October rental apartment transactions - AtHome

According to AtHome's data on rental transactions in greater Tokyo for the month of October, the number of new rental contracts signed fell 3.4% from October 2012 to 18,668.

In Tokyo's 23-ku, 8,490 contracts were signed, down 0.7% from last year. This is the first time in 12 months that the figure has fallen below last year's figure. Apartments less than 30 sqm (323 sqft) in size comprised 46.2% of transactions, down 6.7 points from October 2012. Meanwhile, 37.4% of transactions were for apartments 30 ~ 50 sqm (323 ~ 538 sqft) in size, up 9 points from last year. Apartments over 70 sqm (753 sqft) made up 3.8% of transactions, down 9.4 points from 2012.Read more

by Zoe Ward

TAS Corp's rental market data for September

According to TAS Corp's latest report on the rental market for apartments, the average vacancy rate in Tokyo's 23-ku was 11.56% in September, up 0.07 points from the previous month but down 0.08 points from September 2012.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Yomiuri Shimbun Building officially opened

Yomiuri Shimbun Tokyo Head Office Building OtemachiThe new headquarters of the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper in Otemachi was officially opened on November 28. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gave a celebratory address to the 900 guests at the opening ceremony.

The 200m tall 33-storey building has replaced the former 10-storey head office. It is now the tallest building in the Otemachi area and is slightly higher than the 199.7m tall Otemachi Tower which was completed in August.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Land prices up in 71% of locations - MLIT LOOK Report

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) published the data on land price movements across Japan for the third quarter in 2013 (July 1 ~ October 1).

The Chika LOOK Report measures land price changes in 150 locations throughout Japan. According to the latest data, 107 locations (71.3% of the total) saw an increase in land prices. This is higher than the last quarter which saw 99 locations with an increase in land prices. 34 locations (22.7%) saw no change in prices, while 9 locations (6%) saw a fall in land prices.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Handover of new apartments in Wellith Arisugawa begins today

Wellith Arisugawa

Buyers begin moving into the recently completed Wellith Arisugawa condominium in Minamiazabu today. The luxury low-rise apartment building is located just a few minutes from Hiroo Station and Arisugawa Park and is the only condominium to be built in the exclusive Minamiazabu 5 Chome address in the last eight years.

Sales began in October 2012 and 52 of the 57 apartments have already sold. Prices ranged from 84.8 to 599 million Yen (834,000 ~ 5.9 million USD), with an average price of approximately 1,630,000 Yen/sqm (16,000 USD/sqm).Read more

by Zoe Ward

Toh-Ten-Koh selling Ueno restaurant building

Toh Ten Koh Ueno Tokyo

Toh-Ten-Koh announced that they will be selling their Ueno restaurant building and land  to Tokyo Tatemono for 8.914 billion Yen (88 million USD).

Toh-Ten-Koh are currently building a new store on an adjoining block of land they already own and will relocate once the building is complete in 2015. The new store will be on a smaller site of 2,000 sqm, but will be built to the latest earthquake-resistant codes. It is estimated to cost approximately 4.6 billion Yen. Construction began in October.Read more

by Zoe Ward

TEPCO to sell Shinjuku hospital

Tepco Hospital ShinjukuTEPCO will be selling their Tokyo Denryoku Hospital in Shinjuku-ku to Tokyo Tatemono for an estimated 10 billion Yen (99 million USD). This works out to approximately 1,850,000 Yen/sqm for the land.

Tepco had originally planned to keep the hospital, but at a general shareholders meeting in June 2012, major shareholder and governor of Tokyo Naoki Inose demanded the building and land be sold. Read more

by Zoe Ward