Rosenka land values up in urban areas, but down nationwide

According to the National Tax Agency, rosenka land values across Japan in 2015 fell for the 7th year in a row, although the decline appears to be bottoming out. This year nationwide land values dropped by 0.4%, which is an improvement from 2014 which saw values drop by 0.7%. In Tokyo, rosenka values increased by 2.1%, after seeing a 1.8% rise in 2014. In Osaka, values increased by 0.5%.

A rapid increase in foreign tourists and a boost in investment in central Tokyo from foreign funds has helped to pull up property values and retail rents.

Midosuji Boulevard in front of Osaka’s Hankyu Department Store saw rosenka land values rise by 10.1% from last year to 8,320,000 Yen/sqm, while Meieki Dori Avenue in front of Nagoya Station saw values increase by 11.5% to 7,360,000 Yen/sqm.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Foreigners buy 174 ha of forestry in 2014, down 10% from 2013

According to the Forestry Agency, there were 13 cases of foreign funds acquiring a total of 174 hectares of forestry across Japan in 2014. The buyers, which were private individuals and corporations, were primarily from the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong and Singapore, and the reasons for purchase were either asset holding or development.

Buyers from Hong Kong accounted for just 8% of the land acquired by foreigners, while buyers registered in the British Virgin Islands accounted for 78% of the land acquired.

Hokkaido is the main destination of foreign funds

Over 99% of the forestry was located in Hokkaido. Buyers from the British Virgin Islands acquired 135 hectares of forestry in Hokkaido’s Iburi sub-prefecture for the purpose of real estate development. The British Virgin Islands is a popular tax haven that may also be used by Japanese investors, so the actual nationality of these buyers is unknown.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Guidelines for land with missing owners to be decided

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) is considering introducing measures to deal with the rising number of land allotments with missing owners. Guidelines could be put in place within the year.

Land in regional areas is often left neglected as the younger population moves to urban areas. Land with little to no value is rarely transferred to heirs as the processing fees can sometimes exceed the value of the land. As such, there are a growing number of blocks of land left in the names of long-since deceased owners. In 2012 it was estimated that as much as 86,000 hectares of agricultural and forest land could have missing or unknown owners by 2020. This number is expected to reach 570,000 hectares (almost 8 times the size of Singapore) by 2050.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Neighbourhood changes name to avoid playground taunts

Kitanagoya City
Don't call us Dobu.

A residential neighbourhood in Kitanagoya City, which is 10km north of Nagoya, has successfully applied to change the reading of the area’s name to something less embarrassing.

徳重土部

While the kanji characters remain the same, the reading of the last two characters has been changed from ‘dobu’ to ‘tsuchibe’. The pronunciation of ‘dobu’ can mean drain or ditch, which does not exactly have positive connotations. Schoolchildren often made fun of the name, and local residents believed it to have a negative effect on property values.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Japan's commercial land prices stop falling for first time in 7 years

Iwaki City Izumimoegidai
Izumimoegidai, Iwaki City.

On March 18, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) announced the 2015 Chika-koji land prices for Japan. The nationwide average for commercial land prices saw no change from last year, ending a seven year streak of declining prices and indicating a possible recovery.

Residential land prices dropped by 0.4%. This was the 7th year of consecutive decline, although the rate of decline has been shrinking.

In Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, 70% of the surveyed commercial land sites saw an increase in prices, while 70% of the locations in regional areas saw a decline.

The Izumimoegidai neighbourhood in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, saw the highest increase in land prices in Japan with an increase of 17.1% from last year. The top 10 residential land price increases were all in Iwaki City, which has been seeing an influx in demand from people who were displaced after the 2011 Tohoku disaster.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Scandal-ridden site in Shinjuku up for public auction

Shinjuku Building 1
[Left] The foreclosed land. [Right] The former Shinjuku Building (now demolished) that stood on the site.
Located in a prime commercial zone near the south exit of Shinjuku Station is a notorious block of vacant land that has been at the centre of a well-known scandal.

Due to the messy history behind this land, most people had given up on the thought of ever seeing this site redeveloped. However, the land is being put up for public auction on February 17, 2015, by the Tokyo Tax Office with a minimum bid set at 2.19 billion Yen (18.5 million USD).

The Shinjuku Building Incident

The site was once home to the Shinjuku Building - a 12-storey multi-tenant building built in 1983 and demolished in early 2011.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Shoto Governor’s Residence sells for 4.3 billion Yen

The former Tokyo Governor’s Residence in Shibuya’s high-end Shoto neighbourhood has been sold to Sumitomo Realty & Development for 4.368 billion Yen (36 million USD), or approximately 1,968,000 Yen/sqm based on the land size.

The residence was offered for sale by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government via public bidding from December 15 ~ 19. Sumitomo and another major real estate company were the only two bidders. The second bidder had tendered approximately 4 billion Yen for the property.Read more

by Zoe Ward