Sustainability

Aiming to Be a Real Estate Company Needed by Society

The OPEN HOUSE Group started as a real estate broker of single-family homes in Tokyo’s Jonan area, which includes the Minato, Shinagawa, Meguro and Ota wards, and later added the sales of built-for-sale houses and condominiums and worked to expand that business area. Through our business activities, we have come to realize that what people desire in a “house” has changed together with changes in their sense of value and lifestyles. We would like OPEN HOUSE to be a company that accurately grasps these changes and diversification and continues to provide our customers with options for “houses” that meet their wishes and various changes in society. In Japanese society, given the near certainty of an anticipated decline in the population along with the aging society and falling birthrate, we believe that the real estate environment will enter a very challenging phase. However, even under these conditions, by offering “houses that customers want,” we will continue aiming for further growth to be a company needed by society.

As stated in our corporate philosophy, the Group will continue our diligent pursuit of providing houses that customers want while engaging in business that fulfills our mission of “leaving a Japan for the next generation where working people can afford houses in urban areas.” By aiming to solve the following social issues and promoting our original initiatives, we provide customers with “houses at affordable prices in urban areas” through our business and are working to fulfill needs for both social and business value by creating shared value (CSV: Creating Shared Value). Through our business activities that support dual-income households and families with small children where one or both parents work, we hope to contribute to the creation of a sustainable society.

Social Issue (1) - It has become difficult to purchase housing at an affordable price in large cities in developed countries

Ratio of house prices to annual household income in major cities around the world

Source: "DEMOGRAPHIA INTERNATIONAL HOUSING AFFORDABILITY 2023 EDITION"
Real Estate Economic Research Institute “Nationwide new condominium market trends 2022”
Tokyo Kantei “Average Price of Newly Built (Small) Single-Family Houses” (2022)
Daiwa Institute of Research: "In Tokyo's 23 wards, the median annual income for households with children in their 30s approaches 10 million yen."

Trends in the average price of new condominiums in Tokyo's 23 wards

Source: Real Estate Economic Research Institute “Nationwide new condominium market trends 2022”

Social Issue (2) - 70% of households in Japan are dual-income households with an average annual household income of 7.85 million yen

Trends in double-income households/households with full-time housewives (nationwide)

Source: “White Paper on Gender Equality 2020”, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan
Labor force survey, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

Household Income and Individual Income (23 Wards of Tokyo)

Source: Annualized based on the actual monthly income of households (working families) with two-or-more person household, obtained from the report "Family Income and Expenditure Survey," the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
Calculated by diving taxable income by the number of taxpayers, based on data obtained from the report "Survey of Taxation of Municipal Inhabitant Taxes, etc." by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

While recognizing the above social issues, the Group has established a value chain with an “integrated system from purchase and construction to brokerage and sales” where we handle all aspects from purchasing land to design, construction management and sales as our business model to quickly reflect customer preferences in purchases and provide a stable supply of affordable houses in convenient locations. By doing so, we are working together with our partner companies to solve the issues.

Integrated System from Purchase and Construction to Brokerage and Sales

Providing Single-Family Homes in the 40-Million-Yen Range in Urban Areas

Together with the changing lifestyles of Japanese people amid the falling birthrate and increase in the number of dual-income families, changes have appeared in the needs of customers, such as “being close to the train station is more important than the size of the house” and “as a dual-income household that is usually not home during the day, getting a lot of sunlight is not a high priority.” Particularly for dual-income households in urban areas, the needs have been changing from “a large house even if it is far from the city” previously to “my own home in the city even if it is a bit more compact.”
The Group was among the first to uncover these potential needs and actively worked to provide three-story houses on small lots of land. By purchasing land in favorable locations and developing the sites after dividing the land, we are able to provide products that meet the needs of society for affordable houses with good access to public transportation to more customers, and the Group’s core business has continued to expand.

Rebuilding Older Houses

Of the wooden houses in the areas where the Group currently conducts business, the number of very old houses with an age over 40 years built in 1980 and earlier account for approximately 25% of the total*.
By replacing these houses, which have insufficient fire-resistance, quake-resistance, and insulation performance, with new houses, we believe that we contribute to society by strengthening our ability to respond to natural disasters and by helping to prevent global warming.

* Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, 2018 Housing and Land Survey

Revitalizing Communities

The houses that are subject to redevelopment are mostly older houses and tend to be vacant. By replacing these houses to suit the needs of the working generation, we help to revitalize communities by increasing the number of families with small children and other residents in the area.

Utilizing Land Effectively

The average land area per lot for a single-family home before redevelopment is approximately 40 tsubo (132.2㎡, 1423 sq. ft) *¹, and the land price per lot based on the average price in residential areas is 78 million yen *², which is considered to be too expensive for a typical company employee to purchase. The Group provides affordable houses in the heart of the city by dividing land into multiple lots to reduce the cost per lot while ensuring sufficient floor area by building three-story houses on compact lots.

*¹ Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, 1988 Housing and Land Survey
*² Calculated based on the average land price in residential areas of the 23 wards of Tokyo in 2019 Land Price Survey by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bureau of Finance

ONE TREE, MAKE A FOREST PROJECT

To contribute to biodiversity, we engage in community development focused on the natural environment of towns by planting well-balanced greenery.
As there is limited space for green spaces around urban homes, we aim to create green environments by creatively placing planters in the small spaces by front doors, etc. using our experience and planning abilities in urban home design.
We started the “ONE TREE, MAKE A FOREST PROJECT” in May 2021 and, through collaboration with Universal Engeisha Co., Ltd., will propose lifestyles in which families can enjoy living in houses in the city with trees nearby.
We will continue our efforts to contribute to society through our core businesses.

Calculation period: from October of previous year to September of this year

Responding to New Lifestyles in the Age of Post COVID-19

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread, our lifestyles changed drastically. While families have been able to spend more time together at home, the demand for workspaces in houses rose due to the increasing opportunities to work at home. Because single-family homes have many individual rooms, we are able to respond to new lifestyles by utilizing small spaces to provide workspaces.

Note: The above photos show examples of houses, including available options.

Access to Public Transportation

Most of the Group’s main customers in the single-family homes related business are dual-income households and families with small children where one or both parents work. In cases where both the spouses commute to work, there is a strong tendency to place priority on convenience of using public transportation to shorten commuting time as it can be a significant burden on households. Therefore, the Group focuses on our customers’ convenience of using public transportation in all properties and provides properties in urban areas in locations that are mainly within walking distance of public transportation (train stations).
In addition to the single-family homes business, the Group also has the condominiums business targeting single- and two-person households that provides properties in locations mainly within a five-minute walk from public transportation (train stations) as these customers desire greater convenience.