Osaka Property Prices: What the Market Data Shows

Guide

As of September 29, 2026, the main statistics on Osaka property prices put the April–June quarter and this year's land values above a year earlier. Resale condominiums in Osaka City sold for 8.7% more on average in April–June 2026 than a year before, and residential land prices in Osaka Prefecture rose again in both 2026 surveys.^[1]^[2]^[3] The latest monthly figures from the Osaka property market are weaker: the average contract price in Osaka City was below the previous year in both July and August 2026, while the average asking price of units newly listed in August was still 17.8% higher than a year earlier.^[4]^[5] This guide explains what each statistic measures and how to set a listing against it. Nothing here is a forecast.

Contract, asking, new-build, index, land: telling Osaka figures apart

The figures quoted about the Osaka property market measure different things, and they are easy to mix up. Before reading any number, check which of these it is:

Statistic	What it measures	Source and timing
Resale contract prices	Prices in sales contracts for resale homes reported to the regional listing network	Kinki REINS, monthly and quarterly
New listing (asking) prices	Prices at which resale homes were newly put on the market	Kinki REINS, monthly
New-build release prices	Prices at which developers released new condominium units for sale	Real Estate Economic Institute, monthly and half-yearly
Residential property price index (Osaka Prefecture series)	A quality-adjusted index of transaction prices, 2010 average = 100	Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), monthly
Land prices	The price per square metre of land at selected sites	MLIT (values as of January 1) and Osaka Prefecture (values as of July 1), once a year each

Asking prices are what sellers hope for; contract prices are what buyers agreed to pay; release prices are what developers offered new units at; land prices leave out the building. They can move in different directions in the same month.

Resale condos: what buyers actually paid

Kinki REINS is the listing network used by real estate agents in the Kansai region. It publishes averages for the sales reported to it, without adjusting for differences between the properties.^[6]

April–June 2026. In Osaka City, 1,356 resale condominium sales were reported, 9.2% fewer than a year earlier. The average contract price was ¥45.23 million, up 8.7%, for an average of 60.86 m² in buildings about 26 years old. Per square metre, the average was ¥743,000, up 6.0%.^[1] That made 43 quarters in a row, counting from October–December 2015, in which the Osaka City average was higher than in the same quarter a year before.^[7]

Outside the city, the northern part of the prefecture (cities and towns north of the Yodo River, outside Osaka City, such as Toyonaka, Suita, Ibaraki and Takatsuki) averaged ¥34.47 million, up 9.6%, for larger units of 75.05 m² in buildings about 30 years old.^[8] Resale detached houses in Osaka City went the other way in the same quarter: 281 sales at an average of ¥35.90 million, down 6.2%.^[9]

July and August 2026. The two most recent months published before this article show a different picture. In July, the Osaka City average contract price for resale condos was ¥42.41 million, 5.8% below July 2025. In August, 382 sales were reported, 8.6% fewer than a year earlier and the seventh month in a row with fewer sales than in the same month of 2025; the average contract price was ¥42.63 million, down 6.2%, and the average per square metre was ¥708,400, down 7.1%.^[4]

City averages include every price band. For higher-priced units in the central wards, the figures for those wards, below, are the closer reference.

How the mix of sales moves the Osaka City average

Kinki REINS also splits Osaka City into two groups: six central wards (Chuo, Kita, Nishi, Fukushima, Tennoji and Naniwa) and the other 18 wards.^[10]

Resale condos	Sales, Aug 2025	Sales, Aug 2026	Average contract price, Aug 2026	Price change from Aug 2025
Six central wards	227	156	¥62.25 million	down 0.8%
Other 18 wards	191	226	¥29.08 million	up 16.8%

The central-ward average barely moved and the average for the other 18 wards rose, yet the city average fell. The reason is the mix: the six central wards made up about 54% of the city's reported sales in August 2025 (227 of 418) but about 41% in August 2026 (156 of 382).^[11] Fewer sales from the higher-priced wards pulled the citywide average down.

The same can work in the other direction. Because these averages are not adjusted for quality, part of a rise, such as the one in April–June, may also reflect which units happened to sell.^[6] A habit worth keeping with any Osaka property price figure: an average moves with what sold. Compare like with like, meaning the same ward or group of wards, similar size and age, and several months rather than one.

Asking prices versus contract prices

In August 2026, 1,985 resale condos were newly listed in Osaka City, 15.8% more than a year earