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Mix-Ansicht- Tja, so kanns gehen. USA next? - XERXES, 25.03.2002, 09:03
Tja, so kanns gehen. USA next?
TOKYO, March 25 (Reuters) - Japanese land prices marked their biggest drop in nearly a decade in 2001, sliding for a record 11th straight year to pre-"bubble" levels as the country's worst recession in a decade deepened.
Real estate prices nationwide were down an average 5.9 percent from the year before, a record 11th straight year of decline and following 4.9 percent drops in both 2000 and 1999, the government said on Monday.
"The negative impact of the worsening economy on corporate activity, employment situation and falling income are affecting the demand for land," the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said.
Residential land prices fell 5.2 percent in 2001, sharper than a 4.2 percent slide in 2000, while commercial land skidded 8.3 percent, outpacing a 7.5 percent drop a year earlier.
From a 1991 peak just after the rupturing of Japan's inflated asset price bubble, residential properties have erased 36 percent in value to levels posted before the boom era of the late 1980s.
Commercial land values have tumbled a steeper 62 percent to their lowest since the early 1980s.
Japan's prolonged real estate slump has exacerbated problems at the nation's big banks, as plunging prices eat into land they own as collateral against loans.
That has left many of their top borrowers -- construction companies and contractors who have long invested in real estate -- unable to pay back debt.
As of September last year, Japan's 136 banks held non-performing loans totalling 36.8 trillion yen ($277 billion).
The data also showed price falls for commercial properties in the greater Tokyo area moderating as urban renewal policies help touch up infrastructure in towns within the Tokyo region.
"We are seeing a pick up in demand for condominiums in city centres especially where new subway lines are built. That is reflected in a surge of properties in the heart of Tokyo that have stopped weakening," a official at the land ministry said.
"The trend is for a concentration in prime areas of Tokyo, and the widening disparity from other areas hit by recession," he said.
((Akiko Mori, Tokyo Newsroom +813 3432 8656, tokyo.newsroom@reuters.com))
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