Yuzawa's troubled resort apartments now experiencing a renaissance
The collapsing market for Yuzawa’s cheap ski condos, where a one-bedroom apartment could be purchased for 100,000 Yen (US$760), might have bottomed out, with one local broker reporting that monthly inquiries have doubled since the pandemic started.
Desperate sellers in ski resort town forced to pay buyers to offload apartments
Some owners, in an attempt to offload their apartments in aging ski resort towns, are paying companies to take the properties off their hands. For companies offering this relatively new service, charging fees to the seller is how they balance the risk of holding a property that comes with high running costs and limited resale potential.
How it works
According to the website of a company that specializes in buying up resort apartments, they ask the seller to pay them enough to cover the following: