Japan Housing Starts

Japan's housing starts declined by 6.7 percent year-on-year in July 2023, worse than market forecasts of a 0.8 percent drop and after a 4.8% fall a month earlier. The latest result marked the fifth time of decrease in new construction starts since the start of the year, amid weakness in dwellings for owned (-7.8% vs -12.4% in June), built for sale (-17.5% vs -2.9%), and pre-fabricated (-4.0% vs -12.3%). By contrast, fresh constructions grew for rented (1.6% vs -0.6%), issued (6.1% vs 13.6%), and two-by-four (1.8% vs -6.8%).