Asian Real Estate Association of America – National Convention in San Francisco

AREAA (Asian Real Estate Association of America) held their National Convention in San Francisco at the end of October. Within AREAA, there is a group called,”Japan Connect”. Japan Connect, a group of about 20 Japanese-Americans, helps bridge the gap between the United States and Japan. They are a pro-active group interested in starting cooperation of overseas business and a referral network. The main goal of Global KOEI is to participate in conferences, events, and seminars as much as possible and begin a working relationship with Japan Connect and AREAA. Here are some photos from the conference and tour Japan Connect put together for international attendees from Japan.

Dinner

LUMINA – One bedrooms starting at 1,000,000USD.

LUMINA　Showroom

San Francisco City Hall

Golden Gate Bridge

Swan Lake

San Francisco Recreation and Parks

Palace of Fine Arts

Japan Connect is currently attending the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) conference in San Diego. They plan on further discussing the business opportunities for Japan and America.

During the AREAA National Conference in San Francisco, they arranged a Napa Valley tour to three vineyards and wineries and showed the importance of Chinese people in the early development of San Francisco, property tours in central San Francisco (pricey!), San Francisco tour, and Silicon Valley tour and seminar.

Thank you so much AREAA and Japan Connect!💛

ENTRY LEVEL – Real Estate salesperson – SEEKING CANDIDATES

Global KOEI is seeking entry level Real Estate sales candidates.

We are looking for determined, self-motivated, and English-Japanese capable people looking to START a career in real estate based in Tokyo. Team and goal oriented individuals with strong communication skills are needed to expand our Global team. On the job training and support is provided.

Global KOEI is currently seeking two different potential candidates:

1 – Japanese nationals with English capabilities

2 – Foreign nationals with Japanese capabilities

Compensation is a stable monthly income accompanied by incentives and commission on closed transactions. Bonus twice a year. Transportation expenses paid. Summer, Winter and Golden Week vacations. Health Insurance. Corporate Vacations.

Candidates in their 20’s are preferential.

Please contact: tokyoproperties@gmail.com

for more information.

Offering free advice and consultation services for people interested in either buying or selling Tokyo real estate

Buying real estate in a foreign country can be confusing and sometimes overwhelming. There are many questions that arise and having a language barrier or inexperienced translator can pose potential problems. I am offering free advice, consultations, and Q&A for potential buyers or sellers of real estate in Japan. Anybody with questions, please feel free to contact me on my e-mail: tokyoproperties@gmail.com or give me a call on my mobile: 080-6675-0431

I would be happy to assist anyone interested in looking for a primary residence, looking for an investment property, wanting to upgrade their residence, or wanting to sell their property.

Unit in Toshin Phoenix Nihombashi Kabutocho sees same day sell out

A 1K 21.92 m2, 5th floor, south-east corner unit in the building Toshin Phoenix Nihombashi Kabutocho sees same day sell out. This property was an owner-change investment property. This was built in September 2006 making the building relatively new. Gross yield on this property was 5.6%. The location is very interesting being 1 minute away from Kayabacho Station and only 3 minutes away from Nihombashi Station. Of course it is also walking distance to Tokyo Station. The location is very interesting because of all the redevelopment near Tokyo and Nihombashi Station and with the 2020 Olympics coming up. Pricing was in the low 20M yen range. Potential for capital gains seem to look good. Finance is available in the low 2% range for buildings with this age. Older building must be purchased with cash.

Citibank Housing Loan 10-year fixed rate 1.1%

Citibank Housing Loan Interest Rate Plans

Citibank offering 1.1% fixed interest rates on home loans to customers that meet either of the following conditions:

1 – Citigold Premium Customer

2 – Customer with housing loan of 100 Million Yen or more

For customers who do not apply to the above criteria, a 1.2% 10-year fixed rate can still be applied if either of the following conditions are met:

1 – Citigold Customer

2. Customer with housing loan of 50 Million Yen or more

The other upsides to a Citibank home loan are the extremely low initial costs. There are no guarantee fees or surety fees. Citibank pays premiums for Group Credit Life Insurance (Up to a maximum of 100 Million Yen, including disability coverage). Also, up to three partial early repayments per month can be made free-of-charge by phone. By making early repayments, the term of the loan period is reduced.

