"I wish I hadn't bought this high-rise condo" — 5 things common to those who wept at the scene of selling
When I receive consultations about buying and selling, I hear people say "I want to sell" several times a month. There are far more people than I expected who want to let go of their property after three years, or seven years at the longest, of owning it.
Among these, consultations for selling high-rise condominiums have a somewhat unique atmosphere. Everyone starts off confident. They say, "The remaining mortgage balance is about this much, and since it should have increased in value since I bought it..." But the weight of the silence after I present the appraisal figures somehow conveys just how much they regret their decision.
I sometimes suddenly remember the faces of the people I have met in the field. I feel that there is a common pattern among those who have expressed regret. Today, I would like to write a little bit about that.
1. Management fees and repair reserve funds become much heavier than imagined
When buying, everyone checks the property price and the monthly mortgage payments carefully. However, to be honest, not many people fully grasp the "future increases" in management fees and repair reserve funds.
Repair reserve funds for high-rise condos are often intentionally set low when they are newly built. I think this is because it makes them easier to sell. Once 10 or 15 years have passed, the reserves for large-scale repairs become truly necessary, and the costs jump significantly. It is not rare for them to double, and depending on the property, they can even triple.
One client told me they wanted to sell because the reserve fund, which was in the 20,000 yen range per month at the time of purchase, exceeded 40,000 yen in five years and was scheduled to rise even further at the next review. They said, "The payments other than the mortgage are more painful than the mortgage itself." They were a dual-income couple with a decent household income, but they could no longer withstand the rise in fixed costs during a period when their children's educational expenses were piling up.
Repairs for high-rise condos are a bit different from ordinary condominiums. Since scaffolding cannot be erected, gondolas must be suspended to repair the exterior walls. Some properties cost hundreds of millions to over a billion yen for a single large-scale repair. Because there are many units, the burden per household is spread out, but the base number is large to begin with. It might be better to read the "future repair plan" in the brochure at the time of purchase as just the absolute minimum figure. In actual reviews, they almost always exceed the plan.
As a measure you can take before buying, I think you should request the long-term repair plan from the seller or the management company and check with your own eyes what the reserve funds will be in 20 or 30 years. There are really many people who buy without doing this.
2. When you want to sell, you cannot sell at the price you thought
The idea that "high-rise condos are unlikely to lose asset value" is, in my experience in the field, half true and half not.
The ones that are unlikely to lose value are "high-rise condos with extremely good locations, large scale, and brand power." Everything else depreciates quite normally. And what is a bit troublesome when selling is that there are several units for sale in the same building. Since high-rise condos have many units, it is common to have 5 or 10 units for sale at the same time.
Buyers, naturally, consider the units with the best conditions in the same building first. Telling them, "It might be hard to get viewings unless you lower the price a bit more than that one," is one of the most heavy-hearted moments in my job.
I especially remember a male client in his 40s who bought a unit as a resale and had to sell it three years later due to a job transfer. At first, he listed it at a price slightly higher than the purchase price. But then a unit with a similar layout appeared on the same floor, and that one sold first. The next month, another unit appeared, priced 2 million yen lower than his. In the end, it didn't sell for half a year, and it was sold at a price 5 million yen lower than his initial hope.
On the day of the handover, he said, "Honestly, I don't regret buying the high-rise condo itself. But my biggest failure was not thinking about the time when I would sell it." That has stayed with me ever since.
Salespeople explain various things when you buy. But you don't know how they will act when you sell until the time comes. This is not limited to high-rise condos, but I think this "exit bottleneck" is more likely to occur in high-rise condos with many units.
3. Life on a high floor is not necessarily as comfortable as you might think
This is something I hear more often from family members than from the residents themselves.
"The view is nice, but I can't hang laundry outside, and I can't leave the windows open," "It takes time to get from the front door to the delivery area," "Since the children can't go outside immediately, I end up taking them to the park by car on my days off." The more I hear, the more I see the gap between the high-floor life they imagined and their actual daily life.
What I remember most is a dual-income couple with small children. They told me, "The elevator never comes during the morning commute. Including the time it takes for people on lower floors to get on, there are days when it takes 10 minutes from the time I leave the house until I get outside." They bought a high-floor unit in a 50-story building and decided to sell it after a year and a half. It seems it became impossible to manage dropping off and picking up their children from nursery school.
