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Tokyo has selected the first project under a new program that uses older privately owned buildings to create below-market rental housing. The project, awarded to Yasuda Real Estate and announced August 19th, will renovate an aging mixed-use building in Kanda-Nishikicho, Chiyoda Ward, into affordable housing and commercial space. Rents for the affordable units will use 80% of comparable nearby rents as a benchmark. Tokyo Metro Government Building. Photo by Kevin Richardson on

Japan’s Flat 35 mortgage program will allow buyers of existing homes to include certain minor renovation costs in their home loan from September 1, 2026, reducing a financing hurdle for properties that need relatively simple work after purchase. Photo by Roselyn Tirado on Unsplash The Japan Housing Finance Agency (JHF) announced the change on August 18. It applies to renovation work that does not affect whether a property meets Flat 35’s technical standards. Flat 35 is a long

Greater Tokyo condominium asking rents reached another 12-month high in July, with the regional average rising for a second consecutive month as Tokyo, Kanagawa and Saitama all moved higher. Average advertised rent for condominium units offered for lease across Greater Tokyo rose 0.4% from June to ¥4,209 per square meter, according to Tokyo Kantei data released August 17. The figure was 9.1% higher than a year earlier. Tokyo rose 0.5% month on month to an average of ¥4,96

On August 3rd, Bloomberg Surveillance devoted extensive coverage to recent U.S. support for Japan’s efforts to intervene in the currency market. The program included an interview with Jeremy Stretch of CIBC, who examined why the coordinated action was significant, the market conditions that shaped its timing and the underlying pressures that continue to weigh on the yen. Key Points: The latest intervention may have slowed the yen’s decline, but the forces driving its weakness

Applications and lending under Japan’s Flat 35 fixed-rate mortgage program increased sharply in the April to June 2026 quarter, according to preliminary figures released by the Japan Housing Finance Agency on July 31st. Applications totaled 14,900, up 14.6% year on year. Funded loans rose 24.3% to 9,634, while their combined value increased 31.4% to ¥324.9 billion. The value of lending grew faster than the number of funded loans. However, the agency did not speculate on what