Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in Japan announced on November 28 that housing starts in October was 92,123 units (up 19.8 percent from the same month in the previous year), which marked the fourth consecutive month of year-on-year increase. Floor area also increased for four months in a row to 7,475,000 square meters (up 9.9 percent). However, seasonally aduste annual rate was 1,026,624 units, which, unlike the preceding months, did not reach the 1,100,000 unit level. As total housing starts during January-October has reached 927,000 units, this year’s total housing starts are on pace to be at the 1,100,000 unit level which exceeds 1,060,000 units marked in the previous year. As a reaction to the substantial drop since July 2007, housing starts have marked year-on-year increase by double digits. However, the increase in October was less than 50 percent unlike the preceding months.
By application, owner-occupied houses decreased after an interval of four months with 26,533 units (down 4.3 percent).
By construction method, prefabricated houses increased for the fourth consecutive month with 14,529 units (up 10.9 percent). 2×4 houses also increate for the seventh continuous month at 9,729 units (up 0.1 percent) though the gain is small. Total housing starts of prefabricated houses during
January-October were 129,646 units (up 10.4 percent from the same period in the previous year), and those of 2×4 houses were 86,655 units (up 12.6 percent). Both of them showed big growth exceeding the overall total. By structure, wooden houses were 43,545 units (down 5.2 percent) while non-wooden houses were 48,578 units (up 56.8 percent). The wooden structure ratio by the number of the units was 47.3 percent.
The Japan Home and Building Show 2008, the biggest professional exhibition for housing and construction industries in Japan, was held for 3 days from November 12-14 at the Tokyo Big Sight. The show that welcomed its 30th anniversary this year had an international flavor thanks to the participation of corporations from 20 countries/areas including Japan, the Us, Italy, Canada, Germany, South Korea and China. The number of visitors to the show was 92,000, almost same with the previous show. About 600 companies participated in the event, using 1,050 booths.
