Mortgage application

I do not yet have Permament Resident status in Japan. This was the main limiting factor in choosing who to apply for the mortgage with.

Being self-employed didn't seem to matter too much as I have been correctly filing taxes for 4 years. However, when starting my business I wanted to show as little profit as possible to pay no more tax than necessary. Part of this process involved paying my wife to lower my income and get me down to a cheaper tax band. The effect this has now is that,to the bank, we appear to be doing not quite as well as we are. (my wifes salary cannot be counted as she has been receiving it for less than two years).

I wrote a cover letter to explain this situation and it may have helped to smooth things out.

Below is a list of the documents that Shinsei Bank require for the loan application.
ID card, drivers license
Group life insurance (mandatory, paid for)
Tax return for 2005,6,7
Certifacte of tax payment available from tax office (sono1 sono2)
Copy of certifed register of real estate
Location map of property plus a map with route to station
Contract of purchase (land)
Description of important matters concerning sale of land
Contract of construction
Application of construction (builder applies for this) if we don't have it yet explain in cover letter and say when we will get it
Certification of constuction from above
Plan for house
Recorded map can be taken from land record office
Survey map from real estate agent
Gaijin card
Other loan - explain that there aren't any in cover letter
Say that there are no other loans
Say that there is no other property

With Shinsei Bank a contract with the builder is required before loan application may be made. Also, planning must be approved by the local office. This means that a lot of detail has to be decided on in terms of the design of and location of the house before you know if you will get the loan or not. This also involves some expense for the designer, planning application and survey of the land.

Our planning approval came through on August 20th and we had a positive response from the bank by August 25th. So getting approval was quick, but getting all the documents together took some time.