The average price of a used マンション (manshon, Japanese usage for freehold condominium) in Tokyo’s 23 wards reached ¥123.49 million for a 70-square-metre equivalent unit in February 2026, according to data released by 東京カンテイ (Tokyo Kantei, Japan’s primary residential property analytics firm) on 24 March 2026. That figure represents a 37.3% rise year-on-year and the 22nd consecutive monthly increase. For a foreign buyer arriving with a broad question — “what does a house in Tokyo cost?” — the honest answer in 2026 is that the number depends entirely on which market segment, which ward, and which property type you are asking about. The figures below separate those layers.

What the National and Tokyo-Wide Averages Actually Cover

Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (国土交通省, MLIT) publishes the 公示地価 (Kōji Chika, the Official Land Price Survey) each March, benchmarked to 1 January of the same year. The 2026 edition, released on 17 March 2026, recorded a national all-use average increase of +2.8% year-on-year, the fifth consecutive annual rise and the highest rate since the 1991 bubble peak. Residential land nationally rose +2.1%.

Tokyo tells a sharply different story. Tokyo-wide residential land appreciated +6.5% year-on-year, an 18-year high and the strongest rate among Japan’s 47 prefectures. Within that, the 23-ward residential average rose +9.0%, accelerating from +7.9% in 2025. Commercial land in the 23 wards rose +13.8%, with 18 of the 23 wards each exceeding +10%.

Those are land price indices, not transaction prices. For transaction prices, Tokyo Kantei tracks four distinct categories: new and used condominiums, and new and used detached houses. Each category carries a meaningfully different number, and none of them is the “average Tokyo house price” in isolation.

Transaction Prices by Property Type in Early 2026

The table below consolidates Tokyo Kantei’s most recent published data across all four categories as of April 2026.

The ¥69.12M figure for used detached houses in the Tokyo Metropolitan area declined 5.8% month-on-month in February 2026, which Tokyo Kantei attributes to a shift in supply mix rather than any softening in demand. When more high-end properties transact in a given month, the average rises; when fewer do, it falls. The underlying trend remains upward.

For context on how these numbers compare to other Japanese cities, this breakdown of house costs across Japan in 2026 covers regional variation in detail.

The Premium Ward Premium: Minato-ku and the Central Five

The 都心5区 (Toshin Go-ku, the five central wards: Chiyoda (千代田区), Chuo (中央区), Minato (港区), Shinjuku (新宿区), and Shibuya (渋谷区)) posted residential land appreciation of +13.0% year-on-year in the 2026 Kōji Chika, against +8.5% for the remaining 18 wards. The divergence between central and peripheral Tokyo is widening, not narrowing.

Minato-ku (港区) led all residential wards at +16.6% year-on-year. The single most expensive residential land point in Japan for the ninth consecutive year is located in Minato-ku at Akasaka 1-chome, priced at ¥7.11 million per square metre as of 1 January 2026, a 20.5% year-on-year increase. To put that in physical terms: a 200-square-metre residential land plot in that location carries a land value alone of approximately ¥1.42 billion before any structure is considered.

At the transaction level, new condominiums priced above ¥200 million, referred to colloquially as 億ション (oku-shon, literally “hundred-million-yen condominiums”), are now routine in central Tokyo wards. 三田ガーデンヒルズ (Mita Garden Hills, a joint development by Mitsui Fudosan and Mitsubishi Estate in Minato-ku, a five-minute walk from 麻布十番 (Azabu-Juban)) listed a unit at ¥890 million. 芝浦アイランドケープタワー (Shibaura Island Cape Tower), also in Minato-ku, lists in a range of ¥131 million to ¥269.9 million.

For a ward-by-ward breakdown of where these price points concentrate, the 2026 analysis of Tokyo’s most expensive neighborhoods provides per-square-metre figures across the primary residential wards.

What Drives Prices in 2026: Three Structural Forces

The Bank of Japan Rate Shift

The Bank of Japan’s policy normalization has pushed mortgage rates upward from the near-zero levels that characterized the previous decade. MLIT’s own analysis, published alongside the March 2026 Kōji Chika, states that “no clear negative impact on land prices is yet observable.” The working interpretation among market participants is that urgency-driven demand, buyers accelerating purchases before rates rise further, is partially offsetting any affordability compression from higher borrowing costs. Whether that dynamic persists through the second half of 2026 is the central uncertainty in the market.

