Shibuya Tops Tokyo Office Rents as Chiyoda Vacancy Hits 1.23%: A Five-Ward Field Guide
- Chiyoda's 1.23% vacancy is central Tokyo's tightest; Shibuya follows at 1.28% while Chuo is loosest at 2.92%
- Shibuya's average rent of 25,507 yen per tsubo now exceeds Chiyoda's 24,305 — tech demand has redrawn the price map
- Nationwide: Tokyo 2.07% < Osaka 3.04% < Nagoya 3.57% < Sapporo 4.10% < Fukuoka 4.50% < Yokohama 5.38% < Sendai 5.66%
- Yokohama (-0.98pt YoY) and Fukuoka (-0.81pt) show Tokyo's tightness spilling into regional cores
Within central Tokyo's five wards, the office market wears five different faces. Miki Shoji's May data puts Chiyoda at 1.23% vacancy — the tightest in the city, as Marunouchi and Otemachi headquarters demand leaves virtually nothing to lease — with Shibuya close behind at 1.28%. The twist is pricing: Shibuya's average rent of 25,507 yen per tsubo now exceeds Chiyoda's 24,305, crowning the tech-and-startup district as Tokyo's most expensive office market and confirming how thoroughly growth industries have redrawn the price map. Minato improved most, down 2.59 points year-on-year to 2.38% as Toranomon and Azabudai new supply leased up; Shinjuku reads 2.49% and Chuo, at 2.92%, remains the loosest. Nationally, Tokyo's tightness is spreading outward: Osaka fell to 3.04% and Fukuoka to 4.50% (down 0.81 points on the year), with Yokohama improving most at minus 0.98 points to 5.38%. Only Sapporo (4.10%) and Sendai (5.66%) edged up. For investors this sketches two core-asset strategies — Chiyoda-type stability from top-credit tenants versus Shibuya-type rent elasticity from growth industries — while Osaka and Fukuoka sit roughly where Tokyo stood three years ago, earlier in their rent cycle. Figures cited from Miki Shoji's published report.
