NewJapanese realtor Daikyo expands real estate brokerage business to Hong Kong

Leading Japanese developer Daikyo has expanded its real estate brokerage business to Hong Kong as part of its global expansion, as foreign buying of Japanese properties keeps rising.

Since 2012, foreign investors, including those from Hong Kong, are flocking to Japan as the falling yen made properties there more affordable.

"Compared with Hong Kong, home prices in Japan are just one-fifth of those here," said Kazuhiko Kaise, the president of Daikyo Anabuki Real Estate, the realtor arm of Daikyo.

Prices in Japan were also lower than those in China's first-tier cities such as Shanghai and Beijing but with high occupancy rates, Kaise said. Almost 90 per cent of rental units in Tokyo had been leased.

He said foreign buyers of properties, mostly in Tokyo, last year accounted for 20 per cent of the total transaction value for the first time in the country's history.

"It meant foreign buyers forked out nearly one trillion yen snapping up property in Japan," he said.