The Japanese housing market experienced its seventh consecutive month of decline in December, according to Wednesday's data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism, however, the rate of decline was slower than anticipated.
The year-on-year housing starts in December decreased by 4.0%, less than the 8.5% decline reported in November, and below economists' forecast of a 6.2% decrease. The data indicated that new construction contracts were down across most categories, with the exception of large scale building.
Despite the general decline, the seasonally adjusted annual number of housing starts increased to 814,000 in December, up from 789,000 in November. Furthermore, the data highlighted a 0.4% annual increase in construction orders received by the top 50 contractors in December, following a significant 33.6% boost in the preceding month.
