Tokyo Builds Homes About as Fast as Houston, Three Times the Pace of New York

Tokyo Builds Homes About as Fast as Houston, Three Times the Pace of New York

Tokyo is one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world, yet it builds new homes at about the same pace as Houston, Texas.

In 2024, Tokyo prefecture started 8.7 new homes per 1,000 residents, in line with Dallas-Fort Worth at 8.6 and Houston at 8.5. New York managed only 2.9, Los Angeles 2.1 and San Francisco 1.3. Greater Tokyo, which adds Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba, still came in at 7.7.

The difference is who gets to decide whether a building goes up. Japan's zoning is set nationally in a little over a dozen categories. Each one caps how noisy or dense a district can get, and any quieter use is automatically allowed, so small apartment buildings can go up in low-density residential areas. A project that meets the rules gets its permit without case-by-case local review. In the US, each city writes its own zoning, many residential areas allow only single-family houses, and switching to apartments means applying project by project.

The chart actually understates Tokyo. The US does not publish housing starts for metro areas, so the American figures are building permits, and permits usually run above actual starts. Tokyo is probably already building faster than Houston.

Source: Home Economics, Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, US Census Bureau (Image: @AzizSunderji)