Market Overview

Number of cases by real estate agencies to buy secondhand homes to resell them after renovations or remodeling is increasing year by year. The existing home buying and reselling market size (total number of houses and condominiums bought and resold) in 2022 has been estimated as 41,000 units, up by 5.1% from the previous year based on the number of completed cases for buying and reselling of secondhand housing.
The main factor for market expansion is the increase in demand for secondhand homes. As the price for newly built housing, especially new condominiums for sale, have kept on skyrocketing without calming down, relatively inexpensive used housing is more demanded. Among them, those homes that have been bought and sold by real estate agencies are popular because they have already been renovated and refurbished, allowing the buyers to live right away.

Noteworthy Topics

Existing Home Buying and Selling Businesses Showed Strong Performance until 2022

Major existing home buying and selling businesses generally have enjoyed strong performances for the past several years. In particular, the sales until the end of 2022 were extremely good.
The reason for this was, in addition to newly built housing prices kept on soaring to have encouraged the demand for less pricey used homes, longer hours at home amid the corona crisis increased the demand for acquiring residence. Against this backdrop, these businesses were able to sell secondhand homes relatively quickly at their suggested price for some time. The combination of increased used-home sales in association with more demand for home acquisition and higher unit selling price caused by the strong sales at seller’s asking price has given rise to those existing home buying and selling businesses to secure increased sales and profit.

Future Outlook

The existing home buying and reselling market size is projected to rise by 2.4% to 42,000 units in 2023. The market is promising onward, with the market size in 2030 expected to increase by 22.0% from that in 2022 to 50,000 units.

The main factors of market expansion owe to the external environment, such as moderate rise expected based on low interest rate though higher mortgage rates anticipated, and continuation of tax incentives for acquiring homes, which is projected to keep the favorable conditions for home acquisition.  
From the aspect of supply and demand, the demand for obtaining secondhand homes through existing home buying and selling businesses is likely to increase stably, as those businesses offer the secondhand homes just like new ones thanks to renovations but at less pricey prices. Meanwhile, the number of housing stocks that need renovations and remodeling will doubtlessly increase as buildings age, leading to amply supply for the market, which is another market growth factor.
Furthermore, the recent SDGs and ESG trend is a tailwind for the market expansion because it is worthwhile for those businesses buying and selling existing homes to distribute quality housing stocks, as they contribute to realization of circular society and lifestyles, which, in turn, encourages consumers to proactively choose secondhand homes.

Research Outline