Himeji's monorail building to be demolished

The 10-storey Takaocho Apaato building in Himeji will soon be demolished. The building is jointly owned by the Urban Renaissance Agency (UR) and Himeji City.

It's unusual design was considered ground-breaking for its time. While it was under construction, the city purchased the first four floors in order to build a monorail platform for the Daisyogun Station on the 4th floor. The 3rd and 4th floors were opened up to allow the Himeji Municipal Monorail to pass through the building. As it turns out, the station wasn't used by many passengers as it was only 500 meters from the station at Himeji. It was subsequently closed in 1968. Read more


Central Tokyo apartment prices up 10.2% over 12 months

According to REINS, the number of second-hand apartment sales in Tokyo City in May were up 41% from May of last year. Sales of second-hand houses were up 6.6%.

A total of 1,530 second-hand apartments and 273 second-hand houses were sold in Tokyo last month. Read more


Residential yields and vacancy rates in Minato-ku - June 2013

According to listing site Homes, the average yield on an apartment in Minato-ku as of June 2013 was 7.22%. The average yield across Tokyo was 8.3%. The vacancy rate was 9.9% in Minato-ku and 11.0% across Tokyo.Read more


Office vacancy rates in May - Miki Shoji

Miki Shoji released their Office Report for the month of May 2013. Vacancy rates in Tokyo's central business districts (Chiyoda, Chuo, Minato, Shinjuku and Shibuya) dropped by 0.21 points from last month to 8.33%. This is the third month in a row where vacancy rates have reduced.

The vacancy rate in new buildings was 11.10%, down 6.21 points from last month. Three office buildings were completed in Tokyo in May: Kyobashi East Building, Sumitomo Shoji Kyobashi Building and PMO Yaesu Dori.Read more


Musashikosugi apartment boom (and bubble?)

Concerns are growing about a possible over-heating in the property market around Musashikosugi Station in Kawasaki City as the area experiences a construction boom.

According to the latest 'koji-chika' assessed land values as of January 1, 2013, commercial land values in Kosugimachi increased 9.9% over the year while residential land values in the same area increased by 9.1%, making it the best performing area in Kanagawa Prefecture.Read more


A forecast of Tokyo real estate prices (2013 ~ 2020)

Wondering where Tokyo apartment prices are heading in the next 7 years?

The Japan Real Estate Institute has published their forecast of real estate prices and rental values in Tokyo's 23 wards from 2013 to 2020.Read more


Sales in The Parkhouse Hiroo Hanezawa off to a great start

The first round of sales in The Parkhouse Hiroo Hanezawa began at the end of May. All of the 27 apartments made available for purchase in the first round were sold. They ranged in size from 43 to 152 sqm (462 ~ 1635 sqft) and were priced from 46 ~ 275 million Yen. 17 of the apartments were priced over 100 million Yen.

The sales office received 33 purchase applications for the 27 apartments. The most popular apartments were 2-bedroom types priced around 85 million Yen and 3-bedroom types priced around 128 million Yen. Read more