Housing starts rose 1.8 percent in July from a year earlier to 103,135 units, marking the first increase since December, the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry said Friday.
Increased starts of rented condominiums and rented houses, as well as condominiums for sale, more than offset slack starts of owner-occupied houses, the ministry said.
Ministry officials said the recovery will be temporary, maintaining that housing starts for the whole of 2001 are likely to dip below 1.2 million units for the first time since 1998.
In July, starts of rented houses and rented condominiums rose 12.8 percent from a year earlier to 36,975 units, while those of houses and condominiums built by developers for sale increased 3.2 percent to 30,503 units, and starts of owner-occupied houses fell 9.5 percent to 34,778 units.
By region, housing starts in the Tokyo metropolitan area rose 7.1 percent and those in the Kinki region, including Osaka, grew 5.6 percent. Starts in the Chubu region, centered on Nagoya, plunged 8.5 percent.