Nomura's Proud Tower Shinonome sells out on 1st day of sales
In what appears to be good news for developers on Tokyo's bay area, all of the apartments in Nomura Real Estate's Proud Tower Shinonome Canal Court that went on sale this Monday received purchase applications on the same day.
The 52-storey, 600 unit residential tower is located on a reclaimed island on Tokyo Bay, an area that suffered from a drop in popularity following the March 11 Tohoku disaster due to its liquefaction risks.Read more
1927 Kudanshita Bldg to be demolished
The 85-year old Kudanshita Building in Kandajinbocho, Chiyoda-ku, will soon be demolished once the last remaining occupant moves out.
Kudanshita Bldg is a multi-tenant building in Kandajinbocho, Chiyoda-ku. It's original name was Imagawakouji Cooperative Building. Completed in 1927, the Kudanshita Building is one of Tokyo's landmark buildings completed during the reconstruction following the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake. The local shopkeepers whose premises were destroyed in the earthquake had pooled their savings together to construct this building. At the time they were each given an ownership share of the property.Read more
Tokyo office market showing further signs of slowing
The central Tokyo office building market is stagnating. At the end of November, the office vacancy rate for Tokyo's central 5 wards (Chiyoda, Chuo, Minato, Shinjuku and Shibuya) reached 8.90%. This is the second continuous month with an increase in vacancy rates and the first time since April, 2011, that rates had reached this level. Meanwhile, the average office rent for central Tokyo has declined for the 39th continuous month.
With the Euro crisis and strong Yen, there is a deceleration in demand from tenants with many companies being more prudent and delaying moving. The demand for buildings with high disaster preparedness and earthquake resistance has slowed.Read more
Compact Living in Tokyo
With typically high rents, tiny, cramped apartments are plentiful in Tokyo and there is no shortage of tenants looking for smaller, affordable accommodation. There is a boom in 'one-room', or studio apartments, as more and more young people move closer to Tokyo for work. Limited space has led to some creative designs, and this apartment building in Tsukiji called "CT7165" is no exception.Read more
Niseko Kogen Hotel sold
Niseko Kogen Kanko, a subsidiary of Tokyu Land, announced that they will be selling the Niseko Kogen Hotel to an undisclosed buyer for just over 1 billion Yen. The buyer is said to be a fund based in Asia.
The Niseko Kogen Hotel will remain open until March, 2012, at which time the new buyer will take over the property. The hotel is aging, so it is expected that the new buyer will demolish and rebuild a high class international hotel on the site. The current 59 room, 4-storey hotel was built in 1975, and room rates start from 7,000 Yen/night (90 USD). In recent years, construction of new condominiums in the area have had a negative impact on the hotel's profitability. Read more
Mitsubishi Estate sells Akasaka Park Bldg
On November 15, 2011, Japan Real Estate Investment Corporation purchased Akasaka Park Building and land for 60.8 billion Yen (779 million USD). The seller was Mitsubishi Estate. The building had an appraised value of 62.5 billion Yen in October, 2011.
The buyer believes that the image of Akasaka has improved over the years, particularly with the development of Akasaka Sacas just behind the building, and are expecting diversified demand from tenants into the future.
Akasaka Park Building was completed in 1993. The 30-storey building has a total floor space of approximately 97,317 sqm and a standard floor area of 2033 sqm. The total size of the land under the building is 14,198.20 sqm.Read more
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