Japan’s full-year commercial real estate investment volume for 2024 is expected to exceed the previous year’s record, reaching well above Yen 4trn (£20.9bn).

CBRE’s 2025 Japan Investor Intentions Survey, conducted in late November 2024, found that investors’ willingness to purchase commercial real estate in Japan will remain high in 2025. When asked about their expectations for real estate price changes in 2025, the proportion of respondents who anticipate values to appreciate was higher than the results of the 2024 Survey for all asset classes except logistics.

This year’s survey uncovered a noticeable shift in investors’ pricing expectations for offices. The percentage of respondents who expect prices for large offices to increase rose to 42%, up from 10% in the 2024 Survey. Demand for office space was strong nationwide throughout 2024, leading to a solid upward trend in rents.

Despite having a rapidly falling population, roughly one half of respondents expect residential (multifamily) property prices to rise in 2025; significantly higher than the 25% in the 2024 Survey. In addition to rapidly increasing condominium prices, many investors believe that it has become easier to negotiate rent increases, given that tenants’ ability to pay rents is growing on the back of rising wages.