Palace Hotel set to reopen in May, 2012

The Palace Hotel reconstruction project is expected to be completed in 2012 with the "Palace Hotel Tokyo" scheduled to start accepting hotel guests from May 17, 2012. The new hotel will be 23 stories and will have 290 hotel rooms. The rooms start from 45 sqm in size (484 sqft), which is much larger than the typical Japanese hotel room.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Sumitomo cancels City Tower Shibaura

Sumitomo Corporation have temporarily (or permanently) cancelled the construction of City Tower Shibaura in Minato-ku. Construction of the 30-storey condominium began in November, 2010, and was scheduled to be completed by March, 2013.

Although foundation work had already began, the ground has since been filled in and returned to its vacant state and all advertising has been removed from the site. Read more

by Zoe Ward

Danchi reconstruction cancelled due to liquefaction

Reconstruction plans for the Sodegaura Danchi public housing project in Chiba's Narashino City have been put on hold as the recent liquefaction in the area caused by the March 11 Tohoku earthquake has deterred potential buyers for apartments in the new project.

The Sodegaura Danchi was built in 1967 and has 250 units. It is built on reclaimed land on Tokyo Bay and is a 45 minute drive from central Tokyo. A 3-bedroom apartment in the complex can be rented for as low as 60,000 Yen/month (780 USD).Read more

by Zoe Ward

Is 2012 the time to buy?

Good news for those waiting to buy an apartment. From next year, the inventory of unsold apartments is expected to reach high levels, which could result in more bargain buys.

According to the Real Estate Economic Institute, the sales contract rate for new apartments in September, 2011, had rebounded to 78%. In actuality, that degree of sales may not actually be true. The president of Attractors Lab said that the 'sales contract rate' is not entirely accurate because it does not include apartments that were held back from being released for sale.

In January, 2011, the Institute forecast an inventory of 50,000 apartments for the year. However, this was later reduced to an estimate of 45,000 apartments. The impact of the March 11 Tohoku disaster led many developers to delay apartment sales. By September, the actual supply was down to 28,000 units. Read more

by Zoe Ward

On Sale: Park Court Roppongi Hilltop

The first round of sales for Mitsui Fudosan Residential's "Park Court Roppongi Hilltop" begins on November 26. The 27-storey tower will have a total of 270 apartments, of which 213 will be made available for purchase. Apartments range in size from 45 to 152 sqm (484 ~ 1635 sqft) and are priced from 57.8 to 420 million Yen (750,000 ~ 5.45 million USD). The average apartment price is 1,400,000 Yen/sqm, which is slightly lower than the average price of other nearby modern apartments, while the penthouse apartments are priced at 2,685,000 Yen/sqm.

This is officially the first condominium building in Tokyo to be recognized as a "long term superior housing" development.Read more

by Zoe Ward

New apartment developments around Tokyo Sky Tree

The area surrounding the new Tokyo Sky Tree in Sumida-ku is seeing more and more new condominiums hit the market. Developers are promoting properties that are within walking distance to, or have views of the new tower.

In July, Sumitomo Corporation began selling apartments in "City House Narihirabashi Station Court" which is just a 4 minute walk to Sky Tree. The price of a 2-bedroom apartment in this building is around 40 million Yen (512,000 USD) which is comparatively higher than surrounding buildings. Although only a portion of the 35 apartments have views of the Sky Tree, most of the apartments offered for sale in the initial sales period have been sold.  Sumitomo's PR department said that the new retail development around the base of the Sky Tree will add to the convenience of the neighborhood, as will gradual improvements to the surrounding streets. Buyers are anticipating that the neighborhood's image will improve over time.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Demolition starts on Hiroo's Hanezawa Garden

Mitsubishi Estate began demolishing the former residence of Yoshikoto Nakamura, also known as the Hanezawa Garden, in Hiroo on October 3rd despite countless attempts by local residents to preserve the house and Japanese gardens dating back to 1915.Read more

by Zoe Ward