Muji Model House opened in Saitama

Japanese household and consumer retail giant, MUJI, has designed a model house in conjunction with home-builder Okawa. The display home was opened on April 1 in Urawa-ku, Saitama City.

The house was designed to be long-lasting and flexible, so that it can be easily changed to adapt to changes in family structure and lifestyle. By 2015, both companies are expecting to be able to supply 500 MUJI-style homes annually.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Accommodation shortages creating headaches for businesses in Miyagi and Iwate

The disaster-hit Tohoku region is experiencing a severe shortage in rental accommodation and local real estate companies are hurting.

"Despite inquiries increasing day by day, we have no properties on our books. We have clients in our office but no properties to show them. Our revenues are plummeting." - President of a property management company in Sendai City.

The months of February and March are typically the busiest and provide the largest revenues for the company, however they currently have no vacant studio apartments and accommodation is severely limited.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Buying secondhand properties in Japan's deflationary environment

On March 22, the 2012 Koji-Chika assessed land values were announced. While the average land value had fallen for the fourth year in a row following the Lehman Shock, the rate of the fall had reduced slightly.

The MLIT reported that the 2011 Tohoku disaster caused the real estate market to stall temporarily, but indicated that there are signs we are in the early stages of a market recovery.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Ibaraki sells film set to NHK

The Ibaraki Prefecture Development Public Corporation has sold "Warp Station Edo" to NHK Enterprise for 113.4 million Yen (1.4 million USD).

Located in Tsukubamirai City, Warp Station Edo is a park and film set used for many historical-period dramas and movies.

It was built by the Prefecture in 2000 at a cost of 3.2 billion Yen and was first operated by "Media Park Tsukuba" - a joint venture between the Prefecture and the former town of Ina. However, after just two years into the park operations, a total of 800 million Yen in debt was incurred.  Operations were then handed over to Daishinto Group, and finally the Prefecture's public corporation took over. The debts continued to grow so the Prefecture decided to sell.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Korea Town leads to rise in land values

The South Korean pop culture boom in Shinjuku's "Korea Town" has led to a large increase in surrounding land values.

According to the 2012 Koji-Chika assessed land values, the Shinokubo area in Shinjuku which has a large South Korean population has seen land values increase by 1.7% over the past year. While the nationwide residential land values have fallen by 2.3% and 3.1% in business districts, Korea Town has managed to escape from the declining land values.Read more

by Zoe Ward

New apartments in Tokyo on sale in April

According to real estate information service provider, Mercury, a total of 92 new buildings with 9742 apartments will go on sale in greater Tokyo in April. The number of new buildings is down 28% from March and the total number of apartments decreased by 29%.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Company forced to pay compensation after lying about value of apartments

In a ruling that could make many real estate agencies nervous, a Tokyo-based real estate company has been ordered to pay 47 million Yen (573,000 USD) to a buyer after it was found that the company lied about the true value of two apartments in order to make the sale. Toshin Partners made false statements about the low-valued properties in order to sell them at a higher value.Read more

by Zoe Ward