About Us
Svetlana and Konstantin, son Mark, 9 years old. Svetlana is engaged in the tourism business, Konstantin is a programmer. In Japan for more than 15 years.
About the house
5LDK
Manufacturer: Hinokiya
Materials: wood
Number of floors: 2 floors
Total area: 129 m2 (38.88 tsubo)
Area of the 1st floor: 77 m2 (23.25 tsubo)
Area of 2 floors: 52 m2 (15.63 tsubo)
About choosing a construction company
When did you start planning to build a house?
For us it turned out to be a long process. We became interested in building a house as soon as we decided that we would stay in Japan. In fact, from the moment we began to learn about the construction of houses in Japan, technologies, prices, etc. and 9 years passed before the house was actually ordered. The main reason is quite banal and known to almost all foreigners - to obtain a loan you need a residence permit (eijuken). Nowadays, getting eijuken has become somewhat easier, but it took us a long time. Even the application for a non-residence permit itself was considered for more than a year.
It turns out you had a lot of time to get acquainted with proposals from construction companies? How did you do it?
Yes, there was more than enough time.
First of all, this is an inspection of model houses in Housing Park. At first we went there as if we were going to work, to understand which construction companies were offering what. I recommend everyone to start by visiting Housing Park.
The second is visiting friends' houses. Many of our friends and acquaintances have already bought houses for themselves, and we consulted with them. But here you have to be objective - everyone is happy to live in a new house and everyone will praise their homes and recommend the same to you. Therefore, pay attention to the interesting solutions that your friends will show you, and notice the shortcomings yourself.
The third and least effective are the websites of construction companies. In most cases, websites in Japan are still uninformative.
A detailed story of how we chose a house
Have your preferences in choosing a home changed in any way during this time?
We came to Japan with our own idea of what a home should be like. But the climate in our homeland and in Japan is very different in both temperature and humidity. Accordingly, your approach to home needs to change. The first decision was to build a house out of concrete. But over time, they abandoned the construction of a concrete house due to the unreasonably high price and a number of technological aspects of the house itself.
About 80% of houses in Japan are wooden frame houses. Almost all of my friends built houses just like this. This largely determined our choice. All that remains is to choose the right one among the developers of wooden frame houses.
What factors did you consider when choosing a construction company for your new home?
Everything is quite simple here. Selected according to the following parameters:
- Quality of materials. If a frame house uses mineral wool or glass wool as insulation, 14 mm facade panels are fastened with nails, and the cheapest windows are installed, we immediately rejected such options. Usually these are the cheapest and low-quality houses. Although a number of my friends bought just such houses for themselves.
- Technologies used. The key point for us here is the air exchange system and the air conditioning system. For comfort, there should always be fresh air and a pleasant temperature in the house. The options for “natural” air exchange (hole in the wall) did not suit us. Even a number of inexpensive construction companies did not meet these parameters. On the other hand, heated floors work well for heating a house, but for cooling, you still need to install an air conditioner in each room. We also rejected this irrational option.
- House layout. Our home should be primarily functional, living space should be used efficiently, and the size of the house should be such that each family member has their own living space. This is a problem for many construction companies, especially those positioning themselves as “expensive”. Often the area of the house is not rationally used, extra corridors, uncomfortable or small rooms, “second light” in a small room, etc.
- Price. We are all limited by budget. We are willing to spend extra money on some things, but not on others. This is already individual. But what’s interesting is that expensive options usually corresponded to the quality of materials, but they could not completely satisfy us in terms of technology or the layout of the house; more attention is paid to expensive design.
- What a really built house looks like, not a model house. This is the last criterion that will help you understand whether what is shown in the model house is a serial version or an exclusive one for which you will have to pay extra. You should definitely look at what this construction company has built for ordinary people.
Why did you choose Hinokiya?
In our choice, we were not limited by any construction conditions - we looked at the land separately, we chose the construction company separately. Building a house in Japan is a capital investment for life and is not an investment - selling a house over time with a profit, as is the case in the USA or Europe, is impossible in Japan. Selling a house in Japan is always a financial loss. Therefore, for yourself you need to cost it once and well.
For us, a good home is a balance of technology (quality), price and comfort (size). This is the balance when, according to technology, the best insulation for frame houses is used - polyurethane foam, high-quality windows, good wall cladding material, we also get the size of the house we need with an air exchange and air conditioning system, while the price for the house turns out to be quite adequate.
In terms of thoughtfulness and technology, Hinokiya houses, in my opinion, are the best among frame wooden houses. It was possible to build a similar house cheaper. There are similar offers from other companies. But in terms of the quality of all materials from insulation and facing slabs to windows, everything would be of the cheapest quality. There are offers, the same as those from Hinokiya, of decent quality, but the price is much more expensive.
