Apartments to be built in historic Kyoto Shrine grounds
Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto’s Sakyo Ward announced that several condominiums will be built on part of the shrine’s grounds.
The shrine’s main buildings are rebuilt every 21 years. To help raise the 3 billion Yen required to rebuild in 2015, part of the shrine’s land will be leased to a private developer. The shrine has already raised 1 billion Yen and will receive around 800 million Yen in national grants.
A 9,650 sqm parcel of land about 600 meters south of the main shrine will be leased to a private developer under a 50-year term with an annual land rent of 80 million Yen. At the end of the lease, the buildings will be demolished and the land will be returned to the Shrine. The land is currently used as a car park and training hall.Read more
Luxury apartment boom in Kyoto fuelled by Tokyo buyers
Kyoto is seeing a renewed interest from wealthy buyers looking for luxury holiday homes. A number of high-end condominiums in central Kyoto have been selling out quickly due to demand from Tokyo residents. The historic city, which is an admired and world-renowned tourist destination, is additionally appealing as its real estate prices are relatively cheap when compared to Tokyo. Supply is also limited due to to various height restrictions and a shortage in available development sites.
The area inside Oike, Gojo, Kawaramachi and Horikawa Streets has seen the recent development of several luxury apartments.
Nomura Real Estate’s ‘Proud Kyoto Fuyacho Oike’ is currently under construction alongside Oike Dori Avenue and 200 meters from Kyoto City Hall. Apartments went on sale in December 2014 and the 43 units received 83 purchase applications (lucky buyers were selected from a raffle). The two, three and four bedroom apartments ranged in size from 67 ~ 104 sqm (721 ~ 1,119 sq ft) and were priced from 60 ~ 140 million Yen. 80 sqm apartments were priced in the 80 million Yen (670,000 USD) range. Apartments are scheduled for delivery from the end of March 2016.Read more
Apartment price to income ratio worsens nationwide, but improves in Tokyo and Osaka
According to Tokyo Kantei, the average price of a brand new apartment in Japan in 2013 was 6.59 times the average annual income (up 0.06 points fro 2012), while a second-hand apartment (10 years old) was 4.58 times times the average income (up 0.02 points from 2012).
The rise in apartment prices has outpaced the increase in average income. The average annual income across Japan increased by 3.85% from the previous year to 4,320,000 Yen in 2013.
Meanwile, the average price of a 70 sqm second-hand apartment in Japan was 19,800,000 Yen in 2013, up 4.38%. The average price of a brand-new apartment nationwide was 28,620,000 Yen, up 5.07% from the year before.
In greater Tokyo (Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba Prefectures), the price-to-income ratio of brand new apartments was 8.80 times (+0.06 points). The ratio for second-hand apartments actually fell 0.05 points to 6.07 times. Read more
Kyoto looking for tenant for historic restaurant/ryokan in Gion
Kyoto City is looking for a tenant for a traditional-style residence/restaurant in the Gion-shinbashi neighbourhood. The 2-storey wooden house was during the Meiji period and is estimated to be around 120 years old.
Until recently it was used as a tempura restaurant. The owner of the property and former operator of the restaurant left the property to the city in June 2013 with the hope that the city could continue to conserve and protect the historical building.Read more
[Foreclosed] House in Chiba’s ‘Beverly Hills’
A 4-bedroom house in One Hundred Hills (Chiba Prefecture’s version of Beverly Hills) has been foreclosed on and will go up for public auction in May. The minimum bid is set at 51,656,000 Yen.
*Update: The winning bid was 65,126,000 Yen. Three bids were submitted and the winner was a corporate buyer.
One Hundred Hills is a high-end residential estate that was developed by Tokyu Land in the late 1980s. The first homes in the neighbourhood were between 400 ~ 500 sqm (4300 ~ 5380 sqft) in size and were priced from 500 million ~ 1.5 billion Yen when new. Tokyu had subdivided the 17 hectare estate into 60 lots and had sold 24 of the 49 homes they had built by the time the bubble burst. Read more