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Tokyo condos unaffordable, average price 8 times annual income+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TOKYO, June 10_(Kyodo) _ The average price of a condominium unit in Tokyo's 23 wards in March was 63.49 million yen -- eight times the average annual income of the ordinary Japanese worker, a government white paper said Tuesday. The result, included in the government's white paper on infrastructure improvement in the Tokyo metropolitan area, indicates it is becoming difficult for ordinary workers to buy a condo in the Tokyo area. A condo unit is usually judged to be adequately priced if its price is within a range of up to five times the amount a worker earns annually. According to the white paper, the average price of a condominium in the Tokyo suburbs was 41.89 million yen -- 5.2 times a worker's average annual income. It has become more difficult for workers to purchase condos in the Tokyo area due to slack growth in their incomes and rising land prices, the paper said. It said land prices began rising in the 23 wards in 2006 and the upswing was observed in neighboring Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures along with the Tama area, a Tokyo suburb, in 2007. Condo prices turned higher in line with the land price increases, the white paper said. But workers' average annual income has stayed in the upper half of 7 million yen in Tokyo's 23 wards and major cities in Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa since 2003, when it dropped by about 400,000 yen from the previous year. During the period, housing-loan rates changed little, resulting in increased condo inventories, the paper said. Copyright ? 2008 Kyodo News International, Inc. |