LaSalle buys Midosuji Front Tower

On October 3, LaSalle Investment Management, headquartered in Chicago, announced the purchase of Midosuji Front Tower in Osaka’s Umeda district through their Frontier Property LLC, signalling the end of the building's 8 year vacancy. The sale price was not disclosed.

Midosuji Front Tower was completed in 2010. It has sat vacant ever since due to a dispute between the owners.Read more


Failed share houses start to hit foreclosure market

One of the early foreclosures of failed share houses developed as part of a wide-scale scam goes up for public auction next week. The minimum bid for the building and land is set at 23,672,000 Yen (approx. 205,000 USD), with results to be announced on October 25 (Update: It sold for 25,180,000 Yen to a private bidder). Back in January, several share houses by a former Ginza-based share house developer were listed for public foreclosure auction, selling for around a third to less than a half of what the original investors would have paid for them.

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Shinagawa Development Project to be completed by 2024

On September 25, East Japan Railway Company (JR-EAST) published the details of their large-scale redevelopment plans for a 9.5 hectare site on the western side of the new station on Tokyo’s JR Yamanote Line between Shinagawa and Tamachi Stations.Read more


Japan's apartment price to income ratio increases again

According to Tokyo Kantei, the average price of a brand-new apartment across Japan was 7.81 times the average annual income in 2017, up 0.34 points from 2016 and exceeding the previous high of 7.64 seen in 1992. A total of 28 prefectures saw affordability of brand-new apartments worsen in 2017, up from 22 prefectures in 2016. In Kanazawa City, the supply of high-priced new condominiums pulled up the average for Ishikawa Prefecture to a multiple of 8.37, up 3.52 points from 2016.Read more


Tokyo Apartment Sales in September 2018

The following is a selection of apartments that were reported to have sold in central Tokyo during the month of September 2018:Read more


Tokyo apartment asking prices in August 2018

According to Tokyo Kantei, the average asking price of a 70 sqm (753 sq.ft) second-hand apartment across greater Tokyo was 36,400,000 Yen in August, up 0.2% from the previous month and up 2.1% from last year. The average building age was 23.9 years.Read more


What our job involves when working with foreign clients

When working with expat or non-resident clients on real estate deals in Japan, the process can easily take 3 times as much time and effort when compared to a domestic Japanese client. There are only small number of real estate agencies in Japan that are truly well versed in working with foreign clients. For the majority of domestic-oriented agencies, foreign clients are often seen as being too challenging and involving too much hassle. We often encounter local listing agents that have no experience with transactions involving a foreign buyer, so it is our job to assure them that the transaction can go as smoothly as it would be with a local Japanese buyer.Read more