What a house in Osaka actually costs in 2026
Osaka is Japan's second metropolitan area and, unlike Tokyo, it never stopped being affordable for buyers willing to move away from the centre. For the April to June 2026 quarter, Kinki Reinzu (近畿圏不動産流通機構, the professional body that records Kansai transactions) logged an average sale price of ¥24,270,000 (about €149,800) for a second-hand detached house and ¥32,860,000 (about €202,800) for a second-hand condominium, across 3,824 and 4,967 transactions respectively. Those averages cover the six Kansai prefectures, with Osaka the largest share.
A regional average tells you very little about what you will actually pay, because the word Osaka covers two administrative realities that foreign buyers almost always confuse. There is Osaka City (Ōsaka-shi, Osaka), 24 wards, roughly 2.8 million residents, where land is scarce and expensive. And there is Osaka Prefecture (Ōsaka-fu, Osaka府), roughly 8.7 million residents, which includes a ring of mid-sized towns where a whole house sells for the price of a city studio.
The three numbers that frame the market
| Indicator | 2026 value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Residential land, prefecture average | ¥165,600 per sqm (about €1,022), up 2.8% | Official land prices, Ministry of Land |
| Second-hand detached house, Kansai average | ¥24,270,000 (about €149,800), up 4.2% | Kinki Reinzu, April to June 2026 |
| Second-hand condominium, Kansai average | ¥32,860,000 (about €202,800), up 9.0% | Kinki Reinzu, April to June 2026 |
Osaka Prefecture now ranks third in all of Japan for residential land value, behind Tokyo and Kanagawa, and it is posting its fifth consecutive annual increase. This is not a depressed market: it is an expensive market at the centre and a cheap one fifteen kilometres out.
And yet the vacant stock is real
The 2023 housing and land survey (jūtaku tochi tōkei chōsa, Jūtaku Tochi Tōkei Chōsa, run by the Statistics Bureau) counts 701,900 vacant dwellings in Osaka Prefecture, a vacancy rate of 14.24%. In absolute terms that is the second largest pool of empty homes in the country after Tokyo; as a rate, Osaka ranks only 34th out of 47, barely above the national average of 13.8%. In other words: empty houses in Osaka are numerous, but they are not where visitors imagine, and they are not free. Our guide to buying an akiya in Japan unpacks exactly what that statistic covers.
On 26 August 2026, out of the 4,946 properties published in our catalogue, 14 sit in Osaka Prefecture, with a median price of ¥9,000,000 (about €55,600), ranging from ¥1,000,000 to ¥98,000,000. That low count is not an accident, and section five explains why.
Land prices, ward by ward
In Japan you do not buy a dwelling, you buy land with a building standing on it, and the building depreciates while the land carries the value. That mechanism is described in our article on why Japanese houses lose their value, and it is why the first question to ask about an Osaka listing is not how many rooms, but how many square metres of land, and in which ward.
Every year the Ministry of Land publishes the kōji chika (公示地価, official land price), surveyed on 1 January and released in mid March. Here is the 2026 average for each ward of Osaka City, all uses combined, from most to least expensive.
| Ward | Land price per sqm | Equivalent | Year on year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chuo (Chūō-ku) | ¥4,393,844 | €27,122 | +15.0% |
| Kita (Kita-ku) | ¥3,980,764 | €24,573 | +13.3% |
| Nishi (西-ku) | ¥1,771,285 | €10,934 | +15.1% |
| Fukushima (福島-ku) | ¥919,200 | €5,674 | +11.9% |
| Tennoji (Tennōji-ku) | ¥834,272 | €5,150 | +7.7% |
| Naniwa (Naniwa-ku) | ¥831,833 | €5,135 | +14.8% |
| Abeno (阿倍野-ku) | ¥770,250 | €4,754 | +7.1% |
| Yodogawa (淀川-ku) | ¥501,428 | €3,095 | +9.2% |
| Miyakojima (都島-ku) | ¥480,100 | €2,964 | +9.7% |
| Higashinari (東成-ku) | ¥335,000 | €2,068 | +9.8% |
| Joto (城東-ku) | ¥321,888 | €1,987 | +9.1% |
| Sumiyoshi (住吉-ku) | ¥314,952 | €1,944 | +6.0% |
| Minato (Minato-ku) | ¥305,857 | €1,888 | +6.1% |
| Higashiyodogawa (東淀川-ku) | ¥295,560 | €1,824 | +8.8% |
| Tsurumi (鶴見-ku) | ¥286,333 | €1,767 | +9.6% |
| Asahi (旭-ku) | ¥273,769 | €1,690 | +6.2% |
| Higashisumiyoshi (東住吉-ku) | ¥265,794 | €1,641 | +4.9% |
| Konohana (此花-ku) | ¥244,555 | €1,510 | +5.7% |
| Nishinari (Nishinari-ku) | ¥224,928 | €1,388 | +8.0% |
| Suminoe (住之江-ku) | ¥222,133 | €1,371 | +5.9% |
| Ikuno (生野-ku) | ¥205,133 | €1,266 | +4.2% |
| Taisho (大正-ku) | ¥200,750 | €1,239 | +5.5% |
| Hirano (平野-ku) | ¥199,083 | €1,229 | +4.0% |
| Nishiyodogawa (西淀川-ku) | ¥196,571 | €1,213 | +5.4% |
Osaka City average: ¥1,182,768 per sqm (about €7,301), up 9.2%.
