An Aussie bloke and his family have relocated to Japan after snagging a house for just $30,000 because property in their Australian city was out-of-reach.

Jaya Thursfield, 48, from Melbourne bought the abandoned home, known as an ‘akiya’ in Japanese, in his wife Chihiro’s hometown of Ibaraki in the countryside.

After hearing about Japan’s abandoned houses, Mr Thursfield set about looking for a farmhouse and found one for sale in a newspaper ad, SBS Dateline reported. 

There are believed to be at least 10 million akiya in Japan, with many in the countryside abandoned when residents want to move to a city or are left to rot because of the country’s high inheritance tax.

‘I just don’t think we could have afforded to have got a place (in Australia), certainly not near my parents in inner Melbourne,’ Mr Thursfield said. 

The family bought their ‘impressive’ 250-metre square house on a 1,800-metre square block of land with three bedrooms, one bathroom and a guestroom.

The dad also said the family discovered the house was ‘taller, bigger and more beautiful’ than they were expecting when they first saw it in person, about 45 minutes from Tokyo.

Mr Thursfield said Japanese people even give their akiya away for free, but the abandoned homes are not listed on real estate websites.

Mr Thursfield said local municipalities partake in a program that lists all the abandoned homes, called the akiya bank, which make it easy for people to find one of the empty properties. 

The now-Japanese resident said even though the abandoned homes are all across the country, the further buyers move away from cities, especially into rural areas, the cheaper the homes become.

Most akiya need renovating and made structurally sound. The Melbourne family had a budget of A$200,000 but have spent $250,000 over the last three years

‘It wasn’t in liveable condition. It didn’t have a functioning kitchen, and the bathroom was really outdated,’ the dad said.

Mr Thursfield said it would have been a stretch to have tried to live in the house because the plumbing wasn’t functioning well and and electrical wiring needed updating.

Everything was also left in the house – including a huge mess in the kitchen.

Despite the family’s outlay, it is still considered cheap when compared with new-build prices in Japan.

‘An empty block of land with no house on it (in their rural region), you’re looking at around about $70,000-$80,000 Australian dollars and to build a new house would probably cost around about $200,000 Australian,’ Mr Thursfield said. 

Despite having no renovation experience, Mr Thursfield decided to do the work himself and set about documenting it on Youtube, which has since gone viral.

Mr Thursfield said doing the work himself has provided him ‘satisfaction’, especially knowing he has ‘saved’ the home.

For Aussies interested in buying an akiya, they are warned to look into possible restrictions – such as using them for short-term rentals, according to Cheap Houses Japan.

Other restrictions can include buyers needing to be under the age of 43 and having children in high school.

Aussies are also warned that older houses were not built with materials suitable to prevent earthquake damage and they should avoid purchasing houses built on soft soil.

Although there are no restrictions on Aussies buying properties in Japan, they are unable to take out a Japanese mortgage.

Obtaining a visa to live in Japan can also be very complex. 

However, the effort may be worth it, with the median house price of Australia’s combined capital cities sitting at a whopping $997,963, according to the latest Corelogic data.

And in Mr Thursfield’s home city of Melbourne, the median price is now $944,138 – significantly higher than what the family have paid for their big Japanese home.