Regarding "Kouji Chika," national land prices, as of January 1, 2017, the average national land price appreciated by 0.4% y-o-y for the second consecutive year of positive growth following seven years of depreciation. The ratio of appreciating monitoring sites increased for both commercial and residential lands while that of depreciating monitoring sites decreased (Chart-6, 7). While the average land price in the major three metropolitan areas and four other large cities, Sapporo, Sendai, Hiroshima and Fukuoka, posted positive growth, the average land price of other local areas continued to moderately depreciate.
The six commercial sites that performed the best nationally all turned out to be in the Kansai area, with the top five sites located in Osaka and the sixth site in Kyoto. Strong demand for hotels and retail stores has lifted commercial land prices backed by the increase in foreign visitors, despite the noticeable shrink in spending volume per visitor. On the other hand, seven of ten residential sites that performed the best nationally turned out to be in Miyagi prefecture, suggesting a steady home demand in recovering areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Regarding "Land Value Look Report" published quarterly by MILT, the number of sites with no land price change has increased since the third quarter of 2016 (Chart-8). It appears land price appreciation has lost steam as the land price of only one site with land price appreciation increased while sites with land price appreciation of more than 6% q-o-q disappeared in the fourth quarter.