Sony to demolish iconic Ginza building in 2017
The 50-year old Sony Building in Tokyo’s Ginza area will be demolished in 2017 to make way for a temporary park, and finally a replacement building by 2022.
The building sits on a prime 700 sqm (7,500 sq.ft) corner block of land just 180 meters from the historic Wako Building and the Mitsukoshi Department Store. The land is used as one of the government’s chika-koji annual land survey sites. In 2016, the land had a surveyed value of 34,700,000 Yen/sqm (approx. 31,000 USD/sq.ft), which would make the 700 sqm site valued at approximately 24.5 billion Yen (approx. 235 million USD). The valuation was up 18.03% from 2015, and has increased by a staggering 151% since 2002. Read more
Construction starts on Aoyama’s latest luxury condo
Details have been released on a new condominium project in the Minami Aoyama address that is set to become one of the city’s most unique and luxurious developments.
Park Court Aoyama The Tower is a 26-storey residential tower currently under construction near Aoyama Itchome Station. It will contain 163 apartments, of which just 99 will be made available for sale. Completion is scheduled for late March 2018, with apartments to be delivered by buyers from late April 2018.Read more
Kioi Residence luxury rental apartment building now 80% full
Kioi Residence, the rental-only apartment building in the recently completed Tokyo Garden Terrace Kioicho complex, is proving popular with tenants with 80% of the apartments already under application. Despite facing north, the most popular apartments have been the ones overlooking the historic former residence of Prince Yi Un, which will be used for weddings and functions.
The 21-storey building was only completed last month. The 135 apartments range in size from 55 ~ 227 sqm (590 ~ 2,440 sq.ft), and rents range from 350,000 ~ 2,400,000 Yen (3,300 ~ 22,500 USD) per month. Read more
Tokyo metro apartment prices increase for 44th consecutive month
According to REINS, 3,001 second-hand apartments were sold across greater Tokyo in May, down 8.9% from the previous month and down 0.2% from last year. The average sale price was 29,910,000 Yen, up 2.5% from the previous month and up 3.6% from last year. The average price per square meter was 469,700 Yen, up 1.0% from the previous month and up 3.7% from last year. This is the 41st month in a row to see a year-on-year increase in the sale price on a price-per-square-meter basis. The average building age was 20.64 years.
In the Tokyo metropolitan area, 1,503 second-hand apartments were sold, down 9.1% from the previous month but up 3.4% from last year. The average sale price was 36,950,000 Yen, up 1.6% from the previous month and up 2.2% from last year. The average price per square meter was 625,900 Yen, down 0.3% from the previous month but up 2.1% from last year. This is the 44th month in a row to see a year-on-year increase in the sale price per square meter. The average building age was 19.84 years.
Central Tokyo’s 3 wards
In central Tokyo’s 3 wards (Chiyoda, Chuo and Minato), 178 second-hand apartments were sold, down 6.3% from the previous month and down 5.3% from last year. The average sale price was 58,090,000 Yen, up 18.0% from the previous month and up 8.3% from last year. The average sale price per square meter was 1,043,400 Yen, up 9.4% from the previous month and up 4.4% from last year. The average building age was 17.23 years.Read more
Residential yields in Minato-ku - June 2016
According to real estate listing site Homes, the average gross yield on an apartment in Minato-ku in Tokyo was 4.4% in June 2016, up 0.2 points from the previous month but down 0.3 points from last year. The average yield across Tokyo was 6.2%, down 0.1 points from the previous month and down 0.5 points from last year.
The average asking price for a second-hand apartment in Minato-ku was 979,942 Yen/sqm as of June 1, up 0.9% from the previous month and up 14.3% from last year. The average asking price for land was 1,391,818 Yen/sqm, up 1.2% from the previous month and up 14.8% from last year.Read more
Historic Kudan Kaikan to be replaced with high-rise building
There are plans to convert the historic Kudan Kaikan building near the Imperial Palace in Tokyo into a 75-meter tall office building. Tenders will soon be open to developers, with the requirements that proposals include retaining parts of the historic facade or at least attempting to recreate the facade, and for a new building with a height of no more than 75 meters.Read more
Akita Prefecture to have its first condominium project in 6 years
Next year, Akita Prefecture will see the completion of its first condominium development since 2010. Akita is the only prefecture in Japan to have had no new condominium developments in the past six years.
Demand for housing is low for the prefecture, which is suffering from the fastest population decline in the country. A shrinking population and growing construction costs make the area unattractive to developers.Read more