It's Hard to Buy a Home, Yet "We Won't Take It Even If You Leave It to Us"... Why People Avoid Inheriting Their Parents' Homes

Tax and management burdens deter inheritance of vacant homes
Inheritance renunciations in Japan up 70% in 10 years

Cases of people giving up inheritance in Japan because of problems such as vacant homes and their parents' debts are surging.

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According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) on October 20, a growing number of people in Japan are seeking to avoid inheriting not only their parents' debts but also real estate, including houses and land.

Renouncing an inheritance is a legal procedure for declining to inherit the assets of a deceased family member. Those who do so cannot acquire bank deposits or real estate, but they also do not have to assume the deceased's debts. In particular, aging homes and properties in areas with poor public transportation access can be difficult to rent out or sell, creating a burden for heirs.

Real estate that is difficult to dispose of can remain a management burden even after it is inherited. In Japan, vacant homes are subject to fixed asset taxes, and owners also face additional costs for building repairs and insurance. According to Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' 2023 Housing and Land Survey, the number of vacant homes in Japan reached a record 9,002,000.

The number of inheritance renunciations is also rising. According to Japanese judicial statistics, 323,524 cases of inheritance renunciation were newly filed last year, up 4.8% from the previous year. The increase over the past 10 years has reached about 70%.

Lawyer Tomohiro Nomata told the Nikkei, "Quite a few people are struggling with what is known as 'negative-value property'—real estate that offers almost no practical use when inherited but continues to impose management costs."

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Meanwhile, bank lending to Japan's real estate industry is growing sharply. According to the Bank of Japan (BOJ), outstanding loans by domestic Japanese banks to the real estate industry totaled 120.7588 trillion yen (about 1,015 trillion won) at the end of June, up 8.2% from the same month a year earlier. That was about 18% of total outstanding bank loans of 664.018 trillion yen (about 5,586 trillion won), far exceeding the 10% recorded during the bubble era, when real estate investment was overheated.

Real estate industry loans are funds that financial institutions lend for purposes such as apartment construction and the acquisition of properties like office buildings. Major borrowers include real estate developers, rental property operators, and real estate funds.

Real estate industry lending appears to be concentrated in central Tokyo. According to Japan's Financial Services Agency, banks headquartered outside the greater Tokyo area provided 60% of loans to the real estate industry in Tokyo's five central wards, including Minato Ward. As of March 2025, about one-quarter of nationwide regional banks' real estate industry loans were also concentrated in those five wards.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.