Get all the data you need about the real estate market in Hiroshima
SUMMARY
Yes, property prices in Hiroshima are likely to keep rising over the next few years, but the gains should be increasingly concentrated in central condos and scarce, well-connected urban land rather than spread evenly across the city.
Resale condos are still moving higher on several measures at once. Hiroshima Prefecture's latest used-condo price per square metre was 7.6% above a year earlier, while the average transaction price was up 8.7%, extending a run of positive year-on-year readings.
The market is beginning to show an affordability limit. Transaction volume on the latest three-month moving average fell 10.8% year on year even as prices kept rising, which suggests buyers have not disappeared but are becoming less willing to clear every asking price.
Hiroshima's demographic story is much more local than the headline population decline suggests. The city's population fell between 2020 and 2025, yet household numbers increased overall, with Naka Ward gaining both residents and households while outer wards such as Asakita and Aki weakened sharply.
That concentration helps explain why central land can appreciate even in a shrinking city. Official land values in places such as Hirano-machi and Kaminobori-cho have climbed substantially because buyers are competing for a limited amount of flat, convenient land rather than for Hiroshima property in general.
Hiroshima Station remains a genuine support for nearby property, although much of the redevelopment story is already known. The station complex, new commercial space, direct streetcar access and better pedestrian connections improve everyday accessibility, which should favour nearby neighbourhoods gradually rather than create another sudden speculative jump.
High construction costs are also protecting existing property values. When new apartments become expensive to build, well-located resale condos look more competitive, and developers have less room to flood the market with cheap new supply.
Rents are not keeping pace with the strongest recent purchase-price increases. That puts pressure on investment yields and means Hiroshima's price story depends more on owner-occupier demand, central land scarcity and expensive replacement costs than on rapidly expanding rental income.
The properties with the strongest outlook are family-sized condos in well-managed buildings, central land and homes with easy access to Hiroshima Station, Hatchobori, Kamiyacho and the main tram or rail corridors. Old houses in declining, car-dependent hillside areas face a very different market.
The main near-term threat is a combination of higher mortgage rates and weaker liquidity. If transaction volumes keep falling for several quarters while borrowing costs rise further, sellers may eventually have to give up some of the pricing power they still have today.
Our base case is therefore slower appreciation rather than another effortless run of 8% to 10% annual gains. Good central Hiroshima property can probably continue rising by a few percent a year, with exceptional sites doing better, while weaker peripheral housing may stagnate or fall even as the citywide averages remain positive.
Thinking of buying real estate in Hiroshima?
Acquiring property in a different country is a complex task. Don't fall into common traps – grab our guide and make better decisions.
Will property prices rise in Hiroshima?
Are Hiroshima property prices still rising now?
Hiroshima property prices are still rising, and the latest resale data make that hard to dismiss, although buyers are starting to push back at higher prices.
West Japan REINS' latest monthly report shows that Hiroshima Prefecture's average used-condo price per square meter was 7.6% higher than a year earlier. The average transaction price was up 8.7%. Both measures had risen for six consecutive months on REINS' three-month moving-average series.
The previous quarter tells much the same story with less monthly noise. During April–June, the average used-condo price reached ¥29.61 million, up 8.4% year on year, while the average price per square meter increased 6.2% to ¥398,000.
Official land values are moving in the same direction. Hiroshima Prefecture's 2026 appraisal put average residential land growth across the prefecture at 1.5%, compared with 1.3% a year earlier. Stronger gains remain concentrated around Hiroshima City, major stations and convenient urban locations.
So the starting point is fairly clear: Hiroshima has entered another year with higher condo prices and higher land values. The interesting question is how long buyers can keep absorbing them.
| Hiroshima indicator | Latest reading | Year-on-year change | What we see |
|---|---|---|---|
| Used-condo price/m², latest monthly series | ¥375,000 | +7.6% | Prices still rising |
| Used-condo transaction price | ¥27.22m | +8.7% | Buyers paying more |
| Used-condo transactions | 94 | -10.8% | Demand is becoming less comfortable |
| Q2 used-condo price/m² | ¥398,000 | +6.2% | Quarterly trend remains strong |
| Prefectural residential land | — | +1.5% | Land appreciation continues |
Are prices rising everywhere in Hiroshima?
