The reason why renovation apartments can't sell

Yuichiro Noguchi
5 days ago
3 min read

When choosing an apartment, the most important thing for buyers is the location environment. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's "Housing Market Trend Survey Report", 52.2% of people value location when deciding on a property, and apartments with bad location conditions are concerned about the difficulty of commuting and going to school and the inconvenience of life, so buyers It is one of the reasons why you hesitate to buy.

It is natural that properties in inconvenient places and unpopular areas are basically difficult to sell, whether they have been renovated or not. Except when the property is very attractive, it can't be sold unless it's basically cheaper than the market price. If you buy and renovate such a property, it will be difficult to recover the cost of the renovation.

Then, how about choosing a second-hand apartment in a popular area and a convenient location and renovating it? In the first place, second-hand apartments are different from new buildings, and the whole building is not sold out. Therefore, if the circulation volume is small and it is a popular area, it will not be sold at a lower price than the market price, so if you renovate it, it will be much more expensive than the surrounding apartments.

In that case, it will compete in price with apartments with shorter years of construction and high-grade apartments in the neighborhood, so even if the interior has been renovated, it will be basically difficult to choose an apartment that has passed the age of construction.

In other words, if you are considering selling a renovation apartment in the future, you need to buy a property in a popular area at a lower price than the market price, and set a price so that it is not higher than the surrounding market price even if you add renovation costs. Is important.

Basically, it is quite difficult to buy a property at a lower price than the market price in a popular area, so you will have to look for it from a fairly old apartment, but the older it is, the more likely it will be rebuilt, so you will spend a lot of money on it to renovate it. I can't recommend doing it.

If you are going to renovate, it is most appropriate to choose an apartment that is about 20 to 30 years old, which is the time to replace plumbing equipment such as kitchens and bathrooms. If you have not replaced it once since the new construction, it is the best time to replace the equipment, and it is most efficient to carry out a full renovation at that time, including the piping under the floor. From there, it is unlikely that it will be rebuilt for another 20 to 30 years (built 40 to 60 years).

What you should pay attention to when renovating is not to create a unique floor plan or interior design. Custom-made renovations are attractive, but basically unique things are difficult to sell, so you need to be careful. However, if the floor plan and interior are normal, there is no point in going out of the way to renovate, so sense is important there. An easy renovation can also result in lowering the asset value of the property.

Many of the common resale renovated apartments have low-cost renovations on old properties, but due to cost and ease of sale, they tend to have a safe floor plan and interior, but there are no features in the floor plan or interior, and the interior is simply beautiful nowadays. If it's just that, isn't it natural that there are more people who choose a shallow apartment that has not been built for a year, even if it's a little expensive? As a result, renovation apartments are difficult to sell.

Originally, the biggest attraction of renovation apartments is that they can create unique floor plans and interiors that are not in existing apartments. While existing apartments have become standard specifications that are accepted by everyone, considering the price and ease of sale, renovation will solve the problem for those who are not satisfied with it. What such people want is not only rationality and economy, but also aspects that are generally difficult to understand, such as their own values. Isn't the secret to successful renovation to properly grasp and realize such needs?