Tag - housing

 
 

HOUSING

An Ishikawa prefectural official gives information on new places to stay for earthquake evacuees lodging at hotels and inns during a meeting in Kaga, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Feb. 7.
JAPAN
Feb 20, 2024
Departure deadline approaching for Noto quake evacuees in hotels
The extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen on March 16 is expected to lead to a surge in bookings in hotels that have acted as secondary evacuation sites.
Japan is eyeing a system that would make it easier for rental housing owners to lease their properties to elderly people.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 13, 2024
Certification system eyed for rental housing with elderly watch services
For certified rental housing, watch services would be provided mainly by local social welfare corporations and nonprofit organizations.
The rubble of a house that collapse due to the New Year's Day earthquake, in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture
JAPAN
Feb 3, 2024
Central Japan cities hit hard by quake had high rate of old homes
In Suzu, 65% of residences were built before 1981 when the country's seismic standards were significantly upgraded.
Evergrande, the world's most indebted developer with more than $300 billion of total liabilities, sent a struggling property sector into a tailspin when it defaulted on its debt in 2021.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 29, 2024
Embattled China Evergrande ordered to liquidate by Hong Kong court
A liquidation ruling of the developer which has $240 billion of assets will likely jolt already fragile Chinese capital and property markets.
Australian Tayler Paulsen and her Kiwi husband Neil managed to purchase a fully-equipped lodge in Myoko, Niigata Prefecture, for only AU$110,000 (about ¥10 million).
COMMUNITY / The Foreign Element
Jan 29, 2024
In Niigata, a winter (and real estate) wonderland
For Australians and New Zealanders facing expensive prices back home, Japan’s snow country is a hotbed for cheap real estate.
Condominiums in Tokyo's Chuo Ward
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 27, 2024
Central Tokyo condo price tops ¥100 million for first time
The record average price was driven by luxury properties and soaring construction material prices.
The average price of a new apartment for sale in Tokyo and surrounding areas surged 29% to a fresh high of ¥81 million in 2023.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 25, 2024
Tokyo apartment prices reach record high for third straight year
Prices are expected to keep climbing in 2024 even as the economy slows and the Bank of Japan looks to abandon its negative interest-rate policy.
Past warnings of a housing-market crash in China have never been borne out. But unless the government takes concerted action, this time may well be different.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2024
Fixing China’s real estate sector
Housing dreams to economic nightmares, the perils of China's real estate boom.
A worker builds a home in Lillington, North Carolina, in June. Appetite among Japanese companies in the U.S. homebuilding market is growing as they struggle with a declining population at home.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 19, 2024
A $4.9 billion Japan deal for a U.S. builder heralds more M&A
Appetite among Japanese buyers in the U.S. homebuilding market is growing as they struggle with a declining population at home.
Construction work is carried out Thursday to restore roads severely damaged by a major quake in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture.
JAPAN
Jan 12, 2024
Building of temporary housing begins for central Japan quake victims
The Ishikawa Prefectural Government is building 115 makeshift houses across four locations in Wajima and Suzu, and aims to have them completed in a month.
A Khudi Bari tiny home in Char Shildaha, Bangladesh
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 30, 2023
Bangladesh's tiny houses tackle giant flood challenge
The Khudi Bari — resilient tiny homes made on bamboo stilts rising out of the floodwaters that are also easy to move to safer locations when needed — offers hope to millions.
French police evict migrants from a squat in a disused industrial building not far from the Paris 2024 Olympic Village in Ile-Saint-Denis, near Paris, in April.
WORLD / Society
Dec 25, 2023
Asylum-seekers and Roma evicted from Paris squats ahead of Olympics
Advocates and some officials say the evictions appear to be a policy aimed at beautifying the area for the sporting event.
Justinas Stankus, 38, who came to Canada from Lithuania in 2019 and is studying at the University of Toronto, walks his dog in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
WORLD / Society
Dec 11, 2023
Canada's surging cost of living fuels reverse immigration
The rate of immigrants leaving Canada hit a two-decade high in 2019
Evergrande has become a poster child for China’s property crisis since the builder defaulted two years ago. It reported a combined loss of $81 billion in 2021 and 2022.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 4, 2023
Evergrande winding-up hearing in Hong Kong adjourned again
The world’s most-indebted property developer now has eight weeks to convince offshore bondholders to agree on a restructuring.
Chinese tourists buy gold bars and gold accessories at LukFook, a jewelry store, in Hong Kong.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 28, 2023
Gold bars and Tokyo apartments: How money is flowing out of China
The outbound shift of money in part indicates unease inside China about the sputtering recovery after the pandemic as well as deeper problems.
Mika and Jesse say their landlady prefers a hands-off style of property management, leaving all matters, including maintenence and repairs, to the renting couple.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 18, 2023
Renting akiya: A backdoor into Japan's abandoned homes
“If the choice is between leaving (an akiya) empty or renting it out, please rent it out.”
Singapore national flags hang from the facade of a Housing & Development Board public housing estate in the Selegie area of Singapore, in 2021.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 17, 2023
China puts money behind Singapore model in major housing shift
Details are undisclosed, outlined in a classified "Document 14" last month.
A construction crane beyond an apartment building at dusk in the Prenzlauer Berg district in Berlin, in February.
BUSINESS / Economy
Nov 3, 2023
Europe’s great housing crisis is only getting started
With housing already tight, the situation threatens to weigh on growth and further stoke political tensions as shortages squeeze more and more voters.
The average price for a new condominium in central Tokyo rose 60% to a record ¥129.6 million ($865,000) in the first half of this year.
BUSINESS / Economy
Oct 4, 2023
Surging Tokyo property prices squeeze out young professionals
The average price for a new condominium in central Tokyo rose 60% to a record ¥129.6 million ($865,000) in the first half of this year.
Four major Japanese banks have announced they will raise their 10-year fixed housing loan rates for the third consecutive month in October.
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2023
Four major Japanese banks to raise housing loan rates in October
The hikes come as Japanese government bond yields rise after the Bank of Japan effectively raised its 10-year JGB yield cap to 1% from 0.5% in July.

Longform

A statue of "Dragon Ball" character Goku stands outside the offices of Bandai Namco in Tokyo. The figure is now as recognizable as such characters as Mickey Mouse and Spider-Man.
Akira Toriyama's gift to the world