There are four other criteria for eligibility:

・ Applicants must be at least 20 years old and less than 75 years old at the time of the final repayment

・ Applicants must be eligible for group credit life insurance.

・ Applicants must be citizens or residents of Japan.

・ Applicants must have a stable source of income and annual income must be over 5 Million Yen.

Please note that Citibank can only finance up to a maximum of 90% of the property price

For anybody interested in more information about Citibank and their housing loan plans, please let me know.

Shibaura Island Cape Tower 34F unit sells for JPY115M

Recently, a 34th floor unit in the Shibaura Island Cape Tower has sold for JPY115M. The property was a 95.11m2 2LDK making the tsubo (3.3m2) price just under 4 million yen. Other units in the building are priced in near the 3 million yen range per tsubo. What makes this property stand out from the other units in the building are the unobstructed views of Rainbow Bridge and the whole southern section. Other units are on lower floors or face the west, the Tokyo Tower side. In this area, the eastern view, Rainbow Bridge is a premium and very popular. This may explain the major price gap due to the views offered from the 34th floor unit. The condition of the apartment was excellent as the seller hardly ever used the property.

Market prices and similar property prices are important but some buyers have been ignoring this and buying because of the wow factor or spectacular views.

Two units in The Parkhouse Hiroo Hanezawa sell out within days of listing

Two units in “The Parkhouse Hiroo Hanezawa”, built in 2014, sold in days since their listing. The address is 3-12-17 Hiroo, Shibuya-ku, 12 minutes to Tokyo Metro’s Hibiya Line Hiroo Station and 13 minutes to JR Yamanote Line Ebisu Station.

The Parkhouse Hiroo Hanezawa, a low-rise, large scale apartment (114 units) was developed by Mitsubishi Jisho Residence. One of the units, a 3LDK (95.71㎡) sold for full list price at 148M yen 10 days after initial listing. Another unit, in the 120㎡ range, also a 3LDK sold 4 days after listing. The 120㎡ unit has under-floor heating in the Living-Dining area as well as the master bedroom.

The Parkhouse series is an exclusive and high quality apartment brand. There are four levels of security – the initial autolock, another autolock to get access to the elevators, once in the elevator you can only press your specific floor and the front door lock. The whole building is monitored by SECOM and there are additional security staff, a 24-hour management team, and concierge service from 08:00-20:00.

Due to the quality and status of the apartment, a few celebrities have made The Parkhouse Hiroo Hanezawa their home.

Hulic acquires Ikebukuro Tokyu Hands

Real estate company, Hulic who is a major landlord to Mizuho Bank amongst other tenants acquires Tokyo Ikebukuro’s “Ikebukuro Tokyu Hands” and another retail building. The purchase price was said to be around Y3.0bn (300 oku). The properties are located close to Ikebukuro’s tower building “Sunshine 60” and along a busy shopping street and is expected to draw many foreign and domestic shoppers. Hulic is expecting the mid to long term needs for office buildings to decline thus increasing their retail investment portfolio.

“Ikebukuro Tokyu Hands” is a 9-story building with floor space measuring roughly 13,700 m2. Diagonally across from Tokyu Hands is a large retail building “Ikebukuro GIGO”, floor space measuring about 4,100 m2. Together, “Ikebukuro Tokyu Hands” and “Ikebukuro GIGO” were purchased from a real estate development company. Even after acquisition, Hulic plans on keeping the current tenants without disruption.

On March 9th, 2013, Hulic acquired a building in Shibuya with the Tokyu Hands Shibuya Branch as the tenant. Last year, they acquired a building with a European Hotel and also an official Tokyo Disney Resort (TDR) hotel.

Hulic is known for it’s expansive office building portfolio however they have continued to purchase retail buildings. Currently, Hulic’s non-office rental income is said to be around 30%.

source: Nihon Keizai Shinbun

JR CHUO LINE SECONDHAND APARTMENT SALES DATA

Secondhand apartment prices (3.3m2 – prices per tsubo)

JR Chuo Line (Kanda – Takao) the average tsubo price at 1.72M yen. Compared to a year ago for 3.3m2, average tsubo prices have gone up by 2.6% about 50,000 yen. Prices have been steadily rising from Central Tokyo down to Kokubunji.

