Market for secondhand apartments improving

The prices of secondhand apartments are moving on up. According to Tokyo Kantei, the average asking price of a 70 sqm apartment in greater Tokyo was 28,210,000 Yen in October, up 1.1% from the previous month. This was the first time in 8 months that the price had exceeded 28 million Yen.

Unlike new apartments, private sales of second-hand apartments are exempt from consumption tax (it is, however, charged on the brokerage fees). While the planned increase in the consumption tax rate may not directly impact the resale market, sellers are starting to see that the market is improving and are in less of a hurry to sell.Read more