Next, let's talk about disasters. Some of you may remember the incident a few years ago when a typhoon caused flooding and a power outage at a high-rise condo in Musashi-Kosugi. Since then, I have the impression that more and more people are becoming aware of the risks of living on high floors whenever I consult with them. When the power goes out, the elevators stop. The water booster pumps also stop, so water doesn't reach the higher floors. If you live on the 50th floor, you'll have to carry plastic bottles of water up and down the stairs. Once might be manageable, but what do you do if it takes several days for services to be restored? I think it's worth thinking about.
Some people have even told me that they got tired of the night view after the first month. Perhaps that's just how it is.
4. The composition of the residents can be different from what you expected
This, too, can be a difficult part to see before you buy.
In high-rise condos, there are a certain number of units bought for investment purposes or rented out under corporate names. As the number of units put up for rent increases, the turnover becomes more frequent, and the management of the homeowners' association gradually becomes more difficult. People don't show up for general meetings. Repair policies cannot be decided. In the meantime, the state of management can visibly change.
When I was in charge of selling a 15-year-old high-rise condo, a client who came for a viewing frowned as they looked around the common areas. They said, "It feels like this place isn't being managed well." There were small but certain signs, such as withered plants in the entrance and complaint notices left on the bulletin board. In fact, the homeowners' association for that property was in a state of near-dysfunction. The seller knew this, and I think that's exactly why they wanted to sell.
There was also a high-rise condo where private lodging (minpaku) became a problem for a while. Units on the same floor were being used for short-term rentals, and unfamiliar tourists would come and go every week, dragging large suitcases. I heard that for families raising children, this was the biggest source of stress.
It might be better to think of the "high-rise condo brand" visible from the outside and the "reality of the community" that you only understand after living there as two separate things. There is a limit to what you can check before buying, but I think you should at least ask to see the minutes of the homeowners' association meetings and go to see the common areas two or three times at different times of the day.
5. It can become an asset that causes trouble for your family during inheritance
This is something I have felt particularly strongly since I started receiving consultations regarding inheritance.
Because high-rise condos have high valuation, the inheritance tax burden tends to be heavy. And they are difficult to divide among siblings. If it's a detached house, it's still easier to decide whether "someone will live in it" or "sell it," but a single unit in a high-rise condo is inconvenient to live in, and selling it requires the agreement of all heirs. I have seen several cases where, while opinions remain divided, the monthly management fees for a unit that no one lives in continue to be deducted.
A common case where siblings clash is the pattern where "the eldest son wants to sell, but the second son wants to keep it because of memories of their parents." The eldest son lives far away and doesn't have the capacity to be involved in management. The second son lives nearby, but he isn't going to live there himself. Two or three years pass without a conclusion, and during that time, 50,000 yen in management fees and property taxes are paid every month. It is not uncommon for it to end with the market price having dropped by the time it is finally sold, leaving no one with a profit.
Also, I am seeing more and more consultations where high-rise condos bought for tax-saving purposes have "failed to meet expectations" due to tax reforms. Previously, the higher the floor, the lower the inheritance tax valuation, which had a tax-saving effect, but the evaluation method was revised in 2024, narrowing that gap. Those who were told by salespeople when they bought it that "it will be a good inheritance tax measure" are the most surprised by the unexpected burden.
A high-rise condo that parents bought with good intentions becomes a source of trouble for their children's generation. This may be a future that is not imagined at all when buying. But I think that future begins little by little from the moment you buy.
In conclusion
I don't mean to say that high-rise condos are bad. Those who have bought them with good locations and management, that fit their own lifestyle, and who have even thought about an exit strategy, are properly satisfied. I have met many people who say, "I'm glad I bought it."
However, I think there is a common thread among the "people who regret it" that I have met in the field. What they were looking at when they bought was only the "now," and they were barely conscious of 5 years later, 10 years later, or the time of inheritance. Salespeople won't go out of their way to explain things that the buyer doesn't ask about.
Real estate is something you hold and eventually let go of for a much longer time than when you buy it. If you are considering a high-rise condo, I would like you to read the long-term repair plan and the minutes of the homeowners' association meetings with the same enthusiasm as you would take photos of the night view during a viewing. Just doing that should significantly lower the probability of having regrets.
And if there is anyone currently worried about selling or inheriting a high-rise condo, I would ask you not to rush your decision. With high-rise condos, if you make the wrong judgment, the amount you lose is large. That is why it is better to consult with someone you can trust before taking action. This is my honest opinion as someone who is still working in the field.