Greater Tokyo sellers shift from price chasing to faster sales says Recruit

Adam German
2 days ago
4 min read

Greater Tokyo homeowners are still completing sales at a rising rate, but Recruit’s latest SUUMO survey suggests the seller market is becoming more selective.

Recruit’s SUUMO Research Center announced the results of its 2025 “Home Sale Considerers and Sellers” survey on June 18th.

Fewer owners considered selling than last year. Those who did enter the market, however, were more likely to complete a sale.

Fish-eye lens photo of Tokyo skyline with Tokyo Tower prominent.

Photo by Steven Diaz on Unsplash

The survey covers people in the Greater Tokyo Area (GTA) who considered or carried out the sale of land or residential real estate.

The survey measures owner sentiment and behavior. It is not a transaction-price index or a direct measure of listing supply.

Recruit conducted the survey in two stages.

First, it screened 20,000 men and women aged 20 to 69 living in Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba.

Second, it conducted the main survey of people who had actively considered selling land or residential real estate within the past year.

The main survey received 1,234 valid responses.

Respondents in the main survey had also taken at least one concrete step, such as gathering information, contacting a brokerage, requesting an in-person appraisal or signing a brokerage agreement.

Sale Interest Falls, Completion Rate Rises

The share of respondents who actively considered selling land or residential real estate over the past year was 18.7%.

That figure was:

Up 6.2 percentage points from 2020
Down 1.5 percentage points from the previous survey

Among those who considered selling:

40.0% completed a sale, up 0.4 percentage points from the previous survey
The completion rate rose for the fifth consecutive year
The completion rate was 13.7 percentage points higher than in 2020
17.7% stopped the sale process, up 1.3 percentage points from the previous survey
The stopped-sale share was still 11.6 percentage points lower than in 2020

Recruit said the figures suggest that sell-side momentum has eased slightly, but owners who begin the process are increasingly likely to proceed to an actual sale.

Selling While Conditions Remain Favorable

The most common reason for considering a sale was “to sell while the property can still be sold,” cited by 28.9% of respondents.

Other major reasons included:

28.0% cited “to sell while prices are high”
27.8% cited “to change where I live”
24.1% cited “to move to a better home”
18.0% cited “to move to a home that better fits family circumstances”

The share citing “to sell while prices are high” rose 7.5 percentage points from 2020, reaching its highest level since 2020.

Recruit said the market may be becoming less willing to accept sellers’ highest price expectations. The report characterized the shift as a move away from pursuing peak prices and toward selling early at prices the market is more likely to accept.

For international market participants, that is the central point. Demand has not disappeared, but buyers may be less willing to chase optimistic pricing.

When asked whether timing or price was more important in a sale:

51.4% prioritized timing
28.3% prioritized price

The share prioritizing timing has risen since 2021 while the share prioritizing price has fallen since 2022.

Views on market timing remained positive.

59.4% said it was an advantageous time to sell at a high price, up 6.2 percentage points from the previous survey.

Only 8.6% said it was an unfavorable time to sell, down 1.0 percentage point. That share has declined for four consecutive years.

Tokyo Sellers Remain More Confident

Seller confidence was the strongest in Tokyo.

The share who felt it was an advantageous time to sell at a high price was:

70.3% in central Tokyo’s six wards of Chiyoda, Minato, Chuo, Shinjuku, Shibuya and Bunkyo
68.6% in the Tokyo 23 wards
68.3% across Tokyo overall
61.4% in Saitama
55.1% in Chiba
52.9% in Kanagawa

Moving to Another Home Was the Main Sales Motive

The most common overall motive for selling was home replacement, cited by 60.8% of respondents. That was up 5.1 percentage points from 2020.

Those reporting home replacement was higher among younger sellers when broken down by age bracket share:

69.8% among respondents in their 20s
66.8% among respondents in their 30s
63.9% among respondents in their 40s
50.5% among respondents in their 50s
45.4% among respondents in their 60s

The share was also especially high in Tokyo:

71.4% in the central six wards
70.4% in the Tokyo 23 wards
69.6% across Tokyo overall

The data suggests that much of the sell-side market is being driven by households moving from one owned home to another, rather than distressed selling or broad investor exits.

Single-Family Homes Lead by Property Type

Single-family homes accounted for the largest share of properties considered for sale.

The breakdown was:

40.2% single-family homes
36.2% condominiums and apartment buildings
23.6% land

The share of single-family homes was up 0.9 percentage points from the previous survey and 6.7 points higher than in 2020.

Land moved in the opposite direction, down 0.3 points from the previous survey and 5.9 points from 2020.

Older residential assets also accounted for a larger share of potential sales. Properties aged 40 years or more made up 12.5% of properties considered for sale, up 5.4 points from 2020.

Buyer Sentiment Still Supports the Market

The report also referenced Recruit’s 2025 survey of people considering buying or building a home.

In that survey:

50% said they felt it was a good time to buy, the highest level since 2020
18% said they did not feel it was a good time to buy

Sentiment was weaker among existing condominium buyers:

37% said it was a good time to buy
27% disagreed

For condominium sellers, that gap is significant. Demand remains present, but buyers appear more cautious in some segments.

According to Recruit, price, condition, building management and the clarity of information provided to buyers are likely to carry more weight moving forward.