Second-hand apartment prices in central Tokyo up 35.4% from last year

According to REINS, the average price of a second-hand apartment sold in central Tokyo's 3 wards (Chiyoda, Chuo and Minato) was 50,870,000 Yen in November, up 4.1% from the previous month and up 35.4% from last year. The average price per square meter was 867,000 Yen, up 2.9% from the previous month and up 25.6% from last year. The average apartment age was 16.47 years and the average apartment size was 58.68 sqm (631 sqft). Read more

by Zoe Ward

Central Tokyo's first 5-storey wooden building completed

Ginza wooden building 4

Last month, Mitsui Home completed the construction of a 5-storey wood-frame building in Ginza.This is the second 2x4 wood-framed 5-storey building to be built in Japan, and is the first in central Tokyo. In April 2012, a 5-storey apartment building was competed in Setagaya-ku.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Residential yields and vacancy rates in Minato-ku - December 2013

According to real estate listing site Homes, the average yield on an apartment in Minato-ku in December was 6.0%, up 0.2 points from last month. The average yield across Tokyo remains unchanged at 7.6%.

The vacancy rate in Minato-ku remains unchanged at 9.9% and 11.0% across Tokyo.

The average asking price of a secondhand apartment was 715,557 Yen/sqm as of December 1, up 1.34% from the previous month. The average asking price for land was 1,071,212 Yen, up 0.17% from last month.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Market for secondhand apartments improving

The prices of secondhand apartments are moving on up. According to Tokyo Kantei, the average asking price of a 70 sqm apartment in greater Tokyo was 28,210,000 Yen in October, up 1.1% from the previous month. This was the first time in 8 months that the price had exceeded 28 million Yen.

Unlike new apartments, private sales of second-hand apartments are exempt from consumption tax (it is, however, charged on the brokerage fees). While the planned increase in the consumption tax rate may not directly impact the resale market, sellers are starting to see that the market is improving and are in less of a hurry to sell.Read more

by Zoe Ward

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