changed, is that something you can handle as well? Yes, that's something we can handle as well. We have our own like a designer. right Two more frequently asked questions here. is One, we have a lot of folks who want to DIY. They want to do it themselves. Let's say I can't, I can speak some Japanese. I'm not great. Could I do all this myself or do i need to have a property management company? Or like, what would you say to that person trying to DIY everything? Oh, like a DIY, like licensing or... Yeah, getting the licensing, doing all that stuff. you know I think I know the answer to it, but I would love your opinion.
Speaker: For the paperwork, I don't recommend unless you're really fluent or you're a native Japanese speaker. It's really confusing for e for like local Japanese.
Speaker: For the remodeling, I think... Yeah, maybe you can do some part, like to put the maybe exit sign if you have a like knowledge for electrical work.
Speaker: But either way, they need to get the Minpaku operator license too, which your company has, right? If you get a Minpaku permit, yes. And that is a test? or what how do they How could I get that if I wanted to? Minpaku manager license. Yes.
Speaker: They also have a test or like a course to be a manager. Is there any way that neighbors... can shut down your minpaku business? if Do you need to ask permission from the neighbors um to get the license? If there's a problem on the property, can neighbors somehow complain and get your business shut down? When we talk about detached like houses, it's not like that.
Speaker: But the neighbors can complain to the like health center or the government or like a local council or someone. So the rule can be changed. yeah I remember you had to do, this is like a weird rule for your Ota Airbnb. You had to like set up a conference and you gave everyone chocolates. like Tell me a little bit about that. and Why did you need to do that? Yeah, so when we started Airbnb in Tokyo, Ota, which is near Kamata, it's kind of a requirement for Airbnb managers or owners to explain what you're going to do with that property to the neighbors.
Speaker: Then we had ah like a heavy or severe like complaints from the some like neighborhoods and then the city requested, I mean, city suggested maybe you should have a like a neighborhood explaining a session or something.
Speaker: how did that go? Only maybe four people, four person joined and they had many questions and answered. And I also gave them some chocolates.
Speaker: I think it was Manju, but yeah.
Speaker: Is that standard or was that just the one time you've done that or have you needed to do that for more clients? Depends on the health center. In Osaka, it's like part of requirement to have a neighborhood explaining session. But in Nagano, we didn't. In Izu, we didn't.
Speaker: Yeah, it also depends on the local governments. It's interesting. As Joey was working on the Minpaku overlay, it seemed like every city had its own rules, right? Or there's like so many different rules per region, right?
Speaker: Yes. So many different rules and implementation by the local health center. And right now, the best way, like the the sure the only surefire way to figure out if a property is eligible for a mean pocket license is to call the health center on the phone, right? Rio is this, this is what you would do if a client was interested in a property and you, you you're looking and you you think it has a good chance. You'll, you'll call the health center and speak to a human and give them the address. And then they'll, do they give you a yes or no, or how does that conversation go?
Speaker: Yes, yes, yeah. So yeah, that's the best way. That's still the best way to confirm the eligibility. And when I ask, yeah, they they do some research on their end and they provide maybe like a soft yes or like hard no.
Speaker: Yeah, so this is why we built the Airbnb eligibility overlay on Akiyama for this exact reason to give people a leg up. As Ryo just mentioned, the only way to know for sure is to call. And even then, they don't give you ah a true, true answer. You have to actually apply. And then it's, you know, that's when you either get the the true yes or no for your property. But we did the best we can. We poured over, I don't know how many Japanese legalese documents I was trying to read. It was very difficult for me with my limited Japanese, but, um you know, I started, wreck that they're they're written very formulaic, which is nice. And so I was able to kind of identify trends there, but it is not um ah they the end all be all correct answer. We did the best we could. i like to say it's about 75% accurate. um There's still that extra 25% there that is just like either unwritten laws that only the Hokkenjo, the health center truly knows about, or, you know, there's specifics due to the property. There's specifics due to, you know, local rules, national rules. So did the best we could, 75% accurate.
Speaker: Another plug there too. It's like, this is why it's so important to be working with an agent that knows these rules. Not, I'd say most real estate agents aren't super familiar with the Minpaku laws per region. And, um you know, you want to make sure that before you buy a property that at least you have like a strong, likelihood of getting the Mean Pocket license versus being a hard no. So Dio has helped so many of our customers. I would say if you are looking to purchase with us, we'll most likely direct you direct you to Dio, who will help you do the due diligence before you get locked in on a property that you want to Airbnb or are intending to Airbnb.
