Historic villa restored and open to the public in Nagoya

Nagoya City has completed the restoration of the historic Choshokaku reception hall (c1935) and will open the building to the public from August 29.

The hall is part of the Yokiso estate which was owned by Suketami Ito (1878 - 1940), the first company president of the Matsuzakaya Department Store.Read more

by Zoe Ward

New apartment prices in July

According to the Real Estate Economic Institute, a total of 5,306 brand new apartments were released for sale across greater Tokyo in July, up 31.6% from last year and up 8.6% from last month. The contract rate was 81.6%, up 8.4 points from last year. The contract rate in buildings over 20 storeys was 90.8%.

The average new apartment price was 51,280,000 Yen (528,000 USD), up 6.1% from last month and up 9.9% from July 2012. The average price per square meter was 727,000 Yen, up 6.0% from last month and up 12.2% from last year.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Office vacancy rates in July - Miki Shoji

According to Miki Shoji, the office vacancy rate in Tokyo's 5 central business districts (Chiyoda, Chuo, Minato, Shinjuku and Shibuya) in July was 8.29%, down 0.17 points from last month and down 1.01 points from last year. Vacancy rates were down in four of the five business districts.

The vacancy rate in new buildings was 12.72%, up 1.12 points from last month but down 20.92 points from last year. Read more

by Zoe Ward

Residential yields and vacancy rates in Minato-ku - August 2013

According to real estate listing site Homes, the average yield on an apartment in Minato-ku in August 2013 was 5.7%, down 0.3 points from last month. The average yield across Tokyo was 8.1%, up 0.1 points from July.

The vacancy rate was 9.9% in Minato-ku and 11.0% across Tokyo. Read more

by Zoe Ward

Mizuho and Sumitomo Mitsui to lower interest rates

Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank are lowering their prime lending rates on home loans this month.

Mizuho is reducing the interest rate on their variable and fixed-type mortgages by 0.1%, while Sumitomo Mitsui will be reducing their variable rate from 0.775% to 0.725%. This will be the first time since November 2010 that Sumitomo Mitsui has reduced their variable rate.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Karuizawa population reaches record high

The population in Karuizawa has exceeded 20,000 residents for the first time since it received a town status in 1923.

From the 1980s to 1990s, the town's population hovered at around 15,000 residents, but began to grow again after the opening of the Nagano Shinkansen station shortened the trip to Tokyo to about 70 minutes. The town is estimating that the local population will reach 21,000 by 2022. The population in 1923 was 5,012 residents.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Tokyo apartment price-to-book ratios in 2013

Tokyo Kantei has released their 2013 report on the price-to-book ratios for apartments in greater Tokyo. The data is arranged by train station.

Apartments around Omotesando Station saw the best gain in re-sale value with a PBR of 1.41. Other high-ranking areas include Shinagawa (1.31), Tamachi (1.26), Shirokane Takanawa (1.23) and Toranomon (1.20) stations.Read more

by Zoe Ward