The wards of Tokyo have 911 retail stores and the total retail space exceeds 4.69 million m2. The number of large-scale retail stores in Kyoto, which has a population roughly the same size as Kobe and Fukuoka, is only 138 and the total retail space is also small at roughly 750,000 m2. As for total retail space, Yokohama has the largest amount of space, exceeding 2.26 million m2. In a comparison of the number and total retail space of large-scale retail stores with floor space exceeding 1,000 m2 in the nine cities, the largest number of stores is 361 in Osaka, followed by 336 in Yokohama and 335 in Sapporo. Osaka, which had a population that had been in continuous retreat, reversed its negative growth increasing by 1.2%. The wards of Tokyo remained at 4.4%, roughly at the same level as Yokohama and Fukuoka. The highest growth rate in the 20 comparison was the 4.5% recorded by Yokohama and Fukuoka, which was followed by the 3.8% of Naha and the 3.2% of Sapporo. An apparent trend of centralization became common among the major cities, though population of the country is declining as a whole. In addition, all of the nine cities and the wards of Tokyo recorded increases in the 20 comparison. Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, Statistics BureauIn a comparison between 19, however, Nagoya, Kobe and the wards of Tokyo reversed their negative trends as their growth rates moved upward. Although Sapporo and Sendai once exhibited a downward trend, they have remained at roughly the same level for the past year or two. Meanwhile, the vacancy rates in Kyoto and Osaka, which exceeded 10% from 2002 to 2003, rapidly decreased and recovered to the 5% to 6% level in and after 2006. Although the vacancy rates in the two cities had a downward tendency after 2004, they went up slightly in 2007. The vacancy rates in Yokohama and Nagoya drifted without exceeding 10% in 2003, the year which saw vacancy rates increase nationwide. The vacancy rates in the nine cities peaked in 2003 and have been declining since then in general.
The vacancy rate for the major five wards of Tokyo remains at the low level of 1.7 %. While the actual standard rent of Kobe exceeds that of Osaka by roughly 1,000 yen per tsubo, the vacancy rate in Kobe is higher than 10%.
Source: CBRE Research Institute, December 2007The vacancy rate as of the end of 2007 was lowest in Yokohama at 4.2%, which was followed by rates at the 5% level in Osaka and the 6% level in Nagoya and Kyoto. The growth of land prices are saturating though, particularly in Nagoya and Kyoto. In particular, Sapporo, Kyoto, Osaka, Fukuoka and the wards of Tokyo recorded increases of more than 10% two years in a row. The standard land prices in commercial districts over previous years in Nagoya, Kyoto and the wards of Tokyo started to rise from 2005, while all of the nine cities reversed their declines from 2006 to 2007.
These are about one third of the price appraised in the wards of Tokyo, which was 2,036,000 yen per m2. It is followed by a similar value of 767,000 yen per m2 in Osaka. Looking at the standard land prices of commercial districts, for which national averages reversed their declines in 2007, Fukuoka recorded the highest at 769,000 yen per m2 among the nine major cities, except Tokyo. The survey is conducted for the purpose of taxation and there is some divergence from the actual transaction prices over the short-term. Source: The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, 2007Data shown in the above graph is based on the land prices for roughly 30,000 locations assessed by real estate appraisers appointed by the government every July. Standard land prices for commercial districts