Speaker: Yeah, that's right. I think, you know, we cannot change the zoning. So yeah, I cannot step back. Yeah, I think it's important to do the pre like research for the disability.
Speaker: At least we can like tell like hard no. So Yeah. Okay. the The million dollar question. A lot of people are wondering how much does this cost? You know, first going through the Akiyamart direct program after you have the property in hand, how much is this going to cost? What is your kind of business model if you're running and operating the Airbnb for a customer? Right now, we are charging the Airbnb setup fee um to coordinate the like setup, which is a success-based almost like a $2,000 USD. And we also charge a like management fee for like ongoing operations, which is currently 20% to on what we support. So with this also, actually another additional question, typically every house is probably going to need fire safety renovation of some sort. Typically, how much does that cost customers to get that in place or on average?
Speaker: Yeah, on the average for detached house, um I would say like four or five thousand like USD. If the property is like bigger, the cost can be higher.
Speaker: it's smaller, it should be like lower. But the um average, I would just say for four to five thousand putting that together four to 5,000 for renovations, 2000 to get the license, um, three months wait time, best case scenario.
Speaker: Yes. So you've been doing this for two years. Like, would you recommend people go towards the Airbnb route? Joey and I have had our opinions. We kind of leaned against it just because we don't want to be operating, but maybe we could just use your service. What, what's your general advice, like from an investment perspective or or general feelings towards, uh, mean pocket licensing?
Speaker: For owners already are like owing properties in Japan, I think it's, ah I mean, there's not almost like no risk or like ah less risk. It's only about the cost for the fire code installation.
Speaker: mean, you can keep your license with your property like for good. So if you want to start renting out, you can like whenever you want. It's a good idea. But for like a new buyers, considering to buy, if you are looking for like a pure investment, I would recommend that ah you can get that a Ryokan license because the Minpak license can be easily regulated by the like local government or city.
Speaker: Yeah, the risk is that they change the rules. Yes. Yeah, it's been law for about a decade now, maybe just under a decade. But in that time, the rules have changed.
Speaker: Osaka might be pulling back. um on their special Mimpaku zone. So I think that's what you're referring to that the Ryokan license has been around for, let's say a hundred years, the Mimpaku license about 10 years. And within those 10 years, it's changed a lot. So for stability and long-term investment, if you can get Ryokanable property, that's really the sweet spot.
Speaker: Yeah, agree with you. Yeah. Okay, Leo, that was a lot of good information. Those are most of the frequently asked questions we have. For any listener, now again, we have our Akiyamart Direct program. Do a consultation with us. Please raise your hand if you want to do Airbnb, as we will most likely route you to our hero here at Yosuke Takamoto.
Speaker: Leo, any final words for people who are just starting out thinking about doing Airbnb or any advice you would give someone who's early stages before even buying a property? Yeah, before even buying a property, i think, ah I mean, generally speaking, doing Airbnb is really like exciting.
Speaker: i mean, you can have your furniture, take some beautiful photos, and you can say, like this is like my property like on Airbnb ah from anywhere ah in the world. and you have a property in Japan. But at the same time, like management is, mean, really hard.
Speaker: um We are like improving our management quality and as well. And um I think it's important for like new owners to work with like trusted or like a good hands-on manager, especially if you are living like outside of with Japan.
Speaker: You know, you've done an amazing job with the Airbnbs we've seen. We'll go ahead and put some links in the show notes. So if you're listening to this podcast and you want to take a look at the quality Dio has done, ah please take a look. Dio, your photos, you've done ah great work with every single one of our customers. I believe everyone is quite happy. So, um you know, we really thank you for partnering with us and being our Airbnb champion.
Speaker: you much. Thank
Speaker: Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Buying a House in Japan. If you find the show helpful or at least entertaining, give us a five-star rating. Takes five seconds and really goes a long way. If you or someone you know is looking for a Japanese home, check out Akiyamart.com, our English-friendly site that lets you browse over half a million listings. That's A-K-I-Y-A-M-A-R-T.com to find your dream home in Japan. If you've got questions or feedback, drop us a line, email contact at akiyamart.com. You can also find us on Instagram as well as TikTok, where we post properties, tips on the home buying process, and updates on our own purchases and renovations. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.
