According to real estate information service provider, Mercury, a total of 92 new buildings with 9742 apartments will go on sale in greater Tokyo in April. The number of new buildings is down 28% from March and the total number of apartments decreased by 29%.

One building of particular note that goes on sale this month is The Park House Harumi Towers Krono Residence in Tokyo’s Chuo-ku. The apartments range in price from 28 to 210 million Yen (340,000 ~ 2.5 million USD). As part of the development, another tower residence will be built right next door to Krono and the two towers will have over 1800 apartments. Advertising began last September and the model room was opened in January.

The Park House Harumi Towers Krono Residence

It will be important to keep an eye on sales in this building as they will be an indicator of potential sales for other large-scale condominiums that will soon be hitting the market in the same bayside area (Toyosu, Shinonome, Ariake, Kachidoki, Tsukishima etc). The supply of apartments is expected to increase in the second half of 2012 as these other developments begin sales activities.

Sales of apartments in the Tokyo Bay area following the Tohoku disaster have been positive. One example is Proud Tower Shininome Canal Court near Toyosu Station in Koto-ku. After the second round of sales a total of 406 of the 600 apartments have sold. The building will be completed in December this year and apartments will be ready to move-in to by May 2013. Following the earthquake, several additional measures were taken to increase the safety features of the building. This included anti-liquefaction measures and emergency food supplies.

Krono Residence is constructed with a base-isolation system (menshin) for maximum earthquake resistance. It has also been designated as a long-term superior residence. There are emergency supply storage facilities on each floor as well as an emergency elevator that can operate for 24 hours on back-up power.

Up until recently, the supply of condominiums in the Harumi address has been low. Since construction of Harumi Residence (438 units) and Harumi Terrace (359 units) in 2009, there have been no other new apartments in the area. The average price for apartments in these buildings when brand new was just over 600,000 Yen/sqm (680 USD/sqft).

The average price of apartments Krono Residence and Proud Tower ranges from 635,000 to 650,000 Yen/sqm (720 ~ 735 USD/sqft). They are both 11 minutes from the nearest train station. Although they differ in terms of height and quality, the question is whether or not Krono Residence will create a new market price for the Harumi address.

Source: Nikkei, March 27, 2012.

Loading