October was an outstanding month for existing apartment sales, with transactions in the Tokyo metropolitan area up 10.7% from September and up 33.5% from October 2019. Across greater Tokyo, transactions hit the highest level since data-keeping began in 1990.

What about discounts?

Those holding on for a pandemic discount will have to keep waiting because the median discount in October was 1.29%. Almost three in four transactions went for a discount of less than 3%, and that includes those that sold at full list price.

The median discount was the lowest in the 50 ~ 100 million Yen price bracket, with a median of 0.93%. For apartments over 100 million Yen, the median discount was 1.06%. Apartments under 30 million Yen had the highest discount with a median of 2.88%.

When looking at the data separated by apartment size, units under 40 sqm (430 sq.ft) had a median discount of 2.63%. Units from 40 ~ 60 sqm and 60 ~ 80 sqm had median discounts in the low 1% range. Units over 80 sqm (861 sq.ft) had a median discount of 0.98%.

The pandemic and work-from-home trend have not scared residential buyers away from central Tokyo, with Minato Ward recording a 49.3% increase in the number of transactions in October compared to last year.

The median days listed before the apartment sold was 44 days, down from a 48-day median in 2019.

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