Buying a House: Finding a Home 3

Buying a House: Finding a Home 3

How to Read Real Estate Advertisements (Prohibited Matters)

In real estate advertising, "bait and switch" and "misleading representations" are prohibited.
Take a look at the display examples to see if there are any violations of the terms and conditions that should be displayed, such as missing items or misleading wording.​

Point 1: Beware of bait-and-switch advertisements, etc.

A bait-and-switch advertisement is an advertisement for a property that cannot be traded and includes the following:

• Fictitious properties
• Properties that have already been sold
• Properties with no intention of selling

​These are deceptive advertisements that aim to advertise such properties and introduce other properties to the assembled guests to trade with them. Also prohibited are double price indications to make a property appear significantly cheaper, unfair comparative advertising to make a property appear superior, exaggerated advertising, false advertising, and misrepresentation of superiority to indicate that a property is significantly superior to the actual property or to a property handled by a competitor.

Point2: Misrepresentation in real estate advertising you should know about

*​This example is for newspaper inserts. Examples of company name, building license number, name of organization, company address, etc. are omitted.

Examples of misrepresentation

1. "Specially Selected," "Best," "Outstanding," "Rare," etc.
In addition to terms such as "specially selected" that indicate that the real estate has been selected according to certain criteria, terms that give the impression of extremely low prices ("cheap", etc.), terms that imply superiority over other companies ("first in the industry", "best in Japan", etc.), and terms that indicate the highest quality are prohibited unless there is objective and concrete evidence to support the use. 
2. 8-minute walk from the bus stop
The time required to take a bus from the nearest station to the nearest bus stop and the time required to walk from the bus stop to the property must be indicated.
3. 20㎡ private road included
The property area and the private road area (if any) must be indicated clearly and separately.
4. Non-conforming road access
When a building is constructed in a city planning area or a quasi-city planning area, the site must, in principle, abut a 4m or wider road under the Building Standard Law by at least 2m. In the case of a "non-conforming road" that does not meet this requirement, the property must be marked as "no building allowed" or "no re-building allowed.
5. Floor area: 108.45㎡ (with a basement car garage)
A car garage cannot be included in the floor area.
6. Spacious 4DK
Subjective expressions such as "spacious" and "bright" are prohibited.
7. Used
The date of construction must be indicated.
8. Proximity to parks
When indicating public facilities such as schools and parks, the distance must be clearly indicated instead of using subjective expressions such as "close by.
9.  Dedicated service
It is necessary to clearly indicate the real estate company's position on transactions by specifying which of "seller," "lessor," "mediation," and "agency" corresponds to the transaction mode.