FY2025 New Housing Starts at 711,171 Units, Down 12.9%: Owner-Occupied, Rental and Sale Housing All FellAbout 710,000 new homes were started in FY2025, more than 10% fewer than the year before
According to MLIT's Building Starts Statistics Survey Report (FY2025 total, published April 30, 2026), new housing starts in FY2025 (Reiwa 7) were 711,171 units, down 12.9% from the previous fiscal year. Owner-occupied, rental and sale housing all decreased. Condominiums for sale were 82,881 units, down 21.2%.
Key points
- New housing starts were 711,171 units (down 12.9%). Floor area of new housing starts was 54,568 thousand sq m (down 13.2%)
- Owner-occupied housing was 195,111 units (down 12.6%) and rental housing 308,906 units (down 13.5%). Both fell again after the previous year's increase
- Housing for sale was 200,563 units (down 12.6%, a third straight decline): condominiums 82,881 units (down 21.2%) and detached houses 115,200 units (down 5.9%)
- Total units by region: Tokyo metropolitan area down 9.9%, Chubu area down 11.1%, Kinki area down 10.3%, other regions down 17.6%. Condominiums for sale in the Tokyo metropolitan area fell 31.5%
What to do in practice
- When considering new rental housing or rebuilding, check regional supply and demand and construction cost trends in light of the decline in rental housing starts
- If you have construction or housing-related customers, use the starts trend as a reference for credit and order outlooks
The government checks every month how many new homes were started and announces it. In FY2025 (April 2025 to March 2026), 711,171 homes were started, 12.9% fewer than the year before. Homes people build to live in, homes built to rent, and homes built to sell all went down.
Points
- In total, 711,171 new homes were started
- Homes built to live in went down 12.6%, and homes built to rent went down 13.5%
- Condominiums built to sell went down a big 21.2%
What the words mean
- Construction start
- Actually beginning the work of building a house or building
- Rental housing
- Houses or apartments built to be rented out
- Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT): MLIT: Building Starts Statistics Survey Report (FY2025 total)
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