Japan Monthly Housing Starts Report: November 2024
November total housing starts eased down 1.8% to finish at 65,037 units. Total wooden housing starts edged up 0.3% to 38,854 units. Post and beam starts advanced 2.1% to 30,561 units. Wooden prefab jumped 41.5% to 1,050 units -albeit off a small base number. Total prefab starts however fell 8% to 7,248 units, indicative of relative weakness in non-wood prefab starts. Platform frame starts fell for the first time in 6 months – dropping 10.3% to 7,243 units. While single family owner occupied starts posted an 11.3% gain to 2,634 units, multi-family rentals dropped 19.2% 3,935 units and built for sale spec homes fell 20.1% to 662 units. By housing type wood retained a total 59.7% market share. Interestingly total prefab and 2×4 housing were tied with 11.4% share each of the total housing market.
Japan Monthly Non-Residential Construction Report: November 2024
November total non-residential construction fell 5% to 3,609 units or 2% by floor area to 2,571,501m2. Wooden non-residential fell 9% to 1,435 units, with floor area declining 5% to 270,862m2. November year to date wooden floor area increased 0.5% to 9.4%. By estimated wood use by segment medical, elderly care and social welfare facilities led, followed by mixed residential & commercial, restaurants and accommodation, business services and commercial wholesale and retail.