Chuo’s transaction data points to a very expensive, relatively thin market for buying premises through a house purchase. In 2025 the median house transaction was ¥300,000,000 across 47 deals, and the 5-year price trend is down with a CAGR of -8.97%. Older houses are not the discount route here: their 2025 median was even higher at ¥330,000,000.
This market fits buyers who can tolerate high entry pricing and limited deal flow in exchange for a dense urban setting with strong people movement. Transactions are sparse at 0.278 per 1,000 residents, and the akiya channel looks weak despite 11,720 vacant homes: the vacancy rate is 11.05%, but the akiya mobilization ratio is only 0.00239, which suggests very little vacant stock is actually reaching the transaction market. Demographically, Chuo is younger than many municipalities by Japanese standards, with a 65+ share of 14.58%, very strong net in-migration of 8,505 people (5.02%), and an exceptionally high day-night ratio of 3.74.
The main caution is that these numbers are volatile and should not be read as a smooth pricing story. Annual median prices have swung sharply—from ¥480,000,000 in 2020 to ¥170,000,000 in 2021, then back to ¥350,000,000 in 2022—and 2025’s count is low enough that individual high-value transactions can move the median a lot. Affordability is also stretched on local income metrics, with a price-to-income ratio of 36.01 against average taxable income of ¥8,331,283, so “available” and “financially accessible” are very different things here.