Daiwa House Industry has decided to scale back orders for newly built detached houses, setting a policy that limits custom home sale prices to ¥50 million and up. The company will concentrate its sales operations in urban areas like Tokyo and Osaka, withdrawing from 23 prefectures. Soaring material and labor costs have eroded profitability in its domestic housing business, prompting a push to raise unit prices and shore up earnings. On 5ch, while some voiced sentiments like “the era of ordinary people being able to buy a house is over,” the thread developed into a practical discussion comparing prices and specs with other builders like Ichijo Komuten and Sekisui House, the differences versus spec-built (tatsuuri) or build-to-order-condition homes, and whether single-story or two-story houses offer better value.
Daiwa House Industry will scale back orders for newly built detached houses. Custom home sale prices will be limited to ¥50 million and up. The company will concentrate its sales functions in urban areas such as Tokyo and Osaka, withdrawing from 23 prefectures. Its domestic housing business has seen profits squeezed by rising material and labor costs, and it is rushing to improve earnings by raising unit prices.
High interest rates and inflation are weighing down housing demand, while labor shortages in the construction industry are constraining home sales and construction activity. Major nationwide homebuilders are moving to fundamentally overhaul their business structures…(continues in the paid edition, 1,308 characters remaining)
Nikkei, September 3, 2026, 18:00 (Updated September 3, 2026, 19:33)
Source: nikkei.com / Original article here
13AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:03
Well then just go with Ichijo Komuten
18AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:06
Re: #13
Isn't Ichijo getting pricier too because of the weak yen?
Still, I think it's better value for money than other homebuilders.
24AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:06
Re: #13
Ichijo Komuten builds sturdy houses, but the design is really boxy/rigid.
No rounded edges, so if you stub your little toe on a corner you're headed to the hospital.
Also the flooring quality is way below Sekisui, Daiwa, or Sumitomo Forestry.
131AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:40
Re: #13
You can't compare Uniqlo to Louis Vuitton lol
39AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:11
Re: #24
You can just add the upgrade option.
When we built ours we went with the "Live Natural Premium" solid sawn-board flooring — swapping the flooring on both the 1st and 2nd floors cost about an extra ¥500,000.
Satisfaction level is night and day, so it's absolutely worth changing.
Whole-house floor heating plus solid wood flooring feels amazing when you lie down on the floor in winter.
58AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:17
Re: #39
Damn, you're loaded.
Jealous.
92AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:28
Re: #39
Oh man, you really went and did it (lol)
74AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:23
¥50 million… that's basically my entire lifetime earnings.
87AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:26
Re: #74
No matter how much you add or multiply zero, it's still zero.
96AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:29
Re: #74
Come on, that can't be right…
Even at the lowest estimate you'd work 40 years, so if ¥50 million were your lifetime income, that'd mean an annual salary of just ¥1.25 million.
77AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:24
> The sales offices being closed cover all of Hokkaido, Tohoku, Koshinetsu, and Hokuriku, plus some prefectures in Kinki, Chugoku, Shikoku, and Kyushu, where they'll stop taking new orders.
So it's a full withdrawal from Hokkaido, Tohoku, Koshinetsu, and Hokuriku?
Strange that some of Shikoku is staying though —
Guess they just don't want to build cold-climate spec houses.
107AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:33
Re: #77
I'm out in the sticks in snow country, and when heavy snow piles up high on the roof it comes crashing down all at once.
If you're standing underneath you'd get seriously hurt, and I'm always nervous it'll smash the siding or windows lol
183AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:54
Re: #77
It's cost-cutting, duh
190AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:56
Re: #77
I think it's because construction work grinds to a halt once it snows.
89AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:26
Re: #79
I wouldn't live in a danchi (public housing block) even if you paid me.
93AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:28
Re: #89
Why not? Have you never lived in an apartment?
99AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:30
Re: #93
In college I only ever lived in a studio apartment.
Kodan housing means danchi, right?
I wouldn't want to live in a place like that.
Something about it just feels gloomy.
106AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:33
Re: #99
If it's a municipal danchi that's been properly renovated, they've done seismic reinforcement and added elevators, and the interiors are clean.
There's usually a supermarket nearby too.
Though surprisingly there are conditions — like your income has to be below a certain level, or you need 3+ years of residency in that municipality.
119AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:37
Re: #99
Danchi housing was way cheaper than an apartment ☺
The soundproofing was solid.
