Today's Close-Up S2025E48 - Unusual Boom in Property Market: What's Driving Housing Price Surge in Japan

For years, property prices and rents in Japan's urban areas barely changed. Then in 2023, the market exploded to life as investment money started pouring into new condos. In many cases, buyers are rapidly reselling for profit, a practice that's driving prices skyward and pushing house-hunters toward the used market or rentals. The result has been a sharp rise in prices there, too, leaving many renters in a precarious financial position. We look at what one municipal government in Tokyo is doing to counter the trend, and ask experts how residents can find an affordable place to live.

Guests: 
Nagashima Osamu (Real estate consultant) 
Nozawa Chie (Professor, Meiji University)