Tokyo apartment resale values
According to Tokyo Kantei senior researcher Toshiro Nakayama, approximately 90% of an apartment's resale value will be determined by its location.
While there are many finer details of what makes a good location, the most important is how close it is to central Tokyo.
Tokyo Kantei have ranked the resale value of apartments in different areas across Tokyo. The area which is most likely to preserve or even increase the value of an apartment in Minato-ku, which is the highest ranked area for resale values in Tokyo.Read more
60-storey apartment building for Nishi-Shinjuku
A new high-rise apartment building is planned for Nishi Shinjuku. At 60-storeys, it will be the tallest apartment building in Japan (based on the number of floors). Construction work is set to begin in January 2014, with completion scheduled for 2017.
The Nishi Shinjuku 5 Chome Centre North District redevelopment site was originally a densely crowded neighbourhood of wooden houses. The area posed a fire and safety hazard and many of the older homes were not earthquake resistant. Of the 92 low-rise buildings to be demolished, 83 (92%) were not fireproof.
Local residents, wanting to redevelop their neighbourhood, banded together in 1997 to form a redevelopment association to hasten the development of the area.Read more
Chongryon headquarters back on the auction block
The Chongryon headquarters and North Korean de facto embassy building in Tokyo will be put up for public auction for a second time in early October.
The building and land was first listed for auction in March 2013. It made headlines after the winning bidder - the chief priest of a Kagoshima-based buddhist temple - failed to come up with the money for his 4.5 billion Yen bid.Read more
Tokyo may soon see a shortage of new apartments
In July, the number of unsold new apartments across greater Tokyo fell to 4,247 units - the lowest level seen since 1990.
In the first half of the 2000s, land prices started to rise as a surge in activity by real estate funds started an investment boom. In addition, strong demand for steel from emerging economies pushed up construction costs in Japan. As a result, developers repeatedly pushed up apartment prices. The sudden drop in demand from buyers when the global financial crisis hit in 2008 left a growing inventory of unsold apartments.Read more
Nihonbashi office conversion provides solution to vacancy woes
Renovation company Haptic Co. collaborated with interior design and furnishing company Idee to convert a 24-year old office building in Nihonbashi into residential apartments.
The 7-storey Nihonbashi M&K Building was built in 1989. The owners of the ageing building were having difficulty attracting commercial tenants. Converting the building to residential use was less than a third of the estimated cost of rebuilding. Read more