Demand for condos slowing in Tokyo but growing in Osaka

People would rather live in Osaka than Kobe to be near their offices?

Kobe is a 20 minute train ride from Osaka!

Osaka has little greenery，is sweltering in the summer and the sewers around Uneda reek.

Most people leave Osaka every evening to commute home for these reasons ...,,

Tokyo is saturated.

Living in the west of the tokyo metroplex is fun and I can catch 1 train/subway to otemachi/kayabacho with a commuting time of 55min.

Many in Tokyo commute from as far as Atami, Nasu, etc.

Hope Osaka and surrounding areas won't end up like Chiba or Saitama.

kurisupisu, it's not 20 mins. if you live in Tarumi or Seishin-chuo or somewhere in Kita-ku, or if you work in Honmachi and have to switch to the subway. So I get the appeal of living right next to your office.

That said, I completely agree with your overall view of Osaka. It's a fun place to visit, shop, drink, but I'm always thrilled to return to Kobe. I commuted to Osaka for 3 long years, changing trains in Juso (which honestly smells like vomit), and I was so thrilled when I found a job near my home.

Living in the west of the tokyo metroplex is fun and I can catch 1 train/subway to otemachi/kayabacho with a commuting time of 55min.

1 hour, one way commute, 2 hours a day, lost to the Tokyo rush? And you call it "fun"?

More and more people are moving to the suburbs around Tokyo and into neighbouring prefectures. The commute can be managed due to many companies staggering their working hours although, many are not and people are commuting early in the mornings to avoid the rush and end up doing overtime (for free). If your commute is two hours each way, you spend nearly one day a week on a train.

Well I lived for years in Sannomiya Kobe, beautiful yes, but had to go to Osaka for work in the long run. The two hour commute was too much and I had to move.

Yubaru.

Area I live in is a great area and beats downtown Tokyo, where multiple transfers, etc add stress and commute is not that much shorter.

Of course not all can afford living accomodations within walking distance of work.

afford should be afford/desire due to family, etc.

afford should be afford/desire due to family, etc.

Or find a job in a location where one can have both. People make choices, that's all there's to it.

Another big city sucking the LIFE out of the country, the some ole problems getting worse, oh well................

GW agreed, Tokyo has a higher population than my country and some others.

Here in Shinjuku, at the rate they are tearing down old neighborhoods and building tower condominiums, you'd never know there was a slacking demand. A 55 floor tower condo was sold out before they even started digging the ground, with prices from 50 to more than 100 million yen.

Wonder how many went solely for investment purpose and will end up as airbnb(olympics, etc).

I know more than the usual number of people and I don't know anyone commuting to Osaka from the far north or west of Kobe.

Unlike Tokyo extremely long commutes are more rare in the Kansas region.

People tend to move nearer but not to Osaka.

The upcoming place is Amagaski where getting into Osaka takes 5 minutes and buying a condo is 40% cheaper

I've lived in Kobe for over 10 years, my first 3 years in Tarumi, and I know dozens of people who make such commutes. When I worked in Osaka, it took me 50 mins. door to door. And I had colleagues who lived in Suma, Nishi-Akashi, and Himeji to name but a few. Many others commuted from Kyoto or rural Nara. My best friend commutes from Seishin-chuo to Tennoji and my wife worked near Cosmosquare for a few years. There are millions of people between Kobe and Himeji--do you honestly think only a few work in Osaka, the biggest employer in the region?

You will NEVER see me buy a condo in a big city or ANYWHERE.  Give me a house with a garden where I can BBQ every weekend and I'll find a way to commute to wherever the hell I need to go.

Looking at the prices of condos in Tokyo, I'm not surprised demand is down.