What buyers actually paid
The average house price in Japan
Japan publishes two official averages for what a home costs, and they do not agree. One comes from the Japan Housing Finance Agency and covers people who borrowed through the Flat 35 fixed-rate scheme. The other comes from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and surveys households that moved or built in the year. They cover different buyers, different areas and different years. This page gives both, with the scope of each stated next to the number.[1]
Average price by property type, nationwide (FY2025)
The word "house" covers a range of more than double. These are total funds required, meaning the purchase price plus the acquisition costs financed with it, not an asking price.
| Property type | Average total funds | Year on year |
|---|---|---|
| New condominiumNewly built apartment, bought as a unit. | ¥58.82M | +¥2.90M |
| Custom build, including the landHouse built to order on a plot bought at the same time. | ¥53.13M | +¥3.06M |
| Custom build, building onlyHouse built to order on land the buyer already owned, so no land cost. | ¥42.62M | +¥3.26M |
| New detached house, built for saleFinished detached house sold with its land by the developer. | ¥42.15M | +¥3.89M |
| Existing condominiumResale apartment. Averaged 28.7 years old at purchase. | ¥36.02M | +¥5.69M |
| Existing detached houseResale detached house. Averaged 22.7 years old at purchase. | ¥27.83M | +¥2.10M |
Existing condominiums moved the most, up ¥5.69M on the year. All six categories rose.[2]
Average price by region, all types combined (FY2025)
The national average is pulled up by Greater Tokyo. The gap between Greater Tokyo and everywhere else is about ¥10.5M, and "everywhere else" is not a rounding error: it is 34.0% of all loans.
| Region | Average total funds | Year on year | Household income | Income multiple | Floor area | Share of loans |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japan, nationwide | ¥42.03M | +8.7% | ¥7.16M | 6.6 | 100.3 m² | 100.0% |
| Greater Tokyo | ¥47.92M | +10.8% | ¥7.62M | 7.1 | 92.3 m² | 36.5% |
| Kinki (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe) | ¥41.28M | +7.4% | ¥6.96M | 6.7 | 99.2 m² | 18.9% |
| Tokai (Nagoya and around) | ¥37.83M | +7.6% | ¥6.84M | 6.2 | 107.0 m² | 10.6% |
| Everywhere else | ¥37.42M | +6.8% | ¥6.88M | 6.2 | 107.4 m² | 34.0% |
Greater Tokyo is the most expensive area, has the smallest floor area, and carries the highest price-to-income multiple. The same money buys a materially different property depending on where you spend it.[2]
The income multiple is the average of each borrower's own price-to-income ratio, so it does not equal the average price column divided by the average income column. Both are reproduced as the agency publishes them.
The second official average: Survey of Housing Market Trends (FY2024)
The ministry asks households that actually built, bought or renovated during the year. Its figures run higher than the Flat 35 ones, mostly because of scope: only custom builds are surveyed nationwide, and every other type is surveyed in the three major metropolitan areas alone.[4]
| Property type | Average purchase funds | Survey scope |
|---|---|---|
| Custom-built house | ¥76.46M | Nationwide |
| New condominium | ¥64.43M | Three metro areas |
| New detached house, built for sale | ¥50.99M | Three metro areas |
| Existing condominium | ¥33.21M | Three metro areas |
| Existing detached house | ¥29.66M | Three metro areas |
| Renovation work | ¥1.70M | Three metro areas |
The two averages disagreeing does not mean one is wrong. One is lending data for a specific loan product, the other is a household survey weighted to the three big metro areas, and their reference years are one apart. If you quote a Japanese average house price, say which survey it came from.[3]
What people are buying changed (FY2025)
Split by category, existing homes were the largest share of Flat 35 borrowing at 35.9%. That is the first time existing homes have topped the table since the survey began in 2004.[2]
- Existing homes
- 35.9%+1.1 ptExisting detached 20.5%, existing condominium 15.4%
- Custom builds
- 32.7%-2.2 ptWith land 21.8%, building only 10.9%
- Developer-built for sale
- 31.4%+1.1 ptNew detached 23.5%, new condominium 7.9%
Average household income was ¥7.16M, up ¥470,000 on the year. Average borrower age fell 1.2 years to 43.3, and the average repayment-to-income ratio was 22.8%. Buyers are getting younger and buying older stock.[2]
How to read these numbers, and where they stop
These are not asking prices
Total funds required covers the purchase price plus the costs of acquiring the property that were financed alongside it. It is a different definition from the asking price on a listings site and from a recorded sale price. The same property produces different figures under each.
The first survey only sees Flat 35 borrowers
The Flat 35 figures come from 35,553 approved loans. Cash buyers, borrowers using other lenders and investment lending are all outside it. Read it as a cross-section of owner-occupier buying, not of the whole market.
The fiscal year runs April to March
Japanese fiscal years start in April. FY2025 means April 2025 to March 2026, and the ministry survey's FY2024 means April 2024 to March 2025. Neither lines up with a calendar-year statistic, so comparisons against those need care.
None of it transfers to a single property
National and regional averages cover wide areas. Road frontage, zoning and whether a plot can legally be rebuilt on move prices sharply even within one municipality. A purchase decision needs research on the specific parcel.
Check an actual price
An average only gives you the level of the whole market. To look at a specific area or property, start here.
Sources
Every figure on this page was read directly from the primary documents below. No secondary summaries were used.
- [1]Japan Housing Finance Agency. Flat 35 User Survey, FY2025The survey hub page, carrying every published year of the survey back to FY2004 and linking the two files below.
- [2]Japan Housing Finance Agency. Flat 35 User Survey FY2025, detailed report (PDF)Released 24 July 2026. Covers 35,553 approved loans taken out between April 2025 and March 2026, refinancing excluded. Every price, income, floor area and share figure in the first two tables on this page is a cell in this file.
- [3]Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. Survey of Housing Market Trends FY2025, summary of results (PDF)Released 17 July 2026. Surveys households that built, bought or renovated between April 2024 and March 2025. The purchase funds figures in the third table on this page are read from its reference chart 1.
- [4]Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. Press release: results of the FY2025 Survey of Housing Market TrendsThe release announcing the survey, with its publication date and the scope of each housing type.
Sources last verified: 2026-09-16
The Flat 35 survey covers FY2025 (April 2025 to March 2026); the ministry survey covers FY2024 (April 2024 to March 2025).