Don Quijote to develop 120m high-rise in Shibuya

On August 13, discount retail giant Don Quijote Holdings announced plans for a high-rise retail, office and hotel building to replace their former Shibuya Store in downtown Tokyo. Land readjustment work is scheduled to start next month with the new building scheduled for completion in April 2022.Read more


Details released on luxury apartment tower for Shibuya City Office redevelopment

Additional details have been released for the residential apartment tower planned as part of the Shibuya City Office redevelopment. The new high-rise will be called Park Court Shibuya The Tower. The 39-storey apartment building will have 505 apartments, of which 355 will be made available for sale. Apartment sizes will range from 40 ~ 208 sqm (430 ~ 2,238 sq.ft).

This will be a leasehold property with the land to be returned to Shibuya City at the end of the 70-year term. The redevelopment of Shibuya’s City Hall will partly be covered by the land leasehold revenue. The new city hall buildings are due to open in January 2019, while the adjoining public hall will open in the following May.Read more


Google Japan office relocation signals return of Shibuya’s Bit Valley

On November 17, Google Japan announced plans to relocate their head office to a new office tower near Shibuya Station in mid-2019.

Google will be taking up floors 14 to 35 in Shibuya Stream - a 35-storey office tower due for completion in late 2018. The 50,000 sqm (538,000 sq ft) of office space will allow them to double their staff numbers from the current level of 1,300. The lower floors of the Shibuya Stream building will be hotel rooms, making Google the sole office tenant.

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Shibuya ward to relax hotel construction rules

Starting this month, Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward will loosen hotel building restrictions to encourage the development of new hotels to cater to a growing number of tourists.

An ordinance enacted in 2006 to limit the construction of Love Hotels also had an unintended effect of making it difficult to develop business hotels.Read more


Mitsubishi acquires Shibuya site for potential luxury condominium project

Mitsubishi Jisho Nanpeidaicho Site

Mitsubishi Jisho Residence and Cosmos Initia have acquired a large development site near Shibuya Station. Details have yet to be announced, but industry insiders suggest that, given the size of the land, it could be slated for a luxury condominium project.

Update: The project is called The Parkhouse Shibuya Nanpeidai. Pre-sales for Hong Kong-based buyers began in September 2017, with prices starting from around 145 million Yen. The 10-storey building will have approximately 100 apartments with completion by May 2019 or later.

The 3,300 sqm (35,500 sq.ft) site in Nanpeidaicho is located near the Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel and a 5 minute walk from Shibuya Station’s South Exit. It was purchased from Japan Tobacco for an undisclosed price estimated somewhere in the several billion Yen range. The site included a 5-storey office building which is currently being demolished.Read more


Apartment prices along Tokyo's Ginza Line

The following table shows the change in apartment prices along the Ginza Subway Line (Japan’s oldest subway line). This subway line runs from Shibuya to Asakusa and passes through several of the city’s prime residential and business districts, many of which have seen a boost in prices over the past few years.

The average price across all stations on the Ginza line was 1,000,000 Yen/sqm in 2015, up 19.8% from 2014. The average building age was 21.0 years, down from 23.6 years in 2014. The average apartment size was 56.35 sqm (606 sq.ft), down from 60.76 sqm in 2014.Read more


Japan’s first high-rise condominium to be redeveloped

Miyamasuzaka Building Shibuya 1

After several years of discussions, redevelopment plans have finally been announced for the 62-year old Miyamasuzaka Building / Miyamasuzaka Apaato in Shibuya. Demolition of the current building is expected to start in February 2016, with the new building to be completed by 2020. The building’s owners association voted in favour of redevelopment in March 2012.

This was Japan’s first high-rise condominium. It was developed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bureau of Construction and completed in 1953. The building has 11 storeys above ground and one basement floor.

The typical apartment size in this building ranged from 39 ~ 43 sqm (420 ~ 463 sq.ft). Although the rooms may be small by today’s standards, the building was considered to be the epitome of luxury living at the time. When new, prices ranged from 600,000 ~ 1,000,000 yen, and almost all of the buyers were high-income earners such as bureaucrats, bankers or university professors.Read more