3,299 properties were used for this data, where the average building age was 22.9 years old (last year 21.4 years old) and the average living space was 56.8m2 (56.4m2 last year). The top priced area was Yotsuya at 2.9M yen per tsubo, which also shares the highest rentals. From Kanda to Kokubunji, all areas saw an increase in overall sale prices. Central Tokyo can be seen turning into a seller’s market.

Sales of older one room units in Kanda and Ochanomizu have decreased, pushing the average tsubo selling price up. On the other hand, older apartments in Yotsuya have increased, driving the average tsubo prices down, but sales remain strong in the area and prices have actually shown an uptick.

Shinjuku has shown impressive sales and increases over the last couple of years, especially with large scale projects and buildings. Nakano has also shown strong sales as well. Newer property stock has been low in Nakano so more older units have been selling – that is why the tsubo price has not changed over the last two years but the average building age has gotten older. Buildings 15 years old and newer are selling for more than their original sale price, brand new and tower apartments have sold in the 4M yen range.

Even though a third of the stock of Ogikubo apartments are 30 years or older, selling prices have shown signs of growth.

Although Kichijoji is outside of the central 23 Wards of Tokyo, it has reached well over 2M yen per tsubo, which makes it just as expensive as central Tokyo. One year old, 100M yen apartment properties are selling for over 1M yen per tsubo of their original sales prices – in the 5M yen range per tsubo. A price gap can be seen between Kichijoji and Mitaka, where there are many older apartment units. Apartments in the 40 year old range have been selling in the range of 1.5M yen per tsubo.

On the other hand, with the exception of Tachikawa and Toyoda, all areas West of Nishi Kokubunji have shown a downward trend. Regardless of the age of apartments in Kunitachi, declining prices have stood out.

Parts of Hachioji have shown quite an increase of older apartments but reformed and remodeled units have balanced out prices. The newer tower mansion directly connected to Hachioji station (Southern Sky Tower) has shown a slight increase in sales prices of about 1%. It should be noted that a massive influx of properties over 40 years old in Toyoda has brought down the average sale price, skewing the tsubo price though sales in the area remain strong.

Data from Tokyo Kantei.

STATION

Year – tsubo price (average building age / average living space)

KANDA

2015 – 2.59M yen (16.4 years /33.7 m2)

2014 – 2.49M yen (13.0/34.3)

2013 – 2.22M yen (17.3/26.4)

OCHANOMIZU

2015 – 2.46M yen (23.5/38.7)

2014 – 2.33M yen (20.4/32.0)

2013 – 1.98M yen (25.1/34.1)

YOTSUYA

2015 – 2.90M yen (22.0/55.7)

2014 – 2.95M yen (16.6/56.6)

2013 – 2.43M yen (19.9/52.1)

SHINJUKU

2015 – 2.49M yen (25.2/45.3)

2014 – 2.25M yen (23.7/48.2)

2013 – 1.99M yen (24.6/34.8)

NAKANO

2015 – 2.17M yen (29.4/49.9)

2014 – 2.17M yen (23.0/55.8)

2013 – 1.97M yen (25.7/49.6)

KOENJI

2015 – 2.16M yen (23.6/38.7)

2014 – 1.95M yen (22.6/33.8)

2013 – 1.86M yen (21.4/34.4)

ASAGAYA

2015 – 2.19M yen (20.5/41.9)

2014 – 2.03M yen (20.5/35.2)

2013 – 2.04M yen (17.1/35.9)

OGIKUBO

2015 – 1.95M yen (25.1/49.5)

2014 – 1.90M yen (21.3/48.0)

2013 – 1.79M yen (22.9/50.6)

NISHI OGIKUBO

2015 – 1.89M yen (28.1/50.8)

2014 – 1.83M yen (26.9/50.8)

2013 – 1.77M yen (24.4/47.7)

KICHIJOJI

2015 – 2.22M yen (24.9/62.2)

2014 – 1.98M yen (24.3/63.9)

2013 – 1.97M yen (21.6/59.1)

MITAKA

2015 – 1.98M yen (22.4/55.7)

2014 – 1.94M yen (21.5/57.0)

2013 – 1.85M yen (20.8/50.6)

MUSASHI SAKAI

2015 – 1.55M yen (24.3/63.0)

2014 – 1.72M yen (19.8/66.0)

2013 – 1.56M yen (21.5/59.8)

HIGASHI KOGANEI

2015 – 1.76M yen (13.5/75.5)

2014 – 1.76M yen (9.9/74.8)

