New apartment supply forecast to rise by 4.4% in 2016

December 29, 2015New Construction,Real Estate News,Market Information,All,Tokyo

The supply of brand new apartments to be released for sale in the greater Tokyo area in 2016 is forecast to reach around 43,000 units, up 4.4% from 2015.

Japan’s consumption tax rate will be raised to 10% from its current level of 8% in April 2017. This is expected to lead to a rush in last-minute demand from buyers seeking to lock in the purchase price at the lower tax rates. The deadline to lock in a new apartment under the lower tax rate will be for contracts signed up until September 30, 2016.

According to the Real Estate Economic Institute, the construction scandal concerning falsified data about building foundations has had less of an effect that originally anticipated, and is not expected to impact on forecasts for 2016.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Yokohama Station to see tallest building in 2021

December 28, 2015YokohamaNew Construction,Real Estate News,All,Hotel News

Yokohama Tsuruya Project

Plans are firming up for a 180 meter tall high-rise residential tower near Yokohama Station specifically targeting foreign residents. This would be the first project to make use of the national government’s special allowance for residential building volume ratios that are available in Strategic Special Zones.

Draft plans have already received approval from the government and construction is scheduled to start in 2018, with completion in 2021.Read more

by Zoe Ward

$100 million resort for Kobe’s Mount Rokko

December 25, 2015Kobe,Hyogo Prefecture,Mount RokkoReal Estate News,All,Hotel News

Rokkosan Resort 7

Nagoya-based Resorttrust, Inc. announced plans to open a members-only resort hotel in Kobe’s Rokkosan area. “XIV Rokko Sanctuary Villa” will be a 48-room resort with Japanese restaurant, bar, spa, and shops. It is scheduled to open in March 2018.

The resort has been designed by KKS Group, a specialist architectural firm that has designed numerous hotels around the world including several Shangri-La and Hilton Hotels, the Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel in Shibuya, and the Capitol Hotel Tokyu in Tokyo. The design of the hotel is said to be the ‘Imperial Modern’ style which can be seen in some of the old and grand estates in Japan from the early 1900s. Frank Lloyd Wright’s former Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, and the former Maeda Residence in Meguro were said to be the inspiration behind the design.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Kawasaki City wants to curb supply of studio apartments

December 24, 2015Kanagawa Prefecture,Kawasaki CityReal Estate News,Market Information,All

Kawasaki City in Kanagawa Prefecture is planning to introduce guidelines to limit the construction of small studio apartments. The city has seen a surge in development of ‘one-room’ apartment buildings and is concerned about the effects on local communities.

The new guidelines may increase the minimum apartment size from 18 sqm (194 sq.ft) to 25 sqm (269 sq.ft), and may require on-site building managers or caretakers. For a building with over 100 units, an on-site manager may be required, while smaller buildings may require a manager for a minimum set of hours per day or week. Garbage collection may be required daily. Developers, managers and residents may also be encouraged to join the local neighbourhood association. However, there will be no fines or penalties for failure to comply with the guidelines.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Apartment prices along Tokyo's Ginza Line

December 23, 2015Omotesando,Shibuya,Ginza Real Estate,GinzaReal Estate News,Market Information,All,Tokyo

The following table shows the change in apartment prices along the Ginza Subway Line (Japan’s oldest subway line). This subway line runs from Shibuya to Asakusa and passes through several of the city’s prime residential and business districts, many of which have seen a boost in prices over the past few years.

The average price across all stations on the Ginza line was 1,000,000 Yen/sqm in 2015, up 19.8% from 2014. The average building age was 21.0 years, down from 23.6 years in 2014. The average apartment size was 56.35 sqm (606 sq.ft), down from 60.76 sqm in 2014.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Tokyo apartment asking prices up for 17th month in a row

December 22, 2015Real Estate News,Market Information,All,Osaka,Nagoya,Tokyo

According to Tokyo Kantei, the average asking price of a 70 sqm (753 sq.ft) second-hand apartment in greater Tokyo in November was 32,740,000 Yen, up 2.4% from the previous month and up 13.6% from last year. This is the 15th month in a row to see a month-on-month increase. The increase was driven by a larger share of sales in the Tokyo metropolitan area, which pulled up the average. The average building age was 22.2 years.

In Tokyo’s 23 wards, the average asking price was 50,630,000 Yen, up 1.7% from the previous month and up 16.9% from last year. This is the 17th month in a row to see a month-on-month increase. The average building age was 21.8 years.

In Tokyo’s central six wards (Chiyoda, Chuo, Minato, Shinjuku, Bunkyo and Shibuya), the average asking price was 70,560,000 Yen, up 1.2% from the previous moth and up 15.1% from last year. The average building age was 20.1 years.Read more

by Zoe Ward

290,000 USD will get you Fukuoka Prefecture’s oldest bank building

December 21, 2015Fukuoka,Historic properties in Japan,Kitakyushu,Historic properties in Japan for saleDemolition,Historic Properties,All

Fukuoka’s oldest bank building to be demolished if buyer is not found

Kitakyushu Wakamatsu Sumitomo Bank 1The owner of a 118-year old former bank building in Kitakyushu City plans to demolish the historic property in the new year in order to sell the vacant block of land.

The former Sumitomo Bank Wakamatsu Branch Building was built in 1897 and is the oldest surviving bank building in Fukuoka Prefecture. The bank closed its doors in 1967, just as the region's coal mining industry was reaching an end.

The two-storey, wood and brick building fronts onto a covered shopping arcade and adjoins an open plaza that was once the site of the branch office for Sumitomo’s coal mining operations.

Sumitomo’s archival department do not know who the original architect was, although some experts suggest it may have been Magoichi Noguchi (1869-1915), an architect who designed many of Sumitomo Bank’s branches during that period, and who had also designed the Osaka Prefectural Nakanoshima Library.Read more

by Zoe Ward