Japan’s shrinking population leaves record 8.5m homes empty
TOKYO: A record 8.46 million Japanese homes are sitting vacant as builders keep adding stock in a country where the population is shrinking.
The number jumped by 260,000 in a twice-a-decade survey released by the government on Friday, reaching 13.6 per cent of housing, the Nikkei Asian Review reported.
Many of the properties are for future sale or rental or vacation.
However, some are abandoned, posing hazards, the news service reported. Vacancy rates were highest in a prefecture that’s home to the northern part of Mount Fuji, which is a popular area for holiday homes.
However, more people moving from rural areas to metropolitan ones is also driving the increase, according to the news report.
Stashes of cash are also often discovered when these houses are taken down, said the Nikkei Asian Review.
The equivalent of more than US$200,000 (RM826,600) was found at one demolition site, here, last year.
Still, the number of empty homes may be dwarfed elsewhere. A 2017 survey indicated a vacancy rate of about one-in-five urban dwellings in China. That translates to around 65 million homes, according to media reports.
Meanwhile, in Singapore, Singaporeans’ deep-seated desire for home ownership has seen them snap up the biggest share of residential properties versus foreigners in a decade.
About 79 per cent of private apartments went to Singaporeans in the first quarter, the most since the first three months of 2009, according to property consultants OrangeTee & Tie Pte Ltd. And the homes weren’t cheap — the proportion of local purchases of luxury units jumped to 69 per cent from 36 per cent in the same period a year ago.
“The rising number of affluent locals purchasing luxury homes indicates their confidence that
Singapore remains a safe haven for capital preservation and appreciation,” said Christine Sun, head of research and consultancy at OrangeTee.
That confidence was also reflected in a survey released last week by PropertyGuru, which found that while most locals believed home prices were too high, two-thirds reckoned apartments were still affordable — not bad in a city where prime unit prices come in around the US$1.2 million mark and the average monthly rent is US$1,935.
Younger people were moving out of their parents’ homes earlier and demand for executive condominiums had grown in popularity among upgraders, PropertyGuru’s study found.
“As wealth creation continues to grow in Singapore the desire and ability to pursue higherquality living is driving the higher proportion of private home ownership,” said Christine Li, the head of research for Singapore at Cushman & Wakefield Inc. “While foreign buyers have remained resilient, the proportion could have been much higher if cooling measures hadn’t been punitive to them.”
Authorities have kept a tight leash on the property market since the early part of the decade in a bid to avoid runaway prices. The government in July imposed higher stamp duties, with levies for foreigners the highest at 20 per cent.
Developers sold a total of 1,838 new homes last quarter, 16 per cent higher than in the same period a year ago, Urban Redevelopment Authority data show.