2013 – 1.67M yen (11.2/64.7)

MUSASHI KOGANEI

2015 – 1.46M yen (23.4/60.9)

2014 – 1.39M yen (22.3/67.0)

2013 – 1.43M yen (19.4/63.8)

KOKUBUNJI

2015 – 1.70M yen (19.2/57.7)

2014 – 1.61M yen (17.2/59.8)

2013 – 1.50M yen (19.8/62.3)

NISHI KOKUBUNJI

2015 – 1.30M yen (20.4/74.7)

2014 – 1.42M yen (18.4/57.1)

2013 – 1.31M yen (17.3/52.5)

KUNITACHI

2015 – 1.54M yen (20.4/74.7)

2014 – 1.49M yen (19.9/73.2)

2013 – 1.54M yen (15.1/72.9)

TACHIKAWA

2015 – 1.23M yen (21.9/57.9)

2014 – 1.12M yen (24.4/54.3)

2013 – 1.13M yen (20.3/51.8)

HINO

2015 – 0.81M yen (23.5/83.6)

2014 – 0.86M yen (23.3/73.3)

2013 – 0.92M yen (22.5/71.4)

TOYODA

2015 – 0.95M yen (26.9/57.1)

2014 – 1.11M yen (16.7/64.5)

2013 – 1.05M yen (18.1/60.3)

HACHIOJI

2015 – 1.04M yen (17.8/60.6)

2014 – 1.01M yen (17.4/56.2)

2013 – 0.88M yen (19.9/51.9)

NISHI HACHIOJI

2015 – 0.86M yen (20.1/56.4)

2014 – 0.82M yen (22.4/53.9)

2013 – 0.73M yen (21.9/53.2)

TAKAO

2015 – 0.88M yen (20.4/70.2)

2014 – 0.82M yen (23.8/69.4)

2013 – 0.86M yen (20.1/71.4)

source: Jyutaku Shinpo

5 Tokyo Metropolitan real estate companies penalized for false advertisement

The Tokyo Metropolitan area real estate fair trade council has penalized 5 companies for false advertisement in February 2015. Amongst the 5 companies, 4 were caught for violating the real estate requirements – for leaving out necessary information required on advertisements.

Company A located in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo created advertisement flyers for brand new houses with complete building plans while the seller is actually selling land with building conditions through a specific contractor. It is not possible to advertise and sell land as brand new houses, this is called “Otori Kokoku” meaning Bait-and-switch advertising. Additionally, Company A left out their real estate license number, it’s memberships of professional institutions, building registration confirmation numbers amongst other necessary display categories.

Company B located in Itabashi Ward, Tokyo newly listed 6 brand new houses on the web page which sold soon afterwards. However, the properties continued to be listed on their web page a month and a half afterwards. This is also considered Bait-and-switch advertising. Additionally, a property listed as “2SLDK” (two bedroom, storage room, living-dining-kitchen) when the S (storage) does not fall under the category. The building age and the next time the posting will be renewed also unlisted which are required information for real estate advertisement.

Company C located in Sumida Ward, Tokyo listed 8 rental properties on a real estate listing service site. It is required to list how long of a walk to the closest station is, which they did but cut the actual time by 1 to 3 minutes. They also listed “bath and toilet separate” when in fact there was no bath at all but only a shower room. Additionally, the key exchange fee and room cleaning fees were left unlisted which are required.

Company D located in Hatano City, Kanagawa Prefecture registered 5 rental properties on their home page. Like company B, their infraction falls under the Bait-and-switch advertising. The listed rental price was 29,000JPY while the actual rent is 35,000JPY.

Company E located in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo created an advertisement flyer stating “Company X Presents”, “New XXX Land Subdivision”, Company X being a famous Supermarket Manager. The brokerage company was listed as Company E and the seller as Company X. It turns out the actual seller is Company E and paid Company X 2 million JPY to act as a brand power and developer. In addition, the advertisement flyer showed images of a car parked on the lot but there is no road nor bridge fronting the property so it would really not be possible to park a car on the property. False advertisement. There is also 19.98% ownership of a passage which was also left out of the advertisement, which is required to be listed on any adverts.

The above 5 companies were strictly warned, paid fines, and/or need to have all their ads reviewed before posting for a month by the Tokyo Metropolitan area real estate fair trade council.

source: Jyutaku Shinpo