Over the past few years, Tokyo’s luxury real estate market has taken off as developers tap into growing demand for high-end homes.

The following is a list of the most expensive brand-new apartments publicly released for sale across Tokyo since 2010, compiled by the Real Estate Economic Institute. It doesn’t include apartments that were advertised off-market, so it may not be that accurate. Some of the more expensive buildings are sold on an invitation-only basis to existing clients of the developers and brokers.

2010Hirakawacho Mori Tower Residence820,000,000 Yen
2011Park Court Akasaka The Tower560,000,000 Yen
2012Park Court Akasaka The Tower1,000,000,000 Yen
2013Homat Royal780,000,000 Yen
2014Park Mansion Mita Tsunamachi The Forest700,000,000 Yen
2015Park Court Akasaka Hinokicho The Tower1,500,000,000 Yen
2016Proud Roppongi1,430,000,000 Yen
2017Park Court Aoyama The Tower1,500,000,000 Yen
2018The Court Jingu-Gaien1,530,000,000 Yen
2019The Court Jingu-Gaien930,000,000 Yen
2020Proud Daikanyama Front690,000,000 Yen

According to the Institute, there were a total of 1,818 brand-new apartments priced over 100 million Yen released for sale across greater Tokyo in 2020. The most expensive of those was a 690 million Yen penthouse in Proud Daikanyama Front.

Current luxury listings in Tokyo include an approx. 500 million Yen penthouse in Grand Hills Meguro 1-Chome, a 530 million Yen apartment in Shirokane The Sky, and an approx. 520 million Yen apartment to go on sale shortly in Foretseine Shibuya Tomigaya.

Last month, residents began to move into the just-completed 39-story Park Court Shibuya The Tower building near Yoyogi Park. Despite the leasehold nature of the land underneath the building (it’s built on the site of the former Shibuya Ward Office), apartments are priced similarly to new freehold construction. The most expensive apartment in the building was a 200 sqm penthouse that was priced around 1.5 billion Yen (approx. US$14.2 million). It sold off-the-plan. Non-penthouse units were priced from 1,685,000 ~ 2,735,000 Yen/sqm off-the-plan, depending on views, floor and size. The average asking price for resale units is around 2,700,000 Yen/sqm.

The 1.5 billion Yen, 208 sqm penthouse in Park Court Shibuya The Tower. The penthouse apartments each have their own rooftop terraces.

On the resale market, Tokyo Kantei reported nine buildings where apartments were listed for sale in 2020 for over 3,000,000 Yen/sqm, up from five buildings in 2019. The most expensive was Park Mansion Hinokicho Koen, with an average of 4,953,000 Yen/sqm (approx. US$4,370/sq.ft).

Developers and brokers have a considerable waiting list of buyers looking for high-spec homes in select areas that they can quickly sell to without needing to advertise on the open market. According to the Nomura Research Institute, there were 1.327 million households in Japan with net financial assets of over 100 million Yen (approx. US$950,000) in 2019, the highest number on record. Of those, 87,000 households had net financial assets of over 500 million Yen (approx. US$4.75 million), up 70% from 2005. Growth has been consistent since 2013. Despite the pandemic, the Nikkei Stock Average ended the year up 16% – a 30-year high. Wealthy Japanese have been relatively insulated from the economic impact of the pandemic.

The most expensive apartments to be listed for resale in 2020:

  1. Park Mansion Hinokicho-Koen (2017, Minato): 4,953,000 Yen/sqm
  2. Toranomon Hills Residence (2014, Minato): 4,339,000 Yen/sqm
  3. The Parkhouse Gran Minamiaoyama (2016, Minato): 3,985,000 Yen/sqm
  4. Park Mansion Minamiazabu (2005, Minato): 3,924,000 Yen/sqm
  5. M.M. Towers (2003, Yokohama): 3,589,000 Yen/sqm
  6. Park Court Akasaka Hinokicho The Tower (2018, Minato): 3,398,000 Yen/sqm
  7. Roppongi Hills Residence (2003, Minato): 3,359,000 Yen/sqm
  8. Park Court Aoyama The Tower (2018, Minato): 3,110,000 Yen/sqm
  9. The Court Jingu-Gaien (2020, Shibuya): 3,104,000 Yen/sqm
Park Mansion Hinokicho-Koen. Resale listings in 2020 ranged from 4,776,000 ~ 6,590,000 Yen/sqm.

Source: The Nikkei Shimbun, February 6, 2021.

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