The average price of new condominiums in the Tokyo metropolitan area reached 164.93 million yen ($1.04 million) in July, a jump also reflected in prefectures bordering the capital.

The figure shared on Aug. 20 by Real Estate Economic Institute Co. (REEI) was driven up by new listings in large-scale high-rises in the central Tokyo.

The average price of new apartments in the four prefectures of the greater Tokyo area that include Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba was up 63.7 percent from the corresponding month last year. It also broke the previous record of 143.60 million yen for March 2023.

Tokyo’s 23 wards saw a particularly steep 96 percent year-on-year spike to 265.20 million yen.

July saw the release of units for sale in newly built apartment complexes in the Azabu-Juban district of Tokyo’s Minato Ward and in the Akabane district of Kita Ward.

The high price tags of these and other new apartments in central Tokyo set the overall trend across the entire metropolitan area.

Elsewhere in Japan, the average price of a new apartment in the Kinki region, which comprises the six prefectures of Osaka, Hyogo, Kyoto, Nara, Shiga and Wakayama, was 60.96 million yen, up 3.1 percent year on year.

A total of 2,145 new apartments were put on sale in the greater Tokyo area, up 6.9 percent from the corresponding month last year.

Factors not limited to an increase in new apartments in Yokohama and Kawasaki, both in Kanagawa Prefecture, as well as Chiba’s prefectural capital pushed up the average prices in the respective prefectures.

“Construction costs are rising, and new, large-scale properties are concentrated in areas of high demand, where apartments sell even at high prices,” said Tadashi Matsuda, a senior chief researcher with REEI, in explaining the trend of surging prices.

He continued: “Few sizable land plots are available in central Tokyo for erecting new apartment buildings, so there is increasing scarcity. And the figures this month were greatly affected particularly by specific factors in central Tokyo.”