The asking price for the full-floor penthouse at the top of Foretseine Akasaka Hikawacho has been reduced from a staggering 1.205 billion Yen to a still staggering price of 820 million Yen (10.6 million USD). This is a discount of 385 million Yen (5 million USD), or just over 30%.

The property is still being offered for sale by the developer two years after the building was completed, so a prospective buyer could possibly negotiate the price down even further. Developers rarely publicly reduce the published asking prices as it upsets those who have already purchased an apartment at a higher price. Instead, they will tell the prospective buyer in person of the approximate discount (eg. 15%, 30%). Purchase prices are not made public, so previous buyers cannot find out.

The 12th floor, 350 sqm (3770 sqft) 4-bedroom apartment has a living room with 4 meter ceilings, a formal dining room and a large rooftop terrace with views towards Tokyo Midtown and Mt. Fuji. Carparking is included.

At its current asking price, the price per square meter is 2,338,000 Yen. The 2 and 3-bedroom apartments on lower floors were sold for between 231 ~ 385 million Yen (3 ~ 5 million USD).

Most of the buyers purchased apartments in this building for their own personal use, not for investment purposes (as yields on luxury properties are typically very low), so there are very few apartments with tenants. The average rent for an apartment in this building is around 5650 Yen/sqm/month, which would make the estimated rent for the penthouse apartment 2,000,000 Yen/month. However, given the current economic conditions an asking rent closer to 1,500,000 Yen/month would be more appropriate. At this rent, the annual gross return would only amount to a minuscule 2.2%.

The current depressed property market in Japan means that developers will avoid building such extravagant or large apartments as there is no market for them. The same developer is also trying to sell a 7th floor penthouse in the nearby Foretseine Akasaka Tangocho residence for 1.018 billion Yen (13.2 million USD), after reducing its initial asking price of 1.395 billion Yen in 2008.

Location:

6-9-1 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Akasaka Sta. – 4 mins
Roppongi Itchome Sta. – 7 mins
Tameikesanno Sta. – 7 mins

Apartment Details:
– Price: 820,000,000 Yen
– Management and repair fund fees: 169,200 Yen/month
– Size: 350.60 sqm + 50.49 sqm balcony
– Built: 2009
– Construction: 12 Stories (base-isolation system, or menshin-kozo)
– Developer: Foretseine (Mori Building)
– Construction Company: Maeda
– No. of units: 35
– Land size: 1283.86 sqm
– Land ownership: Freehold

Floorplan:

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