Saturday, November 01, 2014

The Real Estate Map for Ghosts


One of the most popular websites in Japan has a new take on real estate mapping. Oshimaland is a 'stigmatized property' map.

It appears that many house-hunters can be put off buying a property if it has been the location for a gruesome crime, murder or suicide. Because of this squeamishness on the part of house-hunters many real-estate agencies don't like to advertise the gruesome history of these properties.

That's where Oshimaland comes in. It has set itself the task of mapping stigmatized properties. Each property listed on the Oshimaland map is rated based on its level of stigmatization. This rating is indicated by the number of fire icons attached to a property. If a property has witnessed more than one gruesome event in its past then it might find it has a three 'fire' icon rating.

In Japan stigmatized properties can be difficult to rent or sell. This has led to some non-squeamish prospective tenants using the Oshimaland map as a tool for discovering cheap rental properties or for purchasing a cheap apartment or house.

The map has proved so popular in Japan that Osimaland in now proving very popular in other countries, like the UK and the USA.

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