Japan’s rural land prices rise in 2019
TOKYO: The average price of all types of land in Japan’s rural areas rose last year for the first time since 1992, aided by redevelopment projects and improvement in infrastructure, the government said yesterday.
Land in all categories, including residential and industrial in Japan’s regional areas, excluding big cities of Sapporo, Sendai, Hiroshima and Fukuoka, grew 0.1% from a year earlier as of Jan 1, while commercial land prices in those areas rose 0.3% — both figures seeing the first increase in 28 years, it said.
Residential land prices in those rural areas, which had been falling since 1996, were unchanged from a year earlier, the annual government survey showed. However, the upward trend could reverse if the current coronavirus outbreak further damages the economy, analysts say.
Prefectural capitals and surrounding regions saw a rise in residential land prices due to redevelopment projects, improvement in infrastructure and increased child care support.
A number of municipalities without underlying reasons for growth also saw slower declines in land prices as they became “affordable” after years of depreciation following the collapse of the country’s asset-inflated bubble economy, according to the land ministry.
Overall, the average price of land in all categories nationwide, including the metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya as well as the four big regional cities, grew 1.4% from a year earlier, up for the fifth consecutive year, according to the land ministry survey covering some 26,000 locations.
The national average price for commercial land climbed 3.1%, up for the fifth year, while that of residential land went up 0.8% for the third consecutive year of increase.
An official of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism pointed to “a strong upward trend” with land prices triggered by a boom in the market for office spaces, steady demand for hotels amid the influx of visitors from overseas as well as for easily accessible residential areas.
In the three largest metropolitan areas of the country, commercial land prices saw an average growth of 5.4% and residential land prices an increase of 1.1%.
In the regional areas overall, including the four big cities, commercial and residential land prices rose 1.5% and 0.5%, respectively.
In the four cities alone, commercial land prices rose 11.3%, and residential land prices 5.9%.
Of Japan’s 47 prefectures, 24 saw gains in commercial land prices, while 20 registered an increase in residential land prices.
By site, the town of Kutchan on the northernmost island of Hokkaido, a popular ski resort among foreign visitors, led the nation in both commercial and residential land price jumps, shooting up 57.5% and 44.0%, respectively.
Meanwhile, residential land prices in the city of Nagano, which was battered by Typhoon Hagibis last year, and commercial land prices in Yubari, a Hokkaido city with a rapidly falling population, saw major declines.
The main shop of Yamano Music Co in Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district logged the highest land price among the surveyed locations across the country at 57.7 million yen ($546,000) per square metre.