Photo/Illutration Condominium prices are soaring in Chuo and neighboring wards in central Tokyo. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

As Tokyo’s property market continues to surge, a growing number of newly built apartments are being flipped within a year of purchase, signaling the rise of speculative investments. 

In Tokyo overall, 8.5 percent of new apartments sold in the first half of 2024 were resold within 12 months, according to a land ministry study released on Nov. 25.

Within the capital’s central 23 wards, the figure rose to 9.3 percent, or 1,290 units.

The six core wards of Chiyoda, Chuo, Minato, Shinjuku, Bunkyo and Shibuya saw a spike of 12.2 percent.

Similar patterns were observed in parts of Kanagawa, Osaka and Hyogo prefectures, where speculative resale was higher in central districts.

The study analyzed roughly 550,000 new apartment registrations between January 2018 and June 2025. It covered the country’s three largest metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya as well as four regional cities: Sapporo, Sendai, Hiroshima and Fukuoka.

Since the registrations lack nationality data, transactions by foreign residents or local branches of non-Japanese companies could not be fully tracked.

Other ministry data indicates a rising trend in purchases by foreigners, as shown by increasing acquisitions from buyers residing overseas.

In the first half of this year, 3 percent of new apartments in Tokyo were purchased by buyers with overseas addresses, doubling from 1.5 percent the year before. Taiwan accounted for the largest share of these foreign purchases.

However, the data did not support suspicions that speculative reselling by non-Japanese is driving up real estate prices in Tokyo’s 23 wards.

Only 1.3 percent, or 17 units, of the new apartments sold in the first half of 2024 and resold within a year were originally purchased by overseas buyers.

In response to concerns over speculative trading, the Real Estate Companies Association of Japan has announced new measures.

These include limiting the number of units a single buyer can acquire in one property and prohibiting resale between contract signing and handover.

(This article was written by Takeshi Owada and Shun Niekawa.)

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