Tokyo Witnessing Increase in Empty Offices
Rising vacancies for offices in central Tokyo are weighing on shares of Japan’s real estate developers and owners as the market digests the damage that the pandemic has done to a seven-year office boom. Office vacancies in five of Tokyo’s major business districts rose for a fourth consecutive mon
Published -
Jul 11, 2020 4:40 AM
Rising vacancies for offices in central Tokyo are weighing on shares of Japan’s real estate developers and owners as the market digests the damage that the pandemic has done to a seven-year office boom. Office vacancies in five of Tokyo’s major business districts rose for a fourth consecutive month, gaining to 1.97% from 1.64% in May, real estate brokerage Miki Shoji Co. said. The increase is the largest one-month gain in more than a decade. Shares in Tokyu Fudosan Holdings Corp. fell as much as 4.6%, while Ichigo Inc. fell as much as 6%. The Topix Real Estate index fell as much as 2.9%, the third-worst performer among the index’s 33 sub-groups. Fujitsu Ltd., one of the country’s largest employers, has already declared its intent to cut its office space in Japan by 50% over the next three years and have 80,000 workers work mostly from their homes. Vacancies in Tokyo fell almost unrelentingly for the seven years since before Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to power in late 2012, even as rents continued to rise. The vacancies trend was halted by the pandemic, which has made prospective tenants reluctant to sign leases and raised questions worldwide about the future of the office.
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