Demand for new housing, particularly on higher ground, is pushing up property prices in rugged Fukushima and Miyagi Prefectures, in another sign that the regions that were hardest-hit by the March 11, 2011 disaster are gradually recovering.
A survey by the land ministry shows that residential land prices in Miyagi rose 2.5% in 2013the biggest percentage increase among Japan’s 47 prefecturesfollowing a 1.4% increase in the previous year and a 0.7% decline in 2011. Fukushima’s residential land prices turned higher in 2013, rising by 1.2%, almost in line with Tokyo’s 1.4% gain.
While the ministry removed 13 residential and four commercial sites in Fukushima from the survey for 2011, the data have otherwise been consistent on a year-to-year basis.
Evacuees and people who were displaced by the March 2011 disaster are moving into housing upland, creating fresh demand, some analysts say. They are also moving away from the coast and away from Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s stricken Daiichi nuclear power plants in Fukushima.
Since there are still many evacuees living in temporary prefabricated housing, such demand is likely to continue for a while.
Everyone wants to live on higher ground, where their safety is assured. Developers are selling these properties at higher prices, said Mikio Namiki, senior real estate analyst at Mizuho Securities.
He said any price gains so far appear to be healthy but reasonable. The two devastated prefectures are among the brightest spots in terms of land price rises. Most parts of the country outside the three major metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya saw another year of declines last year, according to the survey.
A magnitude 9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami three years ago killed nearly 16,000 people, mostly in northeastern Japan. More than 2,500 people are still missing.
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