This doesn't make any sense to me. What economic mechanisms cause it to be true?
> Japanese houses, unlike those in the rest of the world, supposedly depreciate to $0 in just 25 years
Same for this.
I've never heard of either of these being true; do you have a link?
- economic value (how much money it produces or how much money it saves by having it), both current and projected/speculative.
- emotional value (this is my grandfathers house, I wouldn’t part with it for anything)! Or FOMO, or ‘being established’. How much is it worth to feel that way?
- scarcity value. You need x or something terrible will happen, it’s in a bidding war, how much can you spend to win? This can also be current or projected.
The signal you’re seeing is that for people eligible to buy the property, it is near zero value on all these axis.
>Unlike in other countries, Japanese homes gradually depreciate over time, becoming completely valueless within 20 or 30 years.
I also expect the situation is different in Hokkaido: it's drier with lots of winter precipitation (spring is the driest season in sapporo versus winter for tokyo), and the more extreme winter weather probably leads to higher quality construction (for instance central heating and extensive insulation is common in hokkaido while it's quite rare on honshu which tends to go by "tactical heating" and quite drafty houses).