Japan's commercial land prices stop falling for first time in 7 years

Iwaki City Izumimoegidai
Izumimoegidai, Iwaki City.

On March 18, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) announced the 2015 Chika-koji land prices for Japan. The nationwide average for commercial land prices saw no change from last year, ending a seven year streak of declining prices and indicating a possible recovery.

Residential land prices dropped by 0.4%. This was the 7th year of consecutive decline, although the rate of decline has been shrinking.

In Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, 70% of the surveyed commercial land sites saw an increase in prices, while 70% of the locations in regional areas saw a decline.

The Izumimoegidai neighbourhood in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, saw the highest increase in land prices in Japan with an increase of 17.1% from last year. The top 10 residential land price increases were all in Iwaki City, which has been seeing an influx in demand from people who were displaced after the 2011 Tohoku disaster.Read more