Sapporo skyscraper to shrink as project costs skyrocket
The Hokkaido Railway Company (aka JR Hokkaido) is revising its plans for a skyscraper in front of Sapporo Station. Rising construction costs have seen the estimated project budget to reach the mid-300 billion Yen (US$2 billion) range, 100 billion Yen more than anticipated.Read more
New office building for Sapporo's neon nightlife neighborhood
This November, Tokyu Land Corporation will open a 13-story tenant office building (pictured above) in Sapporo’s Susukino neighborhood, the biggest entertainment district north of Tokyo. Why build an office here?
Susukino is a major shopping and entertainment destination, and not commonly thought of as an office district. Why would a developer build an office here? A representative from the developer, Tokyu Land Corporation, said that as the lines between work life and personal life blur, an office in a more vibrant location with plenty of places to eat, shop and be entertained might make for a more exciting work environment.Read more
Offshore buyers acquire 134ha of forest in 2023
In 2023, foreign funds and non-resident foreigners acquired 134 hectares of forest land across Japan. Approximately 74% of that total was around the Niseko and Rusutsu ski resort areas in Hokkaido.Read more
Foreigners acquire 90ha of farmland in Japan in 2023
Foreigners and potentially foreign-directed domestic companies acquired 90.6 hectares of farmland in Japan last year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. But, the majority of those acquisitions were made by foreign resident farmers, not offshore funds.Read more
Fosun selling Hokkaido ski resort
Fosun International is selling Hoshino Resort Tomamu for approximately 40.8 billion Yen (US$252 million).
Development of the 5,000 hectare mountain resort began in the 1980s as a third-sector, or a government and private business hybrid scheme. Much of the resort was completed by the early 1990s, just as the asset bubble had burst.Read more
Semiconductor boom pushes rents and land values up by 30% in one Hokkaido City
Semiconductor factories are driving several localized property booms in otherwise quiet parts of Japan. One of those is in Chitose City, located about a 45-minute drive from Sapporo, where construction of the Rapidus factory is now underway.Read more
Japan's Standard Land Prices increase by 1.0% in 2023
Japan’s Standard Land Prices were announced on September 19, and as the pandemic winds down and dwellers and tourists return to central hubs, the major urban centers saw the steepest increase.
Nationwide, land prices across all uses increased by 1.0%, following a 0.3% increase in 2022. Regional areas saw the first increase across all uses for the first time in 31 years; however, this may have been driven by growth in cities such as Sapporo, Sendai, Hiroshima, and Fukuoka. Residential land outside of those cities continued to decline, while commercial land increased for the first time in 32 years.Read more