## (c) Preparing the used house distribution and renovation market responsive to consumer needs

Only an attractive home renovation market should deserve revitalization. From this viewpoint, consumer seminars were held 56 times at mass-merchandising stores, housing fairs, home renovation showrooms and other parts of Japan during FY2012 to impart the charms of home renovation to a total of 13,491 participants and advise them on what to remember in renovating their homes.

To help upgrade the quality of housing stocks and activate the distribution of existing houses, an existing house distribution and renovation project was conducted, which finances part of the costs of construction, etc. when consumers purchase and renovate houses for their own dwelling or when the large-scale repairs of apartment houses built for sale are carried out subject to inspections conducted by the Housing Insurance Company, subscription to a defect liability insurance coverage, registration and retention of historical information and so on.

## ② Forming long-lasting quality stocks

## (a) Housing quality assurance

A 10-year defect liability obligation has been mandated for the basic structural part of new housing in accordance with the Housing Quality Assurance Act. At the same time, Housing Performance Indication System has been put into effect that makes an objective assessment of the basic performance characteristics of new and existing houses, such as earthquake resistance, energy efficiency and protection against the sick-house syndrome. In FY2012, Performance Evaluation Report for Housing Plans were issued on 202,960 houses to assess them in their stage of design documentation, when compared with Performance Evaluation Report after completion of construction (New Housing) issued on 168,942 houses to evaluate them on field testing and Performance Evaluation Report after completion of construction (Existing Housing) issued on 372 existing houses.

Disputes arising in connection with houses that have been subjected to a housing construction performance evaluation are to be promptly and legitimately settled by local bar associations, a designated housing dispute resolution body, with support from the Center for Housing Renovation and Dispute Settlement Support. The Center also accepts applications for consultation on housing issues. In FY2012, the designated housing dispute resolution body received 29 applications to resolve housing disputes, whereas the Center received 20,629 applications for consultation.

## (b) Measures to extend the life of housing

The Ministry pursues the dissemination of housing that is structured and equipped to meet certain levels of performance requirements or higher, such as durability and ease of maintenance and management (“Long-life Quality Housing”) under the Act for Promotion of Long-Life Quality Housing so that the housing can be used continuously for extended periods of time and in good condition (107,449 houses were accredited as “Long-life Quality Housing” in FY2012).

## (c) Promotion of wooden housing

In recognition of the national need for wooden housing such that as much as 80% of the Japanese people favor wooden housing, $ ^{Note1} $ the Ministry supports not only supplying long-life quality wooden housing by a group of relevant companies -sustainable wood suppliers to designers and home builders- but also developing human resources relevant to the construction of wooden housing, in order to form stocks of quality wooden housing.

## ③ Securing housing that fulfills various living needs and filling the gap between supply and demand for housing

## (a) Home financing

The Japan Housing Finance Agency (“JHF”) offers securitization support services to provide long-term housing loans with a relatively low fixed-rate from private financial institutions. These services include the Flat 35 (purchase type), where the housing loan credits from private financial institutions are aggregated and securitized, and the Flat 35 (guarantee type), where support is provided to a private financial institution that acts as the lenders' Note 2 and securitizes such loans by themselves. 333 financial institutions conduct the Flat 35 (purchase type); the number of applications for loan purchase reached 752,215 contracts and the number of loan purchase reached 527,972 contracts as of March 2013. Five financial