Is 2012 the time to buy?
Good news for those waiting to buy an apartment. From next year, the inventory of unsold apartments is expected to reach high levels, which could result in more bargain buys.
According to the Real Estate Economic Institute, the sales contract rate for new apartments in September, 2011, had rebounded to 78%. In actuality, that degree of sales may not actually be true. The president of Attractors Lab said that the 'sales contract rate' is not entirely accurate because it does not include apartments that were held back from being released for sale.
In January, 2011, the Institute forecast an inventory of 50,000 apartments for the year. However, this was later reduced to an estimate of 45,000 apartments. The impact of the March 11 Tohoku disaster led many developers to delay apartment sales. By September, the actual supply was down to 28,000 units. Read more