Kobe Maya Hotel seeking national heritage listing
A non-profit organisation is seeking donations to help preserve the 88-year old Maya Hotel and prepare it for a potential national heritage listing.
The art deco hotel was built in 1929 on the hills overlooking Kobe City. It has been closed since 1993 and has been left to rot and fall into ruin. In 2016, a local group obtained permission from the owner, an Osaka-based real estate company, to open it up for public tours.
23-storey apartment tower planned for Roppongi Itchome
Real estate developer Mori Trust is planning a 23-storey, 80-meter tall apartment building for a site in Roppongi. Completion is scheduled for late May 2019.
The Roppongi Itchome Project is located on the same block as Ark Hills Sengokuyama Mori Tower and across the street from Park Court Roppongi Hilltop. The site was previously a training building for the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Mori Trust acquired the site in early 2010 and demolished the former office building in 2011.
Sales start in 50-storey high-rise in Osaka
Off-the-plan sales in the 50-storey Branz Tower Umeda North condominium began over the weekend, with the most expensive unit in the building - a 145 square meter three-bedroom penthouse - priced at 270 million Yen (approx. 2.37 million USD). A total of 218 apartments were offered for sale in the first round, representing a third of the total units in the building. Sale prices ranged from 36 to 270 million Yen and sizes ranged from 42 ~ 145 sqm (452 ~ 1,560 sq ft).
The 653-unit building is due for completion in November 2019 with apartments delivered to buyers from February 2020 onwards.
How long does it take to for an apartment to sell in central Tokyo?
We find many clients miss out on some great purchases because they assume they will have plenty of time before a property sells. One of the biggest mistakes you can make when trying to enter a major market like Tokyo is to think that you are the only buyer out there. In reality, there are a lot of buyers circling the market, especially in central Tokyo. The vast majority are domestic buyers who know the market and are able to pounce quickly.
The owners of 20% of Japan’s land are unaccounted for
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), approximately 41,000 square kilometers, or 20% of privately-owned land in Japan is owned by unidentifiable or missing owners.
A missing owner is defined as someone who has either passed away without the property title being transferred to the heirs, or an owner who has since moved but has not updated their address details on the property title. Generally speaking, there is no legal obligation to update a change of address or inheritance on property titles.
Of the land, 14% is building land, 18.5% is farmland, and 25.7% is forestry. The MLIT reported that 19.8%, or 930,000 hectares, of Japan’s agricultural land has property titles that have not been updated in over 50 years. Some local governments have found property titles showing the owner’s address as Manchukuo - a short-lived pre-war puppet state located in northeastern China.Read more
Nationwide rosenka land values increase for 2nd year in a row
In 2017, Japan’s rosenka land values increased for the second year in a row with an average growth of 0.4% nationwide. In 2016, rosenka land values increased by 0.2%, ending an 8 year decline.
In Tokyo’s Ginza district, an uptick in retail demand due to record-high foreign tourist numbers has helped to push land values to a historical high, exceeding those seen during Japan’s bubble economy. The land value alongside Ginza Chuo Dori in Ginza 5 Chome (in front of the Kyukyodo Building) reached 40,320,000 Yen per square meter (approximately 33,100 USD/sq ft) this year, up 26% from 2016 and exceeding the previous record of 36,500,000 Yen last seen in 1992. This particular location has been the most expensive land in Japan for the past 32 years.Read more