Hulic opens small luxury resort in Lake Kawaguchi

On October 1, real estate corporation HULIC opened their latest small luxury resort near Lake Kawaguchi. ‘Fufu Kawaguchiko’ is part of HULIC’s Fufu brand of luxury ryokans.

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Mitsukoshi to close historic department store in Niigata

Niigata City is losing major retail players due to a declining population and a shift in consumer habits towards online shopping and larger suburban malls. On September 26, Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings announced the planned closure of their Mitsukoshi Department Store in the city by March 2020. The closure is expected to worsen the decline in the city center’s retail district.

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City abandons foreclosure of five-storied pagoda and temple grounds

Katsuyama City in Fukui Prefecture has given up on their attempt to auction off a foreclosed pagoda and temple property due to a lack of buyers.

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Sales in Shibuya condo to start this month

Domestic sales in The Parkhouse Shibuya Nanpeidai are scheduled to start at the end of this month, with 35 units on offer.Pre-sales to overseas investors in Hong Kong started in 2017. The 10-storey condominium is located a 7 minute walk from Shibuya Station and 300 meters from Cerulean Tower. This is the first new condominium to go on sale in the Nanpeidai address in 11 years.

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Tokyo to buy National Children’s Castle

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is in talks to buy the National Children’s Castle building and land in Shibuya from the national government. The once popular arts and entertainment complex closed its doors in 2015, ending 30 years of operations.Read more


LaSalle buys Midosuji Front Tower

On October 3, LaSalle Investment Management, headquartered in Chicago, announced the purchase of Midosuji Front Tower in Osaka’s Umeda district through their Frontier Property LLC, signalling the end of the building's 8 year vacancy. The sale price was not disclosed.

Midosuji Front Tower was completed in 2010. It has sat vacant ever since due to a dispute between the owners.Read more


Failed share houses start to hit foreclosure market

One of the early foreclosures of failed share houses developed as part of a wide-scale scam goes up for public auction next week. The minimum bid for the building and land is set at 23,672,000 Yen (approx. 205,000 USD), with results to be announced on October 25 (Update: It sold for 25,180,000 Yen to a private bidder). Back in January, several share houses by a former Ginza-based share house developer were listed for public foreclosure auction, selling for around a third to less than a half of what the original investors would have paid for them.

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