Second-hand apartment prices in central Tokyo up 15.6%

According to REINS, sales of second-hand apartments in greater Tokyo in August were up 16% from last year. A total of 2,250 apartments were sold during the month. The average price was 25,560,000 Yen (260,000 USD), up 3.5% from August 2012, but down 0.6% from last month. The average price per square meter was 400,100 Yen, up 5.3% from last year and up 1.8% from last month.

The average apartment size was 63.88 sqm (687 sqft) and the average building age was 20.08 years.

In Tokyo's central three wards (Chiyoda; Chuo and Minato), the average price per square meter was up 15.6% from the same time  last year to 823,800 Yen.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Resale value rankings for developers

Attractors Lab has ranked the top condominium developers by the average resale value of their apartments. In top place is Marubeni, followed by Taisei-Yuraku Real Estate and Itochu Property Development. Although these are the top ranked developers, they all saw a drop in average resale values since new.

The data is compiled from the average price of the developer's apartments when new and their average price when later resold. Data is only included for developers with over 30 buildings, and for buildings listed for sale from 2001 onwards.

Top developers by resale values:Read more

by Zoe Ward

Tokyo apartment resale values

According to Tokyo Kantei senior researcher Toshiro Nakayama, approximately 90% of an apartment's resale value will be determined by its location.

While there are many finer details of what makes a good location, the most important is how close it is to central Tokyo.

Tokyo Kantei have ranked the resale value of apartments in different areas across Tokyo. The area which is most likely to preserve or even increase the value of an apartment in Minato-ku, which is the highest ranked area for resale values in Tokyo.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Secondhand apartment prices in July - Tokyo Kantei

According to Tokyo Kantei, the average asking price of a 70 sqm (753 sqft) secondhand apartment in Tokyo's 23-ku was 39,850,000 Yen in July - up 0.3% from last month and up 1.6% from July 2012. The average apartment age was 20.7 years.

In Tokyo's central 6 wards (Chiyoda, Chuo, Minato, Shinjuku, Bunkyo and Shibuya), the average price in July was 53,280,000 Yen, down 0.3% from last month but 3.4% higher than last year. The average apartment age was 20.9 years.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Tokyo may soon see a shortage of new apartments

In July, the number of unsold new apartments across greater Tokyo fell to 4,247 units - the lowest level seen since 1990.

In the first half of the 2000s, land prices started to rise as a surge in activity by real estate funds started an investment boom. In addition, strong demand for steel from emerging economies pushed up construction costs in Japan. As a result, developers repeatedly pushed up apartment prices. The sudden drop in demand from buyers when the global financial crisis hit in 2008 left a growing inventory of unsold apartments.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