The luxury condominium market in Tokyo has been surging in the face of the pandemic.
In October, sales started on a luxury project not far from Shibuya Station, with 13 apartments released for sale. The most expensive apartment was priced at almost 600 million Yen (approx. US$5.3 million), or around 3.6 million Yen per square meter (US$2,950/sq.ft). The sales office has already received over 1,200 inquiries.
In Chiyoda Ward, another developer released a new project for sale back in January where the average apartment price was over 200 million Yen (US$1.76 million). Half of the apartments had sold out in the first six months.
It’s not just new apartments that are seeing an uptick in demand, with second-hand sales over 100 million Yen reaching new highs. According to REINS, apartments priced over 100 million Yen represented 5.9% of all transactions in the Tokyo metropolitan area in the third quarter of 2021, up from a 4.2% share in 2020 and a 2.1% share for the same period in 2016. Quarterly transactions in 2020 are double or even triple what they were five years ago.
The condominium market across Japan has changed greatly over the past two decades. In the greater Tokyo area, the annual supply of new condominiums across all price ranges is still sitting at about a third of the peak supply seen in 2000, while the average price has increased by around 20 million Yen to 60,830,000 Yen. In Tokyo’s 23 wards, the average price of a new apartment is 77,120,000 Yen.
Sources:
The Nikkei Shimbun, October 12, 2021.
REINS, October 11, 2021.