"You can live comfortably in your own spacious home." 

This slogan is one of the main draws that are enticing more and more people to move to Aichi Prefecture. In Aichi, detached single-family homes accounted for 48% of new residential construction, surpassing the national average of 46% and far above Tokyo and Osaka at 20%. The average size of a 3 bedroom home in Aichi is 84.34 square meters. With the planned opening of a new bullet train, scheduled to connect Tokyo and Aichi's capital city of Nagoya in 40 minutes, the housing supply is tight.

In Aichi, individuals can afford a relatively larger house in comparison to Tokyo and Osaka due to the lower land prices and still have access to a large major city like Nagoya (Japan's 4th most populated city). What's more, the government is trying to woo buyers away from the Tokyo Metropolitan Area by offering them up to 1,000,000 yen to relocate to Aichi.

■ Shorter Commute

According to a 2019 land price survey compiled Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism on each prefecture; the average price of a single-family home in Aichi was 103,500 yen per sqm. That's 30% less than Tokyo at 374,300 yen per sqm. It's also cheaper than Kanagawa at 179,500 yen per sqm and Osaka at 150,500 yen per sqm. The sold price of residential land and buildings in Nagoya is less than half that of Tokyo's 23 wards.

In addition to relatively affordable housing prices, Aichi is predicted to have a more significant increase in land and property values due to the low supply of available housing. The well-developed road and train networks make it easy for commuting even for those living further in the suburbs.

Tokyo's average single-family home size is comparatively less than Aichi at 61.66 sqm and Osaka at 67.09 sqm. Aichi's house prices rose to ¥40,000 per sqm for the first time in 1963, the year before the Tokaido Shinkansen opened. It fell sharply after the 2008 global financial crisis but has increased in recent years.

There has been a significant increase in single-family home sales throughout the central region of Aichi in preparation for the opening of the New Chuo Shinkansen in 2027. 

Other prefectures that have benefited from this new announcement are Gifu who's housing supply consists of 69% detached single-family homes with an average size of 101.51 sqm and Mie prefecture whose average detached single-family home size exceeds 90 sqm.

Source: Nikkei

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