FX.co ★ Japan Housing Starts Drop the Most in 3 Months

Japan’s housing starts fell 4.9% year-on-year in February 2026, a sharper decline than the 0.4% drop recorded in January and slightly worse than market expectations of a 4.7% decrease. This was the fourth consecutive month of contraction and the steepest fall since November, underscoring persistent weakness in the property sector amid elevated construction costs and subdued demand. The downturn was broad-based, spanning all major segments: rental housing (-2.7% vs -1.5% in January), owner-occupied homes (-4.7% vs +6.6%), built-for-sale housing (-8.8% vs -4.8%), prefabricated housing (-2.2% vs +5.1%), and two-by-four homes (-7.7% vs +8.7%).