No. Hiroshima's property market is splitting quite sharply between central, convenient areas and parts of the outer city where the population is falling much faster.
The latest census estimate puts Hiroshima City's population at about 1.172 million, down 2.4% from 2020. Yet Naka Ward, the heart of Hiroshima, gained 1.1% and reached 144,267 residents.
Households tell an even more useful story. Hiroshima City's total number of households increased 1.3% despite the population decline. Naka Ward households jumped 4.7%, Minami Ward rose 1.7% and Asaminami Ward increased 2.7%.
Compare that with Asakita Ward, where the population fell 6.2% and households declined 2.8%. Aki Ward lost 6.1% of its population.
Those differences are large enough to affect property values. Hiroshima can lose residents overall while still adding households in places where people actually want to live. Smaller household sizes also mean that population decline does not translate one-for-one into fewer occupied homes.
This split matters more than the citywide average. A condominium near the city centre, Hiroshima Station or good tram and rail connections is exposed to a different demand pool from an old detached house in a shrinking hillside subdivision.
| Hiroshima area | Population change, 2020–2025 | Household change | What is happening |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hiroshima City | -2.4% | +1.3% | Population down, households up |
| Naka Ward | +1.1% | +4.7% | Clear central concentration |
| Minami Ward | -1.5% | +1.7% | Household demand holding up |
| Asaminami Ward | -1.3% | +2.7% | Relatively resilient |
| Asakita Ward | -6.2% | -2.8% | Strong demographic pressure |
| Aki Ward | -6.1% | -0.8% | Weak population trend |
Don't buy the wrong property, in the wrong area of Hiroshima
Buying real estate is a significant investment. Don't rely solely on your intuition. Gather the right information to make the best decision.
Are central Hiroshima land prices pulling away from the rest?
Yes. Central Hiroshima land is becoming more expensive at a pace that the citywide population numbers alone cannot explain.
Hirano-machi in Naka Ward is a good example. The official land price there reached ¥461,000 per square meter in 2026. It was ¥437,000 one year earlier, ¥416,000 in 2024 and ¥398,000 in 2023.
That works out to roughly 16% appreciation in three years.
Go back further and the change becomes harder to ignore. The same site was valued at ¥250,000 per square meter in 2013. It has risen about 84% since then, despite Hiroshima never becoming a high-population-growth city.
The explanation is largely local scarcity. Hiroshima's desirable flat central land is limited, while apartments, offices, retail and hotels compete for many of the same sites. Government appraisers have repeatedly pointed to central-city demand and competition for condominium development land.
Kaminobori-cho tells a similar story at a much higher price level. An official residential point there reached roughly ¥1.08 million per square meter after values around ¥984,000 two years earlier.
These are already expensive locations, so another 5% rise means much more money per square meter than the same percentage gain on cheap suburban land.
That gap should keep widening. Hiroshima's population can decline while scarce parts of Naka Ward become considerably more valuable.
Is Hiroshima Station still pushing nearby property prices higher?
Yes. Hiroshima Station is still one of the strongest local reasons for expecting central Hiroshima property to outperform, because the redevelopment has moved from construction plans to something residents actually use every day.
The new station building brought roughly 111,000 square meters of floorspace, the minamoa shopping complex and a new hotel. More importantly, Hiroshima Electric Railway now runs streetcars directly into the station building.
That changes a daily inconvenience rather than just adding another shopping centre. Transfers between JR trains, the tram network, buses, shops and surrounding buildings are becoming easier, and pedestrian decks are tying more of the station district together.
For property, that improves the appeal of nearby areas including Matsubara-cho, Kyobashi, Matoba, Enko-bashi, Kaminobori-cho and the eastern side of central Hiroshima.
