Japan Housing and Non-Residential Construction Starts Update / Jan 2022
January 2022 Japan Housing Starts
January total housing starts edged up 2.1% to 59,690 units for the 11th consecutive monthly gain. Owner occupied housing fell 5.6%, while rental housing gained 16.6%. The mansion condominium market fell 19.4%. Wooden housing was up 0.9% to 33,714 units. Post and beam starts increased 1.8% to 27,308 units. Wooden prefab starts dropped 13.5% to 552 units and total prefab housing rose 4.4% to 8,138 units. Platform frame starts fell 1.3% to 5,854 units. Results of 2×4 starts by housing type were as follows: single family custom homes fell 14.1% to 1,968 units, rental housing rose 3.9% to 2,980 units and built for sale spec housing jumped 15% to 888 units.
January 2022 Non-Residential Construction
Non-residential construction continued to trail, with total starts falling 1.6% to 3,221 units in January. Wooden non-residential starts fell 5.2% to 1,132 units. Wooden non-residential floor area fell more steeply, posting a 12.7% decline to finish at 196,915m2. While wood maintained a constant market share in terms of number of starts, the share of wood in terms of floor area declined from 8.4% to 6.9% YOY. The elderly care, medical and social welfare facilities, mixed residential and commercial and business services categories led wood consumption.