Short answer: Wakayama has one prefecture-wide entry point, the housing section of the Wakayama Life portal (わかやま暮らし), which showed 375 registered listings on 12 October 2026. It is in Japanese, so use browser translation and the keywords 空き家バンク (akiya bank), 売買 (sale) and 賃貸 (rent). The portal's FAQ says basically anyone can use it, but it does not mention nationality or visa status, so ask the municipality. Cheap houses exist: one listing on the portal on 12 October 2026 was priced at ¥1,000,000. The trade-offs are Nankai Trough tsunami exposure on the coast and landslide terrain inland, which the prefecture's own records document.
One portal, two kinds of listing. The listing search mixes properties registered with the prefectural and municipal akiya bank and properties from "housing cooperators" (住宅協力員, private real-estate firms). You can filter by sale or rent, municipality or map, price, layout, building age (up to "over 50 years"), listing date, and features such as farmland, near the sea, or VR tour available. Contact details for the municipalities and cooperators are in the directory page, which shows a count of 68 and lets you filter by whether a town has an akiya bank or subsidies.
The process. According to the usage page, you first submit a user-registration form with a pledge (paper or online). The FAQ then says you contact the municipality through the form on the property page, and that you should apply for a viewing roughly two weeks ahead. Where a broker is involved, the usual brokerage fee applies. Listed prices are generally fixed; listings marked as open to consultation can be negotiated.
The part that matters. The FAQ states that the prefecture and municipalities take no part in negotiations or contracts, accept no responsibility for disputes between the parties, and do not guarantee any property. The owner can also decline an offer. The bank is a matching service, not a purchase protection scheme. Read our akiya bank conditions guide and can foreigners buy an akiya for the general picture.
Who can use it. The FAQ says: basically anyone, but the bank mainly exists to help people looking for housing as they relocate, and business use is declined. Neither the FAQ nor the registration page mentions nationality, so a foreign buyer should confirm in writing with the specific town. The consultation line is the Wakayama Migration Support Center (わかやま移住定住支援センター), 073-422-6110; expect Japanese.
| Goal | Japanese to use |
|---|---|
| A town's bank | 和歌山県 [town] 空き家バンク, for example 白浜町, 田辺市, 串本町 |
| Sale or rental | 売買 / 賃貸 |
| Subsidies | [town] 空き家 補助金 |
| Hazard map | ハザードマップ plus the town name |
| Water and sewage | 簡易水道 (simplified water), 汲取り (pit toilet), 浄化槽 (septic tank) |
Use the kanji red-flag guide on every listing, and the agent question list for Japanese you can paste into an inquiry.
On 12 October 2026 the first page of the portal's search showed ten listings. Sale prices ran from 100 to 1,500 (the unit is 万円 on the detail page checked, so ¥1,000,000 to ¥15,000,000), with several marked negotiable; build years ran from 1926 to 2005 where stated. That is ten listings on one day, not an average. The detail page for the cheapest sale (Shirahama, listing A-1775) shows a single-storey wooden house of about 80 years, 106.59 m² of floor area on 441.66 m² of land, a simplified water supply, a pit toilet with no sewer connection, propane gas, and a note that excavation requires an application because the site is a buried cultural property area. The price is low, and the notes show where costs and rules can hide. For realised prices, see how to check sold prices in the Ministry of Land's transaction database.
Weighing a Wakayama coastal house against an inland one? An Akiya Check report brings together the tsunami, flood, landslide, elevation and zoning data for the exact lot in one English report and lists the follow-up questions for the agent. Compare 3 puts three candidates side by side.
Single report $49 · Compare 3 $99 Free 12-point checklistThe portal's support page lists three prefectural programs as of 12 October 2026:
Budgets and rules change by year, so confirm with the town before counting on any of them.
In 2026 the prefecture published revised seismic shaking and tsunami inundation assumptions for two scenarios: a frequently occurring Tokai-Tonankai-Nankai triple earthquake (Mw 8.7) and a maximum-class Nankai Trough earthquake (Mw 9.1). The maximum-class scenario builds on the Cabinet Office's March 2025 estimate with more detailed terrain data, and the page describes it as very unlikely but potentially severe. Inundation maps are published by municipality on the same site. That page does not state tsunami heights or arrival times, so read those for your town from the prefecture's maps rather than from this guide.
The prefecture's sediment disaster page says 21,924 sites were designated as landslide warning or special warning zones as of the end of fiscal 2025. It also lists 5,263 further sites identified from high-precision terrain data and planned for basic surveys, and warns that sites not on the list are not necessarily free of risk. A lot not yet designated can still be on a slope.
The prefecture's record of the 2011 Typhoon No. 12 disaster lists 56 dead and 5 missing, with the most casualties in Nachikatsuura (29) and Shingu (14). Rainfall exceeded 1,000 mm across a wide area over six days, 1,998 mm was recorded at Osugi in Tanabe, and 8,465 buildings were damaged. The page describes surface collapses, deep-seated collapses, debris flows and river blockages. Older houses below hillsides deserve a slope check; see the retaining wall guide.
Enter the address in the national Hazard Map Portal (重ねるハザードマップ, in Japanese), which overlays flood, landslide, storm surge and tsunami layers, and open the town's own map under わがまちハザードマップ. Our hazard map guide explains the layers. Compare with the prefectural maps above, since the portal notes that the agencies that made the data are the ones to ask about its interpretation.
The prefecture's housing portal at wakayamagurashi.jp has a listing search that covers municipal akiya bank properties and private properties from housing cooperators, a directory of municipal and cooperator contacts, and a consultation page. It showed 375 listings on 12 October 2026. It is in Japanese.
The portal's FAQ says that basically anyone can use it, though it is mainly meant to support people looking for housing as they relocate, and business use is refused. The FAQ and the registration page do not mention nationality or visa status either way, so ask the municipality in writing.
The portal lists a renovation subsidy of half the cost up to ¥1,000,000 for people moving in from outside the prefecture, limited to 22 listed municipalities or areas, but the page says applications had closed because the budget was reached. It also lists a survey subsidy of half the cost up to ¥50,000 and a clean-out subsidy of up to ¥80,000 per property. Check the current status with the municipality.
Have a specific listing in mind? Get the official zoning, hazard and transaction data for that exact lot — plus the questions to send the agent — in one report.
Get a $49 risk report Free 12-point checklistThis guide is general information based on public sources cited above. It is not legal, tax, or real-estate brokerage advice. Confirm every item for a specific property with the agent, the municipality, and licensed professionals.