Tourism adds some support here too. Hiroshima City recorded 14.76 million visitors in 2025, its highest figure under the city's current statistics. Foreign visitors also reached a record 2.561 million, while tourism spending increased 5.1% to ¥421.3 billion.
We should not turn those tourism numbers into a residential-property story by themselves. Their growth has already slowed sharply from the post-pandemic rebound. The more useful point is that Hiroshima Station now serves a city attracting record visitor flows while the surrounding transport and commercial infrastructure has improved at the same time.
Some of this has already been priced in. Buyers have known about the station project for years. We still expect the surrounding area to outperform, but from here the gains are more likely to come gradually through better accessibility and scarcity than through another sudden redevelopment jump.
Get to know the market before buying a property in Hiroshima
Better information leads to better decisions. Get all the data you need before investing a large amount of money.
Are Hiroshima condo prices really rising, or are a few expensive sales distorting the data?
Hiroshima condo prices are genuinely rising; the trend now lasts long enough to survive the noise of individual months.
In the April–June quarter of 2024, West Japan REINS recorded an average Hiroshima Prefecture used-condo price of ¥357,000 per square meter. The same quarter reached ¥375,000 in 2025 and ¥398,000 in 2026.
That is an increase of about 11.5% in two years.
The average transaction price went from ¥25.91 million in Q2 2024 to ¥27.31 million in 2025 and ¥29.61 million in 2026. Some of the latest increase came from slightly larger apartments being sold, but that cannot explain a 6.2% rise in price per square meter.
The newest monthly figures strengthen the case further. REINS' three-month moving average has now shown year-on-year growth in the price per square meter for six months in a row. The latest reading was +7.6%.
Monthly Hiroshima data can jump around because the market is much smaller than Tokyo. One expensive batch of central apartments can move the average. Six consecutive positive readings, backed by two years of higher Q2 averages, are much harder to explain away that way.
The same direction now shows up in three separate datasets: quarterly condo transactions, the latest monthly condo figures and official land valuations. That is enough for us to call the current increase a real trend.
| Period | Avg. used-condo price/m² | YoY change | Avg. transaction price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q2 2024 | ¥357,000 | +9.6% | ¥25.91m |
| Q2 2025 | ¥375,000 | +5.2% | ¥27.31m |
| Q2 2026 | ¥398,000 | +6.2% | ¥29.61m |
| Latest monthly moving average | ¥375,000 | +7.6% | ¥27.22m |
Are Hiroshima buyers starting to hit their limit?
Yes. Hiroshima buyers are still accepting higher condo prices, but the newest sales figures finally show some resistance.
The strongest part of the earlier argument was that prices could rise without transaction volumes collapsing. During Q2, Hiroshima Prefecture recorded 284 used-condo transactions, almost identical to the previous year's 285, even as the average transaction price increased 8.4%.
The latest monthly series is less comfortable.
West Japan REINS now shows 94 transactions on its three-month moving-average measure, down 10.8% year on year. That was the fourth consecutive month of declining transaction volume.
At the same time, the average transaction price was still 8.7% higher and the price per square meter 7.6% higher.
That combination is worth watching closely. Sellers are still getting higher prices, but fewer transactions are clearing at those prices.
The mix has also changed during the year. In the Q2 data, apartments selling for ¥30 million or more represented 41.8% of transactions, compared with 37.4% a year earlier. Expensive units are taking a bigger share of the market.
For now, this looks like cooling liquidity rather than a price reversal. But it is probably the freshest warning in the Hiroshima market. If transaction counts keep falling while mortgage rates remain higher, sellers may eventually have to compromise.
Buying real estate in Hiroshima can be risky
An increasing number of foreign investors are showing interest. However, 90% of them will make mistakes. Avoid the pitfalls with our comprehensive guide.
Can Hiroshima's falling population eventually stop property prices rising?
Yes, especially outside the centre, and demographics are the biggest reason we do not expect Hiroshima to behave like Tokyo over the long run.
