世論 What Japan Thinks

A recent survey from iShare took a look at paying back lump sums on home loans, and found out, as usual, some interesting opinions.

Demographics

Between the 27th and 29th of July 2010 1,487 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. All the respondents had a home loan in either their own or their spouse’s name. 73.8% of the sample were male, 2.9% in their twenties, 30.1% in their thirties, and 67.0% in their forties.

Note than in Japan as far as I am aware the only form of home loan is a repayment mortgage. Despite endowment-type life insurance and hospital fee policies being popular, as far as I am aware there are no endowment loans, nor pension loans or other interesting but more risky methods. I did however see a loan advertised on the back of a newspaper in the train saying something like paying an extra 10% up front then absolutely zero interest for the 15 year duration of the loan!

You can see immediately from the demographics that few people in their twenties appear to have home loans, a surprising figure to me. In Q5, the reluctance to have loans is also a surprise; in the UK a mortgage is a fact of life, and car loans are also rather common. I’d like to see a survey delving further into the Japanese way of looking at lending.

My home loan is for a scary length with a scary amount of cash to pay back – I had hoped that What Japan Thinks and the rest of my empire would help out accelerate the repayment schedule, but sadly that hasn’t quite gone to plan…

Research results

Q1: Is your home loan in your name or your spouse’s name? (Sample size=1,487)

	All	Male N=1,097	Female N=390
My name (to SQ1)	79.0%	94.7%	34.6%
Spouse’s name (to SQ2)	21.0%	5.3%	65.4%

Q1SQ1: Have you ever made a lump sum payment on your home loan? (Sample size=1,174)

	All	Male N=1,039	Female N=135
Yes (to SQ3, SQ4)	43.1%	42.9%	44.4%
No	56.9%	57.1%	55.6%

Q1SQ2: Has your spouse ever made a lump sum payment on their home loan? (Sample size=313)

	All	Male N=58	Female N=255
Yes (to SQ3, SQ4)	40.6%	19.0%	45.5%
No (to SQ6)	49.2%	53.4%	48.2%
Don’t know (to SQ6)	10.2%	27.6%	6.3%

Q1SQ3: Did you feel joy or a sense of achievement, etc on making a lump sum payment on your/their home loan? (Sample size=633)

	All	Male N=457	Female N=176
Very much so	39.0%	37.0%	44.3%
A little	45.3%	44.6%	47.2%
Not at all	15.6%	18.4%	8.5%

Q1SQ4: Do you think there are minus points regarding making a lump sum payment on a home loan? (Sample size=633)

	All	Male N=457	Female N=176
Yes (to SQ5)	35.9%	35.2%	37.5%
No	64.1%	64.8%	62.5%

Q1SQ5: What minus points are there regarding making a lump sum payment on one’s home loan? (Sample size=227, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=161	Female N=66
Cash reserves for emergencies, etc is reduced	76.7%	75.2%	80.3%
No funds to invest if a way to make more that the interest is found	23.8%	26.1%	18.2%
Associated life insurance term is shortened	23.8%	21.7%	28.8%
If the repayment period is shortened it cannot be lengthened again	17.6%	17.4%	18.2%

Q1SQ6: Have you heard about minus points regarding making a lump sum payment on a home loan from friends, family, etc? (Sample size=854)

	All	Male N=640	Female N=214
Yes	21.2%	20.0%	24.8%
No	78.8%	80.0%	75.2%

Q2: In total, how long is your home loan for? (Sample size=1,487)

	All	Male N=1,097	Female N=390
Up to five years	3.3%	2.1%	9.3%
Five to nine years	4.2%	3.7%	5.6%
Ten to fourteen years	6.9%	7.0%	6.4%
Fifteen to nineteen years	8.9%	9.2%	7.9%
Twenty to twenty-four years	16.9%	15.9%	19.7%
Twenty-five years or more	60.2%	60.9%	58.2%

Q3: How much is currently outstanding on your home loan? (Sample size=1,487)

	All	Male N=1,097	Female N=390
Under 5 million yen	5.6%	5.4%	6.4%
5 to 9.999 million yen	11.0%	10.8%	11.3%
10 to 14.999 million yen	14.3%	14.9%	12.3%
15 to 19.999 million yen	18.0%	19.8%	13.1%
20 to 29.999 million yen	26.2%	28.1%	20.8%
30 to 39.999 million yen	8.7%	9.0%	7.9%
40 to 49.999 million yen	2.4%	2.7%	1.5%
50 million yen or more	2.1%	1.5%	3.6%
Don’t know	11.7%	7.7%	23.1%

Q4: Would you like to make a lump payment on your home loan in the future? (Sample size=1,487)

	All	Male N=1,097	Female N=390
Even if money is tight, would like to pay off even a little (to SQ)	6.7%	6.8%	6.2%
If I have spare cash, would like to (to SQ)	79.1%	78.2%	81.5%
Don’t want to	14.3%	14.9%	12.3%

Q4SQ: Why would you most like to make a lump payment on your home loan in the future? (Sample size=1,275)

	All	Male N=933	Female N=342
Want to reduce the total amount of interest I have to pay	64.5%	65.7%	61.1%
Just think it’s best to repay loans quickly	11.8%	11.4%	12.9%
Want to pay back quickly and use the cash for something else	11.1%	10.3%	13.2%
Want to relieve the pressure of having a loan	6.8%	6.8%	7.0%
Worried there might be a time when I cannot make the payments	4.9%	5.0%	4.4%
Other	1.0%	0.9%	1.5%

Q5: Home loans are one type of borrowing, but how do you think about borrowing in general? (Sample size=1,487)

	All	Male N=1,097	Female N=390
Regardless of the objective (home, education, etc) it’s best not to	52.5%	48.8%	62.8%
Depending on the objective (home, education, etc) it’s best to proactively take out a loan	41.8%	44.9%	32.8%
Regardless of the objective (home, education, etc) it’s OK to take out loans	5.8%	6.3%	4.4%