Land price values in Japan fell by three per cent last year, following a period of sustained growth the previous year, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism said in a report.
The government body explained that the decline in land values, which are about half of what they were after the peak in the 1980s, has been supported by a recovery in demand from investors, Bloomberg reported.
This, in turn, was lead by an increase in the level of market activity from Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) in Japan.
Indeed, the Association for Real Estate Securitization said that in total Japanese REITs more than doubled their market exposure in 2010, acquiring USD 6.7 billion worth of properties.
"In Tokyo, low interest rates, strong foreign-investor interest and J-REIT offerings are providing abundant capital searching for investment opportunities in various asset classes," the news provider cited from a Jones Lang LaSalle report.
Japan remains the biggest property investment market in Asia, LaSalle added, with USD 24.2 billion of commercial transactions last year.