Purchases of condominiums by single women and their backgrounds in Tokyo: Housing problems for women

Abstract

Recently some single women are purchasing their own houses and the number of houses owned by single women is increasing in Tokyo. The article aims to clarify why single women tend to purchase their houses in Tokyo. The author uses the experience reports of housing ownership by single women in the Tokyo metropolitan region. These experience reports contain their economic conditions, their working conditions and their lifestyle. We can understand the housing demands of single women from these reports, because these sources are collected for marketing research. Furthermore the author tries to clarify the background of housing problems for women in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Single women continue to work after they own their house and want to avoid housing problems in their old age. It is important that they can save housing cost by purchasing houses, because housing loan becomes cheaper than rent, which was caused by low rate of interest rent policy. However all women who purchase their houses are not so rich. They want to own their houses because they are not satisfied with the expensive rent price in Tokyo, the costly and cumbersome charge of broker's procedure and anxiety regarding their old age. Furthermore many single women want to enrich their life by ownership of a house. Because of lack of housing policy for them single women tend to try to reduce their housing problems in future and to change their life.