According to Taiwanese media reports, the number of Taiwanese buying real estate in Japan is steadily increasing.

In 2010, one of Taiwan’s largest real estate agencies, Sinyi Realty, established a branch in Japan. The China Times reported that in the 7 months following the Tohoku disaster, Sinyi sold 68 Japanese properties to Taiwanese buyers with a total value of 2.75 billion Yen (35 million USD).

The company president said that buyers were actually more fearful of a stockmarket crash than an earthquake, so they are seeing an increasing number of Taiwanese who view purchasing Japanese real estate as a way of managing their funds. Of the 68 properties, 39 were in brand new developments. This highlights the trend of Taiwanese buyers to prefer new over older apartments. The president also said that approximately 50 Taiwanese travel to Japan each month to view properties.

Sinyi reported that the buyers who are looking for a personal residence have a budget between 60 ~ 150 million Yen (770,000 ~ 1.92 million USD) and are looking for 2 and 3 bedroom apartments close to train stations. For investors who want to rent out the apartment, they are looking at places in the range of 30 ~ 40 million Yen (385,000 ~ 512,000 USD), that can provide a monthly rental income of between 130,000 ~ 180,000 Yen. This would be a gross return of 5.2 ~ 5.4% which is average for a modern single apartment in Tokyo, but is appealing to Taiwanese as the average return in Taiwan is only 2 ~ 3%. However, a serious investor is able to find properties in Tokyo that can provide much greater returns.

A later news report said that the most popular properties were 1-bedrooms priced under 20 million Yen (260,000 USD). The sale of properties in this price range accounted for 33% of Sinyi’s total sales in 2011.

Sinyi is also working together with Mitsubishi Jisho Residence to introduce Mitsubishi’s newly developed apartments such as The Park House Shinjuku Tower (Shinjuku-ku), The Park House Atago Toranomon (Minato-ku) and The Park House Urbance Ochanomizu (Chiyoda-ku). Sinyi have already sold 29 apartments in The Park House Shinjuku Tower to Taiwanese buyers.

The Park House Shinjuku Tower (2012). Apartments range in price from 41.5 ~ 128 million Yen with an average price of 950,000 Yen/sqm.

What the article glosses over is that the average budget of each buyer in 2011 is now less than half what it was in 2010.

Between March, 2010, and March, 2011, Sinyi Realty sold 70 properties in Japan with a total value of 6.75 billion Yen (86 million USD) and an average purchase price of approximately 96,430,000 Yen per property. According to the latest sales data from Sinyi, the average price per apartment sold after the March 11 Tohoku disaster fell by over half to 40,440,000 Yen. While the article suggests that the interest in Japanese real estate is increasing post March 11, it seems that the buyers are not willing to spend as much. This is likely due to the effects of the March disaster and the strong Yen.

Sources:
Want China Times, January 13, 2011.
Mitsubishi Jisho Group Press Release, May 27, 2011.
Searchina, November 6, 2011.
The Ryukyu Shimpo, December 26, 2011.

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