Japan Housing Starts

Japan's housing starts rose by 6.6 percent year-on-year in January 2023, easily exceeding market expectations of 1 percent and reversing from a 1.7 percent fall a month earlier. This was the steepest growth in housing starts since October 2021, mainly boosted by a rebound in new construction of two-by-four (4.8% vs -8.9% in December) and a strong pickup in that of built-for-sale (25.0% vs 1.4%). Meantime, new dwellings for rented slowed (4.2% vs 6.4%), amid declines in those for owned (-8.3% vs -13.0%), issued ( -26.3% vs -15.0%), and prefabricated (-10.0% vs -15.5%).