How to read this table without being misled
These averages combine residential and commercial uses. In Chuo, Kita and Nishi the survey points are mostly commercial: the figure shown is not what a building plot costs on a residential street in the same ward, it is pulled upward by the shopping arteries. In the outer wards, by contrast, the survey is overwhelmingly residential and the figure is directly usable.
Translated into a real plot of 90 sqm, a common size for a Japanese town house:
- Nishiyodogawa or Hirano: roughly ¥17,900,000 (about €110,500) for the land alone;
- Joto or Sumiyoshi: roughly ¥28,500,000 (about €176,000);
- Tennoji: roughly ¥75,100,000 (about €463,600);
- Chuo: roughly ¥395,000,000 (about €2,438,000), a figure with no connection to a residential project.
The ratio between the cheapest and the most expensive ward is 1 to 22. No other listing parameter, not age, not floor area, not condition, produces a spread of that size. The address decides.
What each budget actually buys
The costliest shortcut is to think in total budget without asking which of the two Osaka markets you are in. Here is what each of four budget bands buys on either side of the city boundary. Euro equivalents use the rate applied when this article was written, ¥162 to €1.
| Budget | Inside Osaka City | In the prefectural ring |
|---|---|---|
| Under ¥5,000,000 (under €30,900) | Almost nothing in freehold. What appears at this price is usually a land lease right, a plot that cannot legally be rebuilt on, or an undivided share. | A house needing full renovation, often pre-1981, in Izumi, Hannan or the Toyono district. |
| ¥5,000,000 to ¥15,000,000 (€30,900 to €92,600) | A studio or small two-room condominium in an older block, in an outer ward, with monthly charges. | A liveable detached house of 100 to 140 sqm, land included, built between the 1970s and the 1990s. |
| ¥15,000,000 to ¥40,000,000 (€92,600 to €246,900) | A two or three bedroom condominium from the 1980s to the 2000s, in an outer or intermediate ward. | A recent or renovated house near a station, in a well served town such as Takaishi or Toyonaka. |
| Over ¥40,000,000 (over €246,900) | A detached house in a central ward, or a recent, well located condominium. | A generous plot, a character property, or a small income building. |
What our own catalogue shows
The 14 properties we track in Osaka Prefecture illustrate exactly this geography: a 39 sqm house from 1971 in Izumi listed at ¥1,000,000, a 111 sqm house from 1974 in Hannan at ¥3,300,000, a 128 sqm house from 1990 in the Toyono district at ¥7,500,000, a 117 sqm house from 1994 in Takaishi at ¥19,800,000, and at the other end a 85 sqm machiya (machiya, traditional wooden town house) in Naniwa ward at ¥98,000,000. Not one property under ¥20,000,000 sits inside the 24 wards.
To compare these orders of magnitude with the rest of the country, our article on how much a house costs in Japan gives the national benchmarks, and listings below a set threshold are grouped on our Japanese houses under 50,000 euros page.
