Japan fears shrinking residential market
A declining population has been stirring fears of a shrinking residential construction market in Japan.
Japan’s population is expected to drop from 127.8 million in 2005 to 95.2 million by 2050 because couples are marrying at an older age and having fewer children, according to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
Housing starts in Japan dropped 23 percent to 947,088 in July from a year earlier, according to the most recent statistics available.
The country’s second-largest homebuilder by market value is seeking to cut local costs and expand overseas. Daiwa House Industry intends to build more than 1,000 condo units in Shanghai, China, and hundreds of rental units in Vietnam.
Meanwhile, land prices in Japan soared 8.6 percent in 2006 — the fastest year-over-year gain since the Japanese National Tax Agency began tracking records — compared to 0.9 percent a year earlier, the International Herald Tribune reported.
2008 London house prices to grow at slower rates
With house price growth in London slowing to 2.1 percent in August from the previous month — its most sluggish pace since October 2006 — some analysts are forecasting that 2008 will see half the rate of the strong growth seen in 2007, the Daily Telegraph reported.
According to real estate firm Knight Frank, average annual growth in central London house prices this year will be in the 30 percent range, while average growth in the U.K. in the same period is expected to stand at about 8 percent. In 2008, growth in central London may slow to 12 percent, and U.K. rates may slow to 4 to 5 percent overall.
The average price in August for a London home was about $686,000, while Chelsea homes were valued at approximately $1.61 million, according to the U.K. Land Registry. The number of homes sold in the U.K. between February and May stood at 92,192, down 9 percent from the same period in 2006.
Qatar rents skyrocketing
Soaring rents in the Persian Gulf country of Qatar may be keeping would-be residents from viewing the booming region as a desirable destination. Figures from the Qatar National Bank show rent increases of 25 percent in 2006, and 26 percent by mid-2007, the International Herald Tribune reported.
Two-bedroom apartments in 2006 averaged $1,787 per month. Two-bedrooms this year are asking $2,367, according to a Colliers International agency based in Qatar. A four-bedroom villa in a compound this year rents for about $5,500; in 2006, the same type of residence would have gone for approximately $4,950.
Meanwhile, salaries have not been keeping up with the rent increases in the emirate. GulfTalent.com reports that at the beginning of 2007, Qatari residents were spending about 33 percent of their income on rent, while neighboring Saudis were spending 19 percent.
Spanish housing boom ends, brokerages close
Spain’s housing boom appears to have come to an end, signaled by the hundreds of real estate brokerage offices shutting down this year along the southern coast alone. Some experts said the Spanish real estate market is overvalued by as much as 30 percent.
The country is a popular place for Europeans to buy homes. Price declines would leave the more than 250,000 British homeowners along the coast with major losses.
Spanish home prices rose more than 200 percent during the housing boom of the past decade, which helped transform the nation into one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe. In 2006, more than 800,000 homes were built in Spain — exceeding the number built in Britain, France and Germany combined. But the home price growth in the second quarter of this year dipped below the rate of inflation for the first time in 10 years, the International Herald Tribune reported.
Alicante’s College of Real Estate Agents said 300 real estate offices went out of business on the Costa Blanca, where 7,000 brokerages operated at the height of the construction boom in 2005.