Hiroshima City lost about 28,300 residents between the 2020 and 2025 censuses. The latest city statistics also show an ageing population: roughly 312,000 residents are aged 65 or older, close to 27% of the total.
There is also a large existing housing stock. Hiroshima City counted around 73,700 vacant homes in the 2023 Housing and Land Survey, equivalent to roughly 11.7% of housing.
Those numbers put a ceiling on how bullish we can be.
Yet vacancy does not solve the shortage of the homes buyers want most. An empty ageing house far from a station cannot replace a modern condominium in Naka Ward. Even within central Hiroshima, vacant units may be old rentals, very small apartments or properties requiring expensive renovation.
The geographical split in the census makes the same point from another angle. Naka Ward gained both people and households while Asakita and Aki wards lost residents quickly.
Demographics should therefore work slowly but relentlessly through the market. Areas with weak transport, ageing housing and shrinking populations face a serious risk of stagnation. Central districts can continue appreciating for much longer because Hiroshima residents themselves are concentrating into them.
This also means the citywide average will become less useful over time. Two Hiroshima properties bought at the same price today could have completely different outcomes depending on their location and building quality.
Are rising construction costs keeping Hiroshima homes expensive?
Yes. High construction costs are making it harder for Hiroshima developers to deliver new apartments cheaply, and that helps support prices for good existing condos.
Japan's building-cost problem is still very much alive. The latest Construction Research Institute data show Tokyo's construction-cost index for reinforced-concrete apartment buildings around 44% above its 2015 base. The Construction Price Research Association's most recent building-cost release also shows costs remaining around historically high levels.
Hiroshima's exact construction bill will differ from Tokyo's, but developers across Japan buy many of the same materials and face the same shortage of construction labour.
The math for developers is simple. A developer paying more for land, labour, concrete, equipment and financing needs a higher selling price to make a project worthwhile. If buyers refuse that price, the project can be delayed, redesigned with smaller units or cancelled.
That restricts new supply.
Existing apartments benefit because buyers compare a used home with the cost of buying something newly built. An older condo can look much more attractive when a comparable new unit has become dramatically more expensive.
Construction costs will not prevent prices from ever falling. A recession can still overwhelm them. But today they make a return to the cheap new-build prices of a decade ago extremely difficult.
Don't lose money on your property in Hiroshima
100% of people who have lost money there have spent less than 1 hour researching the market. We have reviewed everything there is to know. Grab our guide now.
Are Hiroshima rents rising fast enough to justify higher property prices?
Only partly. Hiroshima rents provide some support to property values, but they are not climbing nearly fast enough to justify every increase in purchase prices.
Current AtHome listings put Hiroshima City's typical rents at about ¥70,000 for a 1LDK, ¥72,000 for a 2LDK and ¥80,000 for a 3LDK, based on properties advertised during the latest three-month period.
The more interesting pattern is that family-sized housing has generally been stronger than the smallest rental units. Earlier AtHome data showed rents on 50–70 square meter apartments rising more clearly than rents on sub-30-square-meter apartments.
That fits what we see elsewhere in the market. Larger, well-located units appeal to owner-occupiers as well as tenants, while small rental apartments face more competition from existing stock.
For investors, the mismatch between rents and purchase prices is important. If an apartment rises 7% or 8% while its rent barely moves, the gross rental yield falls. At some point, an investor will choose another property, another city or another asset.
So rental growth gives Hiroshima some support, particularly for good family apartments, but the market currently relies more heavily on land scarcity, expensive replacement costs and owner-occupier demand.
Future price gains therefore look more likely to moderate than to keep matching the strongest recent condo numbers.
Which Hiroshima properties are most likely to keep rising?
Well-located Hiroshima condos and scarce central land have the best chance of appreciating; old property in shrinking, inconvenient locations is much harder to defend.
We would currently favour Naka Ward and the central parts of Minami Ward, particularly properties with easy access to Hiroshima Station, Hatchobori, Kamiyacho, Hakushima, Nobori-cho, Kaminobori-cho, Kyobashi, Otemachi and the main tram and rail corridors.