Detached house or condominium: the trade-off specific to Osaka
Inside Osaka City the market is overwhelmingly a condominium market. The manshon (mansion (condominium), reinforced concrete block with a formal owners association) is the norm in the central wards, and the kodate (戸建, detached house) becomes the exception as you approach the loop line. The reverse is true in the ring. So the choice is not primarily a lifestyle choice: it is a location choice in disguise.
| Criterion | Condominium | Detached house |
|---|---|---|
| Where you find it | Everywhere across the 24 wards | Outer wards and the prefectural ring |
| Monthly charges | Management fee plus sinking fund, ¥15,000 to ¥45,000 a month depending on the building | No collective charge, but all maintenance falls on you |
| Resale value | Carried by the building and the address, slower depreciation | Carried by the land; a timber frame is written down to zero in 22 years for tax purposes |
| Works you may carry out | Limited by the building rules | Free, subject to planning rules |
| Short-term letting | Frequently banned by the building rules, whatever the law allows | Possible where zoning and licence permit |
The line item foreign buyers underestimate
A Japanese condominium levies two monthly payments: the kanrihi (kanri-hi, day to day management fee) and the shūzen tsumitatekin (shūzen tsumitatekin, sinking fund for major works). In an older, under-provisioned building the sinking fund can double overnight by a vote of the owners assembly, and that increase binds a foreign owner exactly as it binds everyone else. Our article on condominium charges in Japan explains how to read the assembly minutes before signing, and buying an apartment in Japan covers the full mechanics of the manshon.
One point that concerns Osaka specifically: buildings permitted before June 1981 fall under the old seismic code. The distinction is decisive both at purchase and at resale, and our article on the 1981 seismic standard gives the method for checking the real permit date, which is not the completion date.
Where the affordable stock really is: the Kansai commuter ring
This is the most useful point in this article, and the one no listing will tell you. Osaka is the employment centre of Kansai, but it is ringed by five prefectures whose main stations sit within an hour of the centre and whose land costs three to five times less. A buyer who thinks strictly in terms of Osaka rules out 90% of the stock their budget can reach.
| Area | Properties tracked on 26 August 2026 | Median price | Access to central Osaka |
|---|---|---|---|
| Osaka Prefecture | 14 | ¥9,000,000 (about €55,600) | 20 to 60 minutes |
| Nara | 126 | ¥3,450,000 (about €21,300) | Namba to Nara, about 35 minutes by express |
| Hyogo | 91 | ¥5,770,000 (about €35,600) | Osaka to Sannomiya, about 30 minutes by rapid service |
| Wakayama | 347 | ¥3,500,000 (about €21,600) | Namba to Wakayama, about 60 minutes by express |
| Shiga | 39 | ¥4,875,000 (about €30,100) | Osaka to Otsu, about 40 minutes by rapid service |
| Kyoto | 168 | ¥34,890,000 (about €215,400) | Osaka to Kyoto, about 30 minutes by rapid service |
The contrast is stark: Wakayama, one hour from Namba, holds 347 properties against 14 for Osaka Prefecture, at a median price 61% lower. Nara, closer still, lists 126. Our Osaka prefecture page and Wakayama prefecture page break this down town by town, and every listing stays browsable in our akiya and Japanese house catalogue.
The selection rule that beats price
In this kind of market a single criterion predicts resale and rental: walking distance to a served station, and the presence of everyday shops. A property 20 minutes on foot from a busy station rents and resells; the same property 40 minutes by car from a station served twice an hour will not resell, whatever it cost to buy. Our guide to buying property in Japan sets out this grid, and the yield simulator lets you test a specific property before you travel.
The 2030 factor
One piece of Osaka-specific context is worth knowing without over-reading it: the resort complex backed by MGM and Orix on the artificial island of Yumeshima is targeting an opening in autumn 2030. It concerns Konohana ward and the bay, not the residential ring. Nobody can put a number on its effect on housing prices today, and a seller who presents it as a guaranteed capital gain is selling you a hypothesis, not data.
The same trade-off arises in Fukuoka, with even lower entry tickets and the only clearly positive demographics in the country: see buying a house in Fukuoka to compare the two main gateways to western Japan.
The buying process from abroad, step by step
A foreigner, resident or not, buys in Osaka in full freehold, land included, with no prior authorisation and no nationality condition. There is no special regime, no surcharged registration duty, no extra commission. Two limits, however, are absolute, and it is better to know them before starting.
First: buying grants no right of residence. Owning a home in Osaka gives you no visa, no status of residence, and no easier path to one. Our article on buying a house in Japan without a visa covers this in detail. Second: Japanese mortgages are reserved for people who are both resident and salaried in Japan. A non-resident buys in cash, or finances from their home country. That is the subject of our article on mortgages in Japan for foreigners.
