## (3) Securing proper management by condominium management service firms

To ensure proper management of growing stocks of condominium, a system of registration for condominium management services entities and service regulations have been put into effect to ensure their proper management in accordance with the Act on Advancement of Proper Condominium Management. As of the end of 2011, 2,319 condominium management services entities were registered, with no significant changes in their number of the last couple of years.

From a viewpoint of promoting the code compliance of condominium management services entities, on-the-spot inspections have been conducted on condominium management services entities.

## (4) Revitalizing the real estate market

## ① Present status of the real estate market

Japan’s real estate had a total asset value of about 2,500 trillion yen as of the end of FY2011. Note 1

The asset amount of the real estate or the beneficial interest in trust on the real estate that were acquired by J-REIT (real estate investment entity), real estate specified joint enterprises, special-purpose companies and so on as objects of securitization during FY2012 stood at about 3.3 trillion yen.

The dominant player in the real estate investment market, J-REIT resumed new listing in FY2012 for the first in four years since FY2009, listing six new stocks for a single year in FY2012. As of the end of March 2013, 39 stocks were listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, with the target real estate having a total of about 10 trillion yen and the real estate investment securities having a quote value of about seven trillion yen.

Right after the Great East Japan Earthquake that took place on March 11, 2011, the Tokyo Stock Exchange REIT Index, an indication of the movement of prices in the listed J-REIT market as a whole, slipped from the closing price of 1092.29 on the day previous to the quake down to 926.83 on March 15, 2011, but it but picked up to 1055.18 by the end of March 2011, since the impact of the quake upon the real estate owned by J-REIT was limited, relevant information was made available promptly and funds, including a Bank of Japan fund for purchasing assets, purchased J-REIT investment lots.

Subsequently, worsening European sovereign debt crises had a dampening effect on the investors' mind to invest in risky assets, with the Tokyo Stock Exchange REIT Index sagging to 805.64 points (on November 28, 2011) temporarily. But a decision to consolidate monetary relaxations made at the Bank of Japan Monetary Policy Meeting (February 14, 2012) triggered a comeback in the stock market, with the Tokyo Stock Exchange REIT Index picking up. As of the end of March 2013, the Index restored its January 2008 level of 1642.79 points.

## ② Conditioning the real estate market

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism surveys real estate trade prices, etc. nationwide in a bid to make the real estate market more transparent and streamline and reactivate deals. Information thus collected from such surveys, including locations, areas and prices of real properties traded, is uploaded at a Website on the Internet (Land General Information System $ ^{Note\ 2} $ ) with due care taken to prevent identification of the individual properties (as of March 2012, information on 1,614,213 properties was posted, attracting a total of about 340,000,000 accesses).

Further, information that is created by processing trade price information held on Real Estate Information Network Systems for IP Services (REINS) is made available through a real estate trade information Web site. $ ^{Note3} $ The Tokyo Stock Exchange has developed housing price indices based on information about successful real state deals in cooperation with bodies concerned, such as REINS and has released them on a trial basis since April 2011. Furthermore, the real estate industry has opened up a general real estate Web site (Real Estate Japan), $ ^{Note4} $ an integrated source of information on the properties handled by real estate dealers accessible to consumers, in its concerted effort. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has consistently supported these industry efforts.