Location alone is not enough for a condominium.
A building with healthy reserve funds, sensible maintenance planning, modern earthquake standards and a strong management association can age surprisingly well. A similar-looking building with inadequate reserves and a large repair bill coming can lose buyers quickly.
Family-sized condos also look stronger than generic studio stock. They can attract owner-occupiers, couples and families, so resale demand does not depend entirely on investors. Current rental evidence also points to better pressure in larger units.
Detached houses require even more selectivity. Flat, convenient urban land can retain substantial value even when the house itself depreciates. An old house in a distant hillside subdivision can suffer from both building depreciation and weaker land demand.
That distinction will become more important as Hiroshima ages. We expect buyers to pay increasingly large premiums for convenience, walkability and buildings that will still be easy to sell ten years from now.
Get the full checklist for your due diligence in Hiroshima
Don't repeat the same mistakes others have made before you. Make sure everything is in order before signing your sales contract.
What could actually make Hiroshima property prices fall?
Higher mortgage rates combined with weaker transaction volumes are the most credible near-term route to a Hiroshima property downturn.
Borrowing has already become noticeably more expensive. MUFG currently advertises a variable mortgage rate around 1.195% for qualifying new borrowers, while its ten-year fixed rate is 3.63%. The most common Flat 35 rate for a 21–35 year loan is currently 3.46%.
A ¥40 million mortgage over 35 years costs roughly ¥117,000 a month at 1.2%. At 2%, that moves to about ¥133,000. At 3.5%, it approaches ¥165,000.
For a Hiroshima household, an extra ¥40,000–¥50,000 every month changes what can realistically be paid for a home.
We would become materially more bearish if today's falling transaction volume turned into several quarters of weaker sales, mortgage rates climbed further and central household growth started fading at the same time.
A recession or employment shock would add another problem. Hiroshima's residential market is still mainly driven by people who live and work in the region, so local incomes matter much more than foreign investment flows.
Peripheral areas have another risk entirely: demographics. Some neighbourhoods can lose value even while central Hiroshima continues climbing.
No single one of these pressures has broken the market yet. The combination is what would change our view.
| Risk | What is happening now | What would worry us more | Likely impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mortgage rates | Variable loans around 1.2%; fixed much higher | Variable rates moving clearly above 2% | Lower buyer budgets |
| Condo transactions | Latest measure -10.8% YoY | Persistent double-digit declines | Sellers lose pricing power |
| Population | City -2.4% in five years | Central households also start falling | Broader demand weakness |
| Construction costs | Still historically high | Major cost decline alongside weak demand | New-build price support weakens |
| Peripheral demographics | Already weak in several wards | Faster population and household losses | Localized price declines |
Will property prices rise in Hiroshima over the next few years?
Yes. We expect Hiroshima property prices to rise overall over the next few years, with central condos and scarce urban land doing considerably better than the city's weaker peripheral housing.
The case is fairly consistent across the data. Used-condo prices per square meter are still around 6–8% above last year's levels depending on the period measured. Official residential land values remain positive. Prime central appraisal points have continued moving higher. Hiroshima Station's redevelopment is now operating, construction remains expensive and central households are holding up much better than the city's headline population.
There is now one reason to be more cautious than before: transaction volumes. The latest REINS series shows used-condo sales down 10.8% year on year even while prices continue rising. Buyers have started showing more resistance.
That makes another run of effortless 8–10% annual appreciation much harder to assume.
Our base case is slower nominal growth, probably a few percent per year for good Hiroshima property rather than permanent high-single-digit increases. Some central sites and unusually desirable buildings can beat that. Many outer suburban homes will not.
The strongest case remains central Naka Ward, the Hiroshima Station side of Minami Ward and other locations where transport, jobs, services and scarce flat land overlap.
For old homes in declining car-dependent neighbourhoods, we would be much more cautious. Hiroshima's demographic divide is already too large to ignore.
So will property prices rise in Hiroshima? Mostly yes. The next phase should reward the properties people are concentrating into while leaving a growing share of Hiroshima's older peripheral housing behind.