The real transaction calendar
| Stage | What happens | Indicative time |
|---|---|---|
| Selection and checks | Reading the Japanese listing, land registry extract, zoning, hazard maps | 1 to 3 weeks |
| Viewing (naiken, naiken) | On site, or a guided video walkthrough with measurements and photos | 1 week |
| Written offer (kaitsuke shōmeisho, kaitsuke証明書) | Non-binding document that opens negotiation | A few days |
| Disclosure session (jūyō jikō setsumei, jūyō jikō setsumei) | Mandatory briefing delivered by a licensed agent, possible by video | 1 to 2 weeks |
| Contract and deposit (tetsukekin, 手付金) | Signature, 5 to 10% of the price paid | Same day |
| Settlement (kessai, kessai) and registration | Balance paid, transfer registered by the shihō shoshi | 2 to 6 weeks after contract |
Allow six to twelve weeks between falling for a property and receiving the keys, the most variable item being the transfer of funds. The disclosure session is the one never to rush: our article on the juyo jiko setsumei lists what it must contain, and viewing a Japanese property remotely describes how to run a naiken without flying.
Paperwork when you have no Japanese address
A resident buyer supplies a residence certificate and a registered seal. A non-resident can supply neither: they are replaced by a signature certificate and an address certificate issued by their consulate or a notary at home, translated into Japanese. Allow three to four weeks to obtain them: this is the single most common cause of a settlement date being pushed back.
Total budget: purchase costs, annual taxes and a worked example
Purchase costs in Japan stay below 6% of the price, well under what a European buyer expects. The reason is structural: several taxes are calculated not on the price paid but on the assessed value, which is far below market value. The item by item breakdown is in our article on property purchase costs in Japan.
Worked example: a 1994 house in Takaishi
Take a real property from our catalogue: a detached house of 117.8 sqm of floor area, built in 1994, in Takaishi, a coastal town in Osaka Prefecture served by the Nankai line, listed at ¥19,800,000 (about €122,200). Because the building post-dates 1981 it meets the current seismic code, which unlocks the tax reliefs reserved for compliant homes.
| Item | Amount | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Agency commission (chūkai tesūryō, chūkai tesūryō) | ¥719,400 (about €4,440) | 3% of price plus ¥60,000, consumption tax included |
| Stamp duty (inshi-zei, inshi-zei) | ¥10,000 (about €62) | Reduced scale in force |
| Registration tax (tōroku menkyo-zei, tōroku menkyo-zei) | ¥150,000 to ¥220,000 (€930 to €1,360) | On the assessed value, not the price |
| Shihō shoshi fees (shihō shoshi) | ¥100,000 to ¥150,000 (€620 to €930) | Flat fee of the land registry lawyer |
| Acquisition tax (fudōsan shutoku-zei, fudōsan shutoku-zei) | ¥0 to ¥60,000 (€0 to €370) | Largely neutralised by residential reliefs |
| Property tax apportionment | ¥40,000 to ¥60,000 (€250 to €370) | Reimbursed to the seller pro rata for the year |
| Total | About ¥1,020,000 to ¥1,220,000 (€6,300 to €7,500) | That is 5.2% to 6.0% of the price |
What the property costs every year afterwards
The owner pays two local taxes on a single notice: kotei shisan-zei (kotei shisan-zei, fixed asset tax) at a standard 1.4%, and toshi keikaku-zei (toshi keikaku-zei, city planning tax) capped at 0.3%, both calculated on the assessed value. As soon as a plot carries a habitable dwelling, the base of the first is divided by six over the first 200 sqm. For our Takaishi house the annual bill lands around ¥90,000 to ¥110,000 (€550 to €680). Add fire and earthquake insurance at ¥30,000 to ¥60,000 a year, plus a maintenance provision. The full mechanism is explained in our article on property tax in Japan.
If you intend to let the property, two further articles complete the calculation: tax on rental income for non-residents and managing a rental from abroad.
Common mistakes when buying in Osaka
Confusing the city with the prefecture
This is mistake number one and it costs months. An Osaka listing at ¥3,000,000 is never inside the 24 wards. Always check the municipality, then the nearest station and its real journey time to Umeda or Namba, not the straight line distance.
Reading an abnormally low central price as a bargain
In the central wards, a property clearly below market almost always hides a legal constraint: a shakuchiken (shakuchiken, land lease right, where the ground belongs to a third party), a plot that cannot be rebuilt on for lack of compliant access to a public road, or shared undivided ownership. Our article on shakuchiken and land lease rights explains how to spot the case from the listing itself.
