Secondary residential demand trends in contemporary Japan and North Asia

This research paper attempts to address the opportunity and challenges for Vacation Residential Development in North Asia, with specific geographic focus on Japan first through an analysis of national and regional consumption, tourism and real estate trends, followed by examination of similar successful developments in the surrounding region and lastly, application of research findings to assess the feasibility for a vacation home development in Kanagawa (Japan), a prefecture filled with several coastal communities approximately thirty-five miles south west of Tokyo. The concept of vacation homes has not been as well received in Japan as in other developed regions, specifically Western Europe and North America. In the most recent housing survey conducted by the Japanese government, less than 1% of the housing stock could be considered as, "second dwellings" whilst in France and the US vacation homes make up roughly 10% and 3% (respectively) of the total housing stock. More recently in the past decade, there has been significant efforts made by both international and domestic developers to develop the vacation home market in the world's second largest economy. The hypothesis for this research is: demand for vacation residences in Japan will be driven by 1) the demographic shift within Japan, 2) emergence (and in some cases reemergence) of both the Japanese and surrounding regional Asian economies and 3) subsequently the large and growing concentration of high net worth individuals within the region.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Real Estate. Program in Real Estate Development.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Lam, Michael M

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Dennis Frenchman.

• Center for Real Estate. Program in Real Estate Development.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/55166

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/55166