Back when the going rate for a 3LDK out in the countryside was ¥85,000, I got burned twice by noisy apartments. That's no good 😣. I wonder if upscale apartments don't have noise problems — never lived in one so I wouldn't know.
117AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:35
The era of ordinary people being able to buy a house is over.
120AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:37
Re: #117
It's just custom-order homes that are expensive.
If you go with a catalog type where you pick from preset layouts, you get less freedom but it's still relatively affordable.
166AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:51
Re: #120
> If you go with a catalog type where you pick from preset layouts, you get less freedom but it's still relatively affordable
Slightly different point, but build-to-order-condition (kenchiku-jōken-tsuki) homes are basically spec-built houses (in practice you can only change things like exterior color or interior fixtures), so you can build one for just a bit more than a spec-built home.
Though spec-built homes themselves used to run around ¥15-20 million not too long ago — now they seem to be topping ¥20 million.
176AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:53
Re: #120,166
Even that has shot up over the past 3-4 years.
A double whammy of soaring material costs (weak yen) and labor shortages
has pushed the per-tsubo price up by ¥200,000-300,000.
135AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:41
Built with Sekisui House five years ago — went with mid-grade materials for a two-story, 40-tsubo house and it came out to almost exactly ¥50 million.
If I'd picked the top-of-the-line kitchen, bath, and toilet fixtures it probably would've added another ¥20 million.
140AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:44
Re: #135
You're loaded, man.
158AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:49
Re: #135
Well, Sekisui House is on the pricier side, so…
150AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:46
Re: #145
Even a mild stroke and you won't be able to climb to the 2nd floor on your own anymore.
167AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:51
Re: #150
Aren't kids' rooms usually on the 2nd floor lol
Or are you planning not to have kids?
178AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:54
Re: #167
Even among households with kids, more couples are building single-story houses these days with the future in mind.
189AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:56
Re: #178
But between a single-story house and a full two-story house,
for the same total floor area, the full two-story one is actually cheaper to build,
since it needs a smaller foundation and roof.
193AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:57
Re: #178
Only rich people can afford to build single-story houses.
You need more land, and the structure itself costs more since the roof and foundation are bigger.
My image of who builds single-story homes is childless couples who don't need much floor space.
152AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:47
There sure are a mysterious number of Ichijo Komuten fanboys on 5ch.
155AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:48
Re: #152
The balance between insulation performance and price is really good.
161AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:50
Re: #152
They've got a product lineup ranging from cheap to expensive,
and their sturdiness is top-class.
On the flip side, the standard flooring is built cheap since it's meant to be pulled up for maintenance anyway.
160AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:49
My family's storage shed has had a leaky roof for 40 years now.
No energy or money to fix it.
163AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:50
Re: #160
Just fix it yourself.
Just be careful not to fall off.
168AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:51
Re: #160
Just throw a blue tarp over it.
199AnonymousSep 3, 2026 20:59
Single-story houses are scary when it comes to flooding.
204AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:01
Re: #199
Yeah, the risk is high — I wish flood countermeasures like Ichijo's would become standard.
206AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:01
Re: #199
Same here —
though installing a lift to get up to the 2nd floor once you're older is also an option.
213AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:03
Re: #199
That just means you picked the wrong plot of land.
212AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:03
People keep going on about prefab houses, but plumbing/fixtures and exterior work cost extra —
you'll spend another ¥10 million beyond the house itself.
Plus they're weak against typhoons.
218AnonymousSep 3, 2026 21:04
Re: #212
That's where container houses come in.
Background and Key Points
The 23 prefectures Daiwa House is withdrawing from include many cold-climate, heavy-snowfall regions such as Hokkaido and Tohoku, suggesting that the cost burden of snow removal and snow-resistant specifications influenced the withdrawal decision. Meanwhile, the per-tsubo price of custom-built homes has risen by roughly ¥200,000-300,000 over the past 3-4 years, driven by the simultaneous pressures of yen-weakness-driven material cost increases and labor shortages in construction. On the thread, people with actual home-building experience shared concrete accounts of how the total cost can swing by several million yen depending on options like flooring and kitchens. Note, however, that the original article is subscriber-only, so details on the 23 prefectures being exited and Daiwa House’s future earnings targets can only be confirmed via the original source.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Breaking News Plus) thread “Daiwa House Scales Back New-Build Orders — Minimum Price Now ¥50 Million Amid Cost Inflation.”