The Yen Factor for Foreign Buyers

For buyers holding US dollars, euros, Singapore dollars, or Hong Kong dollars, the yen’s weakness through 2024 and into 2025 materially reduced the foreign-currency cost of Tokyo real estate even as yen-denominated prices rose. A property that appreciated 20% in yen terms over two years may have cost a USD-based buyer only marginally more in dollar terms, depending on the specific exchange rate window. As of April 2026, the yen has partially recovered from its weakest levels, but Tokyo real estate remains meaningfully cheaper in dollar terms than it was in 2021 for buyers converting from major reserve currencies. This is not a permanent condition, and it is not a reason to defer due diligence, but it is a material input for any foreign buyer’s cost basis calculation.

Supply Spillover into Adjacent Wards

As central-ward prices become prohibitive for a wider range of buyers, demand is migrating outward. Commercial land in 中野区 (Nakano-ku) and 杉並区 (Suginami-ku) each rose +17.5% year-on-year in the 2026 survey. 台東区 (Taito-ku) residential land rose +14.2%, driven by inbound tourism investment and the ongoing Asakusa redevelopment. 品川区 (Shinagawa-ku) rose +13.9%, partly in anticipation of the Linear Chuo Shinkansen terminus. These are not luxury residential markets in the Minato-ku sense, but they reflect how the price gradient is shifting across the city.

Tokyo Kantei’s monthly data recorded the average transaction price per square metre for used condominiums in the Tokyo metropolitan area at ¥856,100 in February 2026, up 8.2% from a year earlier, a figure that has now risen for 70 consecutive months.

Practical Considerations for Foreign Buyers

Foreign nationals face a set of structural questions that Japanese buyers do not. These are worth addressing directly.

Mortgage access. Japanese banks extend mortgage financing to non-residents and non-citizens, but the terms vary significantly by institution and by the buyer’s visa status. Buyers on a 就労ビザ (shuro-biza, work visa) with three or more years of Japanese tax residency generally have access to a broader range of lenders than those on short-stay or investor visas. Buyers without Japanese income documentation typically rely on offshore financing or cash. Ownership rights. Japan imposes no legal restriction on foreign nationals purchasing real estate. There is no reciprocity requirement and no minimum investment threshold for property ownership itself. Owning property does not, however, confer residency rights. The 永住権 (eijuuken, Japanese permanent residency) pathway is based on years of legal residence and tax contribution, not on property ownership. Transaction process. The statutory pre-contract disclosure in Japan is the 重要事項説明 (juuyou-jikou-setsumei, the mandatory pre-contract disclosure meeting), which must be conducted by a licensed 宅建士 (takken-shi, Japan’s licensed real-estate transaction specialist). This document covers legal encumbrances, building code compliance, management association finances for condominiums, and any material defects. For a foreign buyer, the juuyou-jikou-setsumei is often the most information-dense document in the transaction and the one most likely to require careful translation and explanation. Most Tokyo agencies assign an unlicensed salesperson to manage the client relationship and produce the takken-shi only at the closing table. Koukyuu operates differently: a licensed takken-shi handles every stage of every engagement from initial consultation through 登記 (touki, the transfer of legal title recorded at the Legal Affairs Bureau), which means the person explaining the juuyou-jikou-setsumei is the same person who has been present at every viewing and negotiation. Tax on acquisition. Foreign buyers pay the same taxes as domestic buyers: 不動産取得税 (fudousan shutoku-zei, real estate acquisition tax), typically assessed several months after purchase, and 登録免許税 (touroku menkyo-zei, registration and license tax) payable at closing. Annual 固定資産税 (kotei shisan-zei, fixed asset tax) applies regardless of residency. None of these taxes discriminate by nationality. Exit and repatriation. Capital gains on Japanese real estate are taxable in Japan. The rate for non-residents differs from the domestic rate and depends on the holding period. Buyers with a long-term ownership horizon should model the tax position at entry, not at exit.

The ¥300 Million Tier: A Separate Market

The averages cited above, ¥60 million to ¥123 million depending on property type and geography, describe the broad Tokyo residential market. The market above ¥300 million operates on different dynamics. Supply at this level is thin and rarely reaches REINS (the national MLS operated by the Real Estate Information Network System). Transactions are frequently handled off-market, through relationships between agencies and developers or between agencies and existing owners. Price discovery is opaque. The 手付金 (tetsuke-kin, the earnest-money deposit, typically 10% of the purchase price) on a ¥500 million transaction is ¥50 million, which means errors in due diligence carry material financial consequences.

For buyers considering Shirokane (白金) or Shirokanedai (白金台), where the residential market has its own specific pricing dynamics, this 2026 market analysis for Shirokanedai covers the neighborhood in detail.

Koukyuu is a private buyer’s advisory for distinguished Tokyo residences in Nishi-Azabu (西麻布), Omotesando (表参道), and Aoyama (青山), focused exclusively on transactions of ¥300 million and above, with a licensed 宅建士 personally handling every stage of the engagement from first consultation to signing. To begin a private conversation, book a private consultation).