Buying for short-term letting without checking the regime
Osaka is the only major Japanese market with a special zone regime allowing 365 days of operation where the national regime caps at 180. But that regime does not cover the whole prefecture, it imposes a minimum stay, and building rules can prohibit it despite the law. Read our article on the Osaka tokku minpaku before building a yield plan, and the 180-day minpaku licence for the general regime.
Ignoring the natural hazard profile of the Osaka plain
Part of the waterfront and the low-lying wards is exposed to storm surge and soil liquefaction. The information exists, municipality by municipality, on local hazard maps, and it does not always appear at the top of a listing. Our article on natural hazards and Japanese property shows where to consult those maps.
Assuming renovation scales with purchase price
On a ¥3,000,000 house, the works almost always exceed what you paid. A full roof, services and bathroom overhaul runs into millions of yen regardless of what the property cost. The detailed costing is in our article on machiya and kominka renovation costs.
Signing without reading the land register
The tōki bo (tōki簿, land register) reveals registered mortgages, easements and the chain of owners. It costs a few hundred yen online and no seller declaration replaces it. Our article on the toki bo explains how to read it.
In short: buy in Osaka knowing both markets
Buying a house in Osaka is legally simple and geographically demanding. A foreigner buys in full freehold, without authorisation, with total costs below 6% of the price and a modest annual tax bill. What decides the outcome is the address: between the cheapest and the most expensive ward, land varies by a factor of 22, and between the city and the prefectural ring the median house price changes order of magnitude.
Three things to remember. First, Osaka Prefecture is Japan's third residential land market and has risen for five straight years: this is not a fire sale. Second, the genuinely accessible properties sit in the ring and the neighbouring prefectures, thirty to sixty minutes by train, where our catalogue tracks 771 properties against 14 in Osaka itself. Third, resale value will depend on the station, not on the purchase price.
To go further: our complete guide to buying property in Japan walks through every step, investing in Osaka real estate covers the yield and short-term rental angle, current listings are in our catalogue and on the Osaka prefecture page, and kominka for sale gathers traditional farmhouses across the country. If you want a specific property checked before you make an offer, our buyer support page sets out the two packages and the first written exchange, with no commitment.
Frequently asked questions
Can a foreigner buy a house in Osaka?
Yes, with no restriction on nationality or residence, land included and in full freehold. No prior authorisation is required. Buying grants no right of residence, however: ownership and visas are entirely separate matters.
How much does a house in Osaka cost in 2026?
In the April to June 2026 quarter, a second-hand house sold for an average of ¥24,270,000 (about €149,800) across Kansai. In the ring of Osaka Prefecture, a liveable house sits between ¥5,000,000 and ¥15,000,000 (€30,900 to €92,600). Inside the 24 wards of the city, expect at least ¥40,000,000 for a detached house.
Which is the cheapest ward in Osaka?
By published 2026 land price, Nishiyodogawa is cheapest at about ¥196,571 per sqm, followed by Hirano at ¥199,083 and Taisho at ¥200,750. The most expensive, Chuo, reaches ¥4,393,844 per sqm, twenty-two times more.
Can I get a Japanese mortgage to buy in Osaka?
Japanese mortgages are reserved for people who are both resident and salaried in Japan, and in practice lenders require a stable status of residence and often permanent residency. A non-resident buys in cash, or finances from their home country.
What are the purchase costs when buying in Osaka?
Closing costs stay below 6% of the price. They cover agency commission (3% plus ¥60,000 and tax), stamp duty, registration tax, the land registry lawyer's fee, acquisition tax and the property tax apportionment. On a ¥19,800,000 property, budget roughly ¥1,020,000 to ¥1,220,000.
How much is annual property tax in Osaka?
It combines a fixed asset tax at 1.4% and a city planning tax capped at 0.3%, both calculated on the assessed value rather than the price paid. With the assessed base divided by six over the first 200 sqm of residential land, a suburban house commonly comes to ¥90,000 to ¥150,000 a year.
Can I run my Osaka house as a short-term rental?
Osaka has a special zone regime that allows year-round operation, against 180 nights under the national regime. It does not cover the whole prefecture, it imposes a minimum stay, and building rules can prohibit it even where the law permits it. Verification is done municipality by municipality, before you buy.
Is it better to buy in Osaka or in Kyoto?
Osaka is markedly more affordable: the median price of the properties we track there is ¥9,000,000 against ¥34,890,000 in Kyoto Prefecture, and heritage regulation is far lighter. Kyoto keeps the edge on heritage value and tourist demand. The two cities are about thirty minutes apart by train.
Official sources
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