Total housing units built in Japan for February were 67,552, a 3.1 per cent drop compared to February last year, according to the Japan Lumber Reports Friday.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, annual starts were 905,000 units, a 4.7 per cent increase over February 2014.
Japan Housing Starts
The pace of new owner’s units built in February has declined for thirteen consecutive months, to 20,813, according to Japan Lumber Reports, while units built for sale increased for the first time in four months, to 20,445 – largely due to new condos.
Condominium starts increased by 23.3 per cent, to 10,693 units, while new building of rental units dropped 7.5 per cent, to 25,672, an eight straight months decline.
Wood-based new building dropped slightly, to 35,999 units from 36,196 in January. The share of wood-based building also fell slightly, to 53 per cent, from 54 per cent the previous month.