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Japan has had a falling population for a long time now. London has added 1.7 million people in that time period. Property in Japan also isn't as attractive

Japan has had a falling population for a long time now. London has added 1.7 million people in that time period. Property in Japan also isn't as attractive to foreign buyers. People seem to forget that property isn't like other investment classes. Everyone needs somewhere to live and it can only be built on land which is very scarce where the jobs are.

latch 9y ago
A little disingenuous to compare London to Japan. Population in Tokyo has also been increasing yet house prices not so much (1) Japan and Tokyo do housing right. Pricing largely stays the same, quality of living increases. I absolutely don't mean this about you, but the general sense that I get is people largely don't want to admit someone else is doing things better. People are convinced that their city/state/country is really special and any problem they have are just problems that clearly have no solution. If a solution did exists, obviously, they'd have it. It's ego and pride. (1) https://www.ft.com/content/023562e2-54a6-11e6-befd-2fc0c26b3c60?mhq5j=e6 https://www.ft.com/content/023562e2-54a6-11e6-befd-2fc0c26b3...
- lhopki01 9y ago
  Something that only happened when population growth stopped and the economy stagnated. Before that there were massive property bubbles.
nosuchthing 9y ago
People seem to forget that property isn't like other investment classes. Other investment classes provide value from services or production. Speculative real estate relies on artificial scarcity (local laws preventing building upward) is extracting value from suppressing more construction for more people.
- lhopki01 9y ago
  >Other investment classes provide value from services or production. Like gold or bitcoin? >Speculative real estate relies on artificial scarcity (local laws preventing building upward) is extracting value from suppressing more construction for more people. There are many cities where they build upwards massively but the property prices increase massively. See Beijing or Shanghai. Actually compare China now to Japan in the 80s and you see lots of similarities. When I say property isn't like other investment classes I mean it shouldn't be. People need places to live and if left to the market the lower end of the market will just be left out on the street or in horrific housing conditions. The only solution will be government building of housing. IE compare Singapore with Hong Kong.

latch 9y ago

A little disingenuous to compare London to Japan. Population in Tokyo has also been increasing yet house prices not so much (1) Japan and Tokyo do housing right. Pricing largely stays the same, quality of living increases. I absolutely don't mean this about you, but the general sense that I get is people largely don't want to admit someone else is doing things better. People are convinced that their city/state/country is really special and any problem they have are just problems that clearly have no solution. If a solution did exists, obviously, they'd have it. It's ego and pride. (1) https://www.ft.com/content/023562e2-54a6-11e6-befd-2fc0c26b3c60?mhq5j=e6 https://www.ft.com/content/023562e2-54a6-11e6-befd-2fc0c26b3...

lhopki01 9y ago
Something that only happened when population growth stopped and the economy stagnated. Before that there were massive property bubbles.

nosuchthing 9y ago

People seem to forget that property isn't like other investment classes. Other investment classes provide value from services or production. Speculative real estate relies on artificial scarcity (local laws preventing building upward) is extracting value from suppressing more construction for more people.

lhopki01 9y ago
>Other investment classes provide value from services or production. Like gold or bitcoin? >Speculative real estate relies on artificial scarcity (local laws preventing building upward) is extracting value from suppressing more construction for more people. There are many cities where they build upwards massively but the property prices increase massively. See Beijing or Shanghai. Actually compare China now to Japan in the 80s and you see lots of similarities. When I say property isn't like other investment classes I mean it shouldn't be. People need places to live and if left to the market the lower end of the market will just be left out on the street or in horrific housing conditions. The only solution will be government building of housing. IE compare Singapore with Hong Kong.