Buying in Tokyo vs Australia: the real costs

Japan is one of the easiest places in Asia for a foreigner to buy. The surprise isn't the tax. It's the loan.

The short version

Australians can buy freehold land and apartments in Japan, and there is no foreign buyer surcharge.
The single biggest cost difference: in Tokyo the buyer usually pays the agent, capped at 3% of the price plus ¥60,000 plus consumption tax [3]. In NSW, the buyer's big bill is transfer duty, about A$39,200 on A$1 million [8].
Japanese purchase taxes are worked out on the government's assessed value, not the price, so they're often lower than the headline rates suggest [1][2][4].
Getting a Japanese mortgage without permanent residency is hard. The government-backed Flat 35 loan is only for Japanese nationals and permanent residents [6].
Sell an Australian home while you're a foreign resident and you generally lose the main residence CGT exemption [9].

Can an Australian buy in Japan?

Yes. Japan has no general ban or quota on foreign ownership, and an Australian can hold freehold title to land and buildings just as a local can. You don't need a visa to own property, and you don't need to live there.

There's no condo-only rule, no building cap and no 50-year lease. A 1LDK in Nakameguro, a family flat in Setagaya or an old wooden house in the Tama hills are all fair game.

A few things are tightening at the edges. The government has moved towards collecting the nationality of buyers when property is registered, following an instruction from Prime Minister Takaichi in November 2025. Separate rules let the government monitor land near defence bases, border islands and other sensitive sites. Neither stops an ordinary purchase in central Tokyo, but your judicial scrivener (shiho shoshi) will ask for more ID than you might expect, and may need to file a foreign exchange report if you live outside Japan.

What changes with permanent residency

Ownership rights don't change, because they're already equal. What changes is finance. Permanent residents can apply for Flat 35 and are treated far more like locals by the big banks [6]. For many foreign buyers, that's the real dividing line.

Upfront costs side by side

Rates as at November 2026. Yen amounts with AUD at the RBA rate of ¥110.77 on 5 November 2026.

Cost	Tokyo	Buying back home (as an Australian living abroad)
Purchase tax / stamp duty	Real estate acquisition tax: 3% on residential land and homes, on the assessed value; residential land is taxed on half its value until 31 March 2027 [2]. Deductions can shrink the building portion for qualifying homes. Contract stamp tax: ¥30,000 for ¥50–100 million, ¥60,000 for ¥100–500 million (reduced rates to 31 March 2027) [5]	NSW transfer duty: A$11,602 plus 4.5% of the value over A$387,000, up to A$1.29 million (2026–27) [8]. Every state has its own scale
Foreign buyer surcharge	None	None for Australian citizens, wherever they live, under Revenue NSW's surcharge rules
Legal or notary fees	Judicial scrivener's fee for registration, usually a modest fixed fee (quotes vary)	Conveyancer or solicitor, usually a few thousand dollars
Agent's commission paid by buyer	Usually yes. Legal cap on homes over ¥4 million: 3% + ¥60,000, plus 10% consumption tax [3]	Optional buyer's agent; the selling agent is paid by the vendor
Registration fees	Registration and licence tax on the assessed value: land 1.5% (reduced from 2%); building 0.3% for your own home of 50m² or more (2% otherwise) [4]	Land registry transfer and mortgage fees of a few hundred dollars
Loan fees	Mortgage registration 0.1% of the loan for a qualifying home (0.4% standard) [4], plus the bank's guarantee and admin fees	Application and valuation fees; lenders mortgage insurance above 80% LVR, if the lender offers it to expats

In NSW the government takes the big slice. In Tokyo the taxes are spread across small lines, and the agent takes the biggest cheque.

Getting a loan

In Tokyo

This is where many Australians stall. Japanese banks look closely at your visa status and how long you've worked in Japan. Flat 35, the long fixed-rate loan run through the Japan Housing Finance Agency, lists Japanese nationals, permanent residents and special permanent residents as eligible [6]. If you're on a work visa, some banks will still lend, often with a larger deposit or a Japanese spouse on the loan. If you live outside Japan, expect very few options and plan for a cash purchase.

Back home

Australian lenders will lend to Australians living in Japan, and the yen is one of the major currencies most expat lenders are used to assessing. The catch is the usual expat haircut: many lenders count only part of your foreign income, often around 80%, and cap the LVR lower than for locals; one published broker example puts it at 60% for an expat versus 80% for a resident. Our guide to foreign income and Australian lenders goes deeper. Fewer lenders play in this space, so shopping around matters.

