Office vacancy rates fall slightly

According to Miki Shoji, the average vacancy rate for office buildings in Tokyo's five central wards fell to 9.15% in February 2012 (down 0.08 points from January).Read more


Waterras Tower Residence Sold Out

Apartments in the brand new, luxury high-rise condominium "Waterras Tower Residence" have now been completely sold out, just weeks before the building is scheduled to be completed.

The 41-storey mixed-use building has a total of 333 apartments of which 253 were made available for sale. Prices ranged from 55.8 to 300 million Yen with the average apartment priced at 1,225,000 Yen/sqm. Apartments range in size from 45.14 ~ 146.93 sqm (485 ~ 1581 sqft). Approximately 30% of the apartments were priced over 100 million Yen.Read more


Singapore investor makes headlines after buying forestry in Gunma

Cabbage fields in Tsumagoi Village.

An investor from Singapore has been the subject of an article in the Yomiuri newspaper after purchasing 44 hectares of forestry in Gunma Prefecture. The land, which is near the source of the Agatsuma River in Tsumagoi Village, was purchased by the investor in September 2011.

An employee from the Tokyo-based real estate agency that brokered the sale said the purchase formed part of the buyer's overall investment plan, but there was no indication that the buyer was after a water source.Read more


Compensation awarded to occupants of building with insufficient earthquake resistance

The Yokohama District Court has ordered that an architect office and building inspection company pay compensation of 1.4082 billion Yen (17.6 million USD) to owners of the 37 apartments in St. Regis Tsurumi after it was established that the building has insufficient earthquake resistance.

The building was inspected by Nippon ERI, who noticed that the building's strength did not meet standards and requested that the architect office correct the mistake. The mistake was corrected on paperwork in handwriting and ERI failed to notice the forged revision.Read more


Hulic purchases Ginza building from Recruit

Hulic announced on January 27 that they have acquired the Recruit Ginza 7 Building from Recruit. The retail and commercial building is located at the Ginza Nishi 6 Chome crossing. The building has 9 stories and 5 basement floors and was completed in 1962. The land is 1500 sqm and the total building area is 19,790 sqm.Read more


Kyoto Court ruling on renewal fees

The Kyoto District Court has ruled that the maximum apartment renewal fee cannot exceed 20% of the annual rent paid on the property.

On February 29th, the court made a ruling on a court case involving a 25 year old tenant who was suing her landlord for the return of her renewal fee. The judge ruled that a renewal fee that does not exceed 20% of one year's rent is appropriate, and ordered the landlord to return part of the tenant's renewal fee.Read more


LaSalle purchases expat apartments in Shinjuku, to be re-sold individually

LaSalle Investment Management have purchased an expat apartment building in Shinjuku and will be selling off the apartments individually.

Crest Court Sadohara was purchased by LaSalle's SPC in August 2011. It was previously acquired by Broad Edge Advisors in 2009 and was originally a rental-only building aimed at the high-end expat market.Read more