FEATURE
Larger scale tenants in Tokyo have started their return to the office , but most have been relocating to smaller spaces , the Nikkei Real Estate Market Report ( NREMR ) said in their latest issue .
NREMR noted in its March issue that a survey conducted by Sanko Estate showed that the vacancy rate of large-scale buildings with floor areas of 200 tsubos ( 661 square metres ) or more in the five central wards of Tokyo was 3.98 % as of the end of December 2021 . This is higher by 2.40 percentage points year-on-year even as economic activity started to normalise during the period .
The report attributed the higher vacancy rate to a rising number of relocations by major firms to smaller-sized locations . The number of individual relocation cases compiled by NREMR was also approximately 1.5 times that of the previous year .
Of the relocation cases , only two were to places with areas of size 10,000 tsubos ( 33,100 square metres ) or more . Notable companies like Fujitsu and Lixil , for example , announced that they are significantly reducing their office spaces .
Fujitsu , which leased a newly built building in Kawasaki City in its entirety in 2020 , returned a total of more than 20,000 tsubos ( 66,100 square metres ) of office space in Tokyo , Kawasaki City and Yokohama City in 2021 .
Housing material manufacturer Lixil , on the other hand , sold three buildings , and reduced the office area it uses by 15,000 tsubos ( 49,600 square metres ) or more .
Relocations to shared spaces were also seen . DeNA – a mobile portal and e-commerce website provider – for example , cancelled its lease contract for 4,690 tsubos ( 15,500 square metres ) of area in Shibuya Hikarie .
Gunosy , which develops and operates news apps , also cancelled its lease contract for 857 tsubos ( 2,830 square metres ) of area in Ark Mori Building .
Both companies relocated to WeWork in Shibuya Scramble Square East Tower , and significantly reduced their offices by leasing 700 seats and 100 seats , respectively .
LOGISTICS SPACE DEMAND BUCKS THE TREND
While large-scale offices saw higher vacancies as companies downscale amid the post-pandemic recovery , the logistics facility supply-demand balance continued to tighten in 2021 , NREMR said .
According to CBRE , the vacancy rate of large-scale multi-tenant type facilities for the fourth quarter of 2021 decreased in all three major metropolitan areas .
The decrease in the Greater Osaka area was especially notable . The vacancy rate fell for six consecutive quarters from the third quarter of 2020 .
In the Greater Osaka area , 270,000 tsubos ( 893,000 square metres ) of area was newly supplied in 2021 . As for new demand , a record-high volume of 300,000 tsubos ( 992,000 square metres ) per year was recorded .
As a result , vacancy rate – which fell below 2 % in the first quarter of 2021 – continues to further decrease .
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