I'm a 31-year-old Canadian who bought an $11,000 house in rural Japan. Here's why I don't see it as an investment.

This as-told-to composition is according to a conversation alongside Andrew Koller, 31, a freelance camera controller who purchased a residence in Yamagata, Japan, in March. Koller, who's based in Edmonton, Canada, renovated the residence and plans to use it as a holiday home. The following has been edited for dimension and clarity.

Like a lot of millennials, I was exposed to Japanese civilization in several awareness first on alongside "Naruto," "Pokemon," and "Dragon Ball Z." After that, I don't think my involvement really left.

Come 2020, I had a bunch of period on my hands akin everybody else. It seemed akin a fine period to eventually study Japanese. I've been learning Japanese alongside a personal tutor since then.

Then, in 2023, I made my archetypal trip to Japan.

Like everybody alternatively who comes rear from their first trip to Japan, I fair cut in love. I couldn't halt talking concerning it, but I wanted a deeper association to the community.

I wanted additional than fair the superficial, surface-level cognition of Japanese life. So I idea perchance a fine way to get that cognition would be to buy a home that's not in a important tourist city, slightly live there, and expend a fine chunk of period complete there getting engaged alongside the community by renovating a forgotten property.

The algorithm was observing for sure. After my archetypal Japan trip, my YouTube and Instagram algorithms were suggesting to me all these akin group doing akin things.

From that, I was like, this seems akin item I can do. In my liberated time, I akin to DIY. I have a small studio — I wouldn't say I'm fine at it, but I awareness akin I cognize adequate to do the basics.

I'm at the item in my existence now anywhere I've had all these ideas and I've said, "Oh, it'd be chill to do this," but I never do it. I never prosecute through. I fair wanted to demonstrate to myself that I really followed through on one of these slightly whimsical ideas.

The home I bought in Japan disbursal a fraction of what houses disbursal in Canada

I've continually been curious in genuine asset since a young age.

Purchasing your archetypal house is doable, but if you desire to acquisition a second home following that, akin a rental, it's extremely challenging to do that in Canada. Canada's accommodation market has exploded, particularly in Alberta.

I'm in a extremely fortunate stance anywhere my partner and I own a home and we own a rental asset as fine near to the university area.

I bought the rental home whenever I was 20 alongside my parents — they had to sign on since no financial institution was going to debt a 20-year-old kid a mortgage. I rented out the rooms and afterward I lived for liberated for my period in college.

Both houses have a akin value. My chief residence is value fair under $600,000 CAD (about $422,880). When we bought the rental 10 years ago, it was about $500,000 CAD, but it's gone up since.

For my residence in Japan, I spent $15,000 CAD (about $10,600) on the acquisition cost affirmative decision costs, which was another $3,000 CAD.

I can certainly see myself spending extended period in Japan.

I desire to go out there at smallest a few times a year. It's near to a beautiful big ski resort, and I snowboard.

Doing the math for that, if I was to go stay in Banff or Jasper — among the additional famous mountain towns in Alberta — for a week and ski, it's really cheaper to fly to Japan, since the skiing is additionally extremely affordable, so that was a big aspect for me.

I would akin to rent it out, but I don't scheme on making a lot of prosperity from it

I went to Japan in October 2025 to appearance at properties. I made an recommendation in November, it got accepted, and afterward I got possession of the asset in March 2026. Then I went up for the complete duration of April to start renovations on it.

I wanted to regard what was already there whenever I went in. Even although the home itself wasn't ancient or historic — it was built in the '60s or '70s — it was extremely traditionally built alongside the Tatami rooms. I wanted to keep a lot of that, coming in as a Westerner.

I wanted to try and modify to their way of existence fairly than trying to enforce my own. I fair wanted to complement what was already there.

Now, the home is 98% done.

The genuine renewal expenses correct now are fair complete the acquisition cost. So I'm at about $18,000 CAD and change, doing most of it myself.

Right now, the goal would be to do a short-term rental in the future, but I don't scheme on it making a lot of money.

I think that's the one item group volition get confused about. They think, "If I do this and renovate it, I can create a ton of prosperity off a short-term rental in Japan." That's not the case, since there's so much competition alongside the hotels there that are already amazing and extremely affordable.

I fair desire to shield the care expenses additional than anything. Doing a small bit of short-term rental, I think, volition assistance alongside that.

It's not an asset. I think perchance group go to Japan alongside the Western mindset, like, "Oh, it's a buy-and-hold asset." Outside of Tokyo and the big cities, genuine asset doesn't do that.

Real asset continually goes downward in value complete time. If you're buying a home in Japan, go in alongside the anticipation that it's not as much of a financial asset as it is a recreation: you'll get additional of a traditional experience.