Don't sign a document you don't understand in Hiroshima
Buying a property over there? We have reviewed all the documents you need to know. Stay out of trouble - grab our comprehensive guide.
OUR METHODOLOGY
This analysis tests whether property prices in Hiroshima are likely to keep rising by separating the market into the factors that can actually move prices: resale transaction momentum, land values, geographic concentration, demographics, accessibility, construction costs, rents, financing conditions and market liquidity.
We prioritized completed transactions when assessing what buyers are actually paying. West Japan REINS monthly and quarterly data were used for used-condo transaction prices, price per square metre, transaction counts, floor area, price-band composition and multi-period comparisons. Multi-month and quarterly series help reduce the noise created by Hiroshima's relatively small number of monthly transactions.
Land-price analysis uses Hiroshima Prefecture's 2026 official appraisal results and individual appraisal points from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's Real Estate Information Library. These data were used to compare prefecture-wide residential growth with the much stronger movement in specific central Hiroshima locations.
Demographic analysis uses Hiroshima City's 2025 census results rather than relying only on the headline city population. We compare population and household changes across individual wards because a city can lose residents while household demand continues concentrating in selected central neighbourhoods. Hiroshima City's elderly-population statistics and the 2023 Housing and Land Survey were also used for the longer-term ageing and vacancy assessment.
Hiroshima Station was treated as an accessibility and land-demand factor rather than as a standalone reason for property prices to rise. JR West and Hiroshima City sources were used for the new station building, minamoa, transport integration, pedestrian improvements and the new streetcar route into the station. Hiroshima City's tourism statistics provide additional context on visitor volumes and spending around an increasingly important transport hub.
Rental evidence comes from AtHome's Hiroshima City asking-rent data and its rental-market datasets by apartment size. We use rents mainly to test whether higher purchase prices are being matched by stronger rental income, rather than treating asking rents as completed lease transactions.
Construction costs are used as a replacement-cost check. Data from the Construction Research Institute and the Economic Research Association show that apartment-building and construction-input costs remain historically high. Hiroshima's exact project costs differ from Tokyo's, so these indices are used to establish the national cost environment rather than to estimate the budget of a specific Hiroshima development.
Mortgage affordability is tested using current advertised rates from MUFG and Flat 35. We use those rates to illustrate how changing financing costs alter monthly payments and buyer budgets. The payment examples are affordability scenarios rather than forecasts of where mortgage rates will move next.
The final outlook is not a mechanical extrapolation of Hiroshima's latest appreciation rate. Recent price momentum establishes the starting point, while transaction liquidity, household concentration, rents, construction costs, accessibility, financing and demographics are used to judge how durable that momentum is and which parts of Hiroshima are most exposed to it.
Key sources include: West Japan REINS' July 2026 monthly report, West Japan REINS' Q2 2026 quarterly report, the West Japan REINS historical report archive, Hiroshima Prefecture's 2026 official land-price appraisal results, MLIT's Real Estate Information Library, Hiroshima City's 2025 census results, Hiroshima City's elderly-population statistics, the 2023 Housing and Land Survey for Hiroshima City, JR West's Hiroshima Station redevelopment information, Hiroshima City's assessment of station-area transport and pedestrian improvements, Hiroshima City's information on the new Ekimae Ohashi streetcar route, Hiroshima City's 2025 tourism statistics, AtHome's Hiroshima City asking-rent data, AtHome's July 2026 rental-market dataset, construction-cost index data, construction-material price indices, MUFG's current mortgage rates, and current Flat 35 rates.
Get fresh and reliable information about the market in Hiroshima
Don't base significant investment decisions on outdated data. Get updated and accurate information.
Related blog posts
- Is Hiroshima a good place to live as an expat?
- What are the biggest risks when buying property in Hiroshima?
- What rental yield can you get in Hiroshima now?
- How much does a house cost in Hiroshima now?
- What can your budget buy in Hiroshima?
- Is buying property to rent out in Hiroshima still worth it?
