Korea Town leads to rise in land values

The South Korean pop culture boom in Shinjuku's "Korea Town" has led to a large increase in surrounding land values.

According to the 2012 Koji-Chika assessed land values, the Shinokubo area in Shinjuku which has a large South Korean population has seen land values increase by 1.7% over the past year. While the nationwide residential land values have fallen by 2.3% and 3.1% in business districts, Korea Town has managed to escape from the declining land values.Read more


New apartments in Tokyo on sale in April

According to real estate information service provider, Mercury, a total of 92 new buildings with 9742 apartments will go on sale in greater Tokyo in April. The number of new buildings is down 28% from March and the total number of apartments decreased by 29%.Read more


AtHome Tokyo sales data for February 2012

AtHome released their data on the listing prices and contracted prices for brand new and secondhand properties in greater Tokyo for February 2012.

The average contracted price for a brand new house in greater Tokyo increased by 2.3% from February of 2011 to 32,320,000 Yen. This is the 14th continuous month of price increases. West Tokyo saw an increase of over 5%. In Tokyo's 23 wards, the contracted price saw a large fall.Read more


Office vacancy rates fall slightly

According to Miki Shoji, the average vacancy rate for office buildings in Tokyo's five central wards fell to 9.15% in February 2012 (down 0.08 points from January).Read more


Tokyo is the most expensive city in the world to rent a 2-bedroom apartment

The 500.38sqm (5384 sqft) 1-bedroom penthouse in La Tour Daikanyama has an asking rent of 5,310,000 Yen/month and is the most expensive rental apartment in Tokyo.

According to a survey by ECA International, Tokyo is the most expensive city in the world to rent a 2-bedroom apartment, and the 2nd most expensive city in the world for 3-bedroom apartments.

Tokyo has also seen the biggest fall in rents in Asia. This continues the trend of year-on-year rental price decreases witnessed there since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008.

Lee Quane, Regional Director of ECA International Asia explains that "assignee numbers in Tokyo are still lower than before the financial crisis". This means there is less demand for rental property in expatriate areas, and rents in those areas have steadily fallen since then, dropping almost 5% in Yen terms. Further falls in international assignee numbers following the tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster have continued to contribute to this trend.Read more


Secondhand apartment transactions increase in Tokyo only

According to REINS, the number of transactions made on secondhand apartments in greater Tokyo in January 2012 fell 3.3% from the year prior to 2305. Tokyo City was the only area that saw an increase in the number of transactions for the month.

Chiba saw the highest drop with only 270 transactions for the month - down 18.9% from January 2011. This is the 10th continuous month of decline.Read more


The difference between the listing price and sale price of apartments in 2011

Based on apartment transaction data from 2011, Tokyo Kantei have provided details on the difference between the asking price and realized sales price of second-hand apartments in greater Tokyo and the Kansai region. It is quite common for an apartment on the secondary market to sell below the listing price.Read more