Holding costs

	Tokyo	Australia (NSW example)
Annual property tax	Fixed assets tax 1.4% of the assessed value, plus city planning tax up to 0.3% [1]	Council rates, set by each council
Relief for homes	Small residential land (up to 200m²) is taxed on one-sixth of its value for fixed assets tax and one-third for city planning tax [1]	Your own home is usually exempt from land tax
Land tax	None separately	NSW land tax on investment property once your land holdings pass the threshold
Building costs	Monthly management fee and repair reserve for apartments, which tend to rise as buildings age	Strata levies for units

Renting it out. If you leave Japan and rent out your Tokyo flat, a company tenant generally has to withhold 20.42% of the rent before paying a non-resident landlord. An individual renting it as their own home doesn't have to withhold. Either way you'll usually file a Japanese return.

And the ATO. While you're an Australian tax resident, you declare worldwide income, including rent from a Tokyo flat, and can generally claim a foreign income tax offset for Japanese tax paid. If you've become a foreign resident of Australia, your Japanese rent isn't taxed in Australia, but any Australian rent is taxed from the first dollar at 30% (2025–26 foreign resident rates).

Selling and tax

Japan

The rate depends on whether you've held the property for more than five years at 1 January of the year of sale: roughly 20% (including residence tax) for long-term holdings and roughly 39% for short-term ones. There's a generous deduction for selling your own home, so get a Japanese tax accountant to run the numbers.

If you sell while living outside Japan, the buyer generally withholds 10.21% of the price and pays it to the tax office. There's an exception where an individual buys for their own or a relative's home and the price is ¥100 million or less [7].

Australia

The Australian side has three traps:

Main residence exemption. Sell your Australian home while you're a foreign resident and you generally can't claim the exemption at all, not even for the years you lived there. The narrow "life events" exception is the only way around it [9].
Withholding. Since 1 January 2025, 15% foreign resident capital gains withholding applies to every property sale unless the seller gives the buyer an ATO clearance certificate [10]. Australian residents get one easily; foreign residents generally can't.
CGT reform. From 1 July 2027 the 50% CGT discount is replaced by cost base indexation and a 30% minimum tax rate, for gains that accrue after that date, according to the ATO.

Currency risk

Buy in Tokyo and move home, and your asset is in yen while your life is in dollars. Buy in Sydney while earning yen, and your repayments move with the exchange rate. Either way you're taking a currency bet.

A worked example

Illustration only. About A$1 million in both places: a ¥110 million second-hand apartment in Tokyo (about A$993,000) and a A$1,000,000 home in NSW. Japanese taxes use assessed values, which you'll only know once you see the property's tax certificate, so we've assumed an assessed value of ¥30 million for the land share and ¥20 million for the building. Your figures will differ.

Upfront cost	Tokyo, Australian buyer	NSW, Australian citizen abroad
Acquisition tax / transfer duty	Land: ¥30m × ½ × 3% = ¥450,000. Building: ¥20m × 3% = ¥600,000 before any deduction [2]	A$39,187 [8]
Registration tax	Land 1.5% = ¥450,000; building 0.3% = ¥60,000 [4]	Registry fees of a few hundred dollars
Contract stamp tax	¥60,000 [5]	Nil
Agent's commission	¥3,696,000 (3% + ¥60,000, plus 10% tax) [3]	Nil if you don't use a buyer's agent
Foreign buyer surcharge	Nil	Nil
Total	¥5,316,000 (about A$48,000)	About A$39,200 plus registry fees

The sums: 3% of ¥110 million is ¥3.3 million, plus ¥60,000, plus 10% consumption tax. The NSW figure is A$11,602 plus 4.5% of A$613,000.

The twist: once you add the agent, Tokyo can cost more upfront than NSW, even with no foreign surcharge. Buy directly from a developer or a seller who isn't using a broker and the commission line can disappear, which flips the result. Scrivener and loan fees are left out.

Which suits whom

The factors that usually decide it:

How long you'll stay. Japan's capital gains rate roughly halves once you pass the five-year mark. Short stays tend to favour renting.
Whether you'll move back. If home is the long-term plan, buying in Australia now means competing with locals on finance while you're on a foreign salary.
Finance. Without permanent residency, Tokyo is often a cash purchase. Australian lenders will lend to you, but on tighter terms.
Rental demand. Central Tokyo apartments are popular with renters; older apartments outside the centre can be harder to let and resell.
Inheritance. Japanese inheritance tax can reach Japanese property, so make sure your will covers both countries.

If you'd like to swap notes with people who've bought in Japan, join Cooee Japan, our Facebook group for Australians in Japan.

Buying in Tokyo vs back home: what Australians really pay