Will Japan’s tourist visa fees, interest rate policy impact its booming property market?

There is a dearth of data on the total number of homes bought by non-residents in Japan, but agents said the two main reasons for purchasing were to either use them as a primary base while they explored the country’s tourist destinations, or as an investment to be rented out on short- and long-term leases.

For now, rising interest rates in Japan could have a bigger impact on investors, as it applies to individuals in the residential property sector as well as institutional investors in commercial real estate.

Kohei Kawai, a research senior director at Colliers International Japan, said that BOJ’s effort to normalise its monetary policy by raising interest rates had narrowed the advantage of a wide yield gap – the spread between property yields and borrowing costs.

The tightening monetary policy also comes amid the government’s closer scrutiny of foreign investment in property.