Main contents start here
News Bulletin
RECENT RELEASE
Results of the 2008 Housing and Land Survey Released
[Introduction]
The SBJ released the results of the 2008 Housing and Land Survey on February 24, 2010.
The Housing and Land Survey is the most fundamental statistical survey on housing conditions in order to acquire basic data for formulating various housing-related policy measures, by investigating the actual conditions of dwellings and other occupied buildings, and the inhabiting households thereof in Japan to clarify the present circumstances and trends for the whole country, major metropolitan areas, and prefectures.
It is a quinquennial survey and the latest survey was conducted on October 1, 2008. In the following, some highlights are introduced.
[Summary]
The number of total and vacant dwellings
As of October 1, 2008, the number of total dwellings in Japan was 57.59 million, an increase of 3.70 million (6.9%), compared with 2003.Of these, the number of "vacant dwellings" was 7.57 million, an increase of 0.97 million (14.8%). The percentage of vacant dwellings rose from 12.2% (in 2003) to 13.1%, which marked a record high.
Figure1 Change in the number of total and vacant dwellings
Types and stories of buildings
With regard to the situation of dwellings by type of building, "detached houses" and "apartments" numbered 27.45 million (55.3% of the total) and 20.68 million (41.7%), respectively. Compared with 2003, "detached houses" and "apartments" increased by 0.96 million (3.6%), and by 1.95 million (10.4%), respectively.As for the stories of building in "apartments", "1, 2 stories" totaled 5.71 million, "3-5 stories" was 8.23 million and "6 stories and over" numbered 6.75 million. "6 stories and over" and "11 stories and over" went up by 23.7% and by 34.2%, respectively, compared with 2003. There are more high-rise apartments among the newly built apartments.
Figure2 Change in the number of apartment by stories of building
Construction material
Regarding the change in the percentage of dwellings by construction material, the "wooden dwellings (including "fire-proofed ones")" which accounted for 81.7% of the total in 1978, continued to decrease consistently, and reached 58.9% in 2008. On the other hand, "non-wooden dwellings" which accounted for 18.3% in 1978 continued to increase consistently to 41.1% in 2008, showing a long term increasing trend. Figure3 Change in the percentage of dwellings by construction material
(Source) 2008 Housing and Land Survey (SBJ)
The Results of the 2008 Housing and Land Survey (Final Tabulation Results) were released on February 24, 2010 and the Final Report (Results for Japan) in print will be published in June, 2010.
For further details, see the web site below.
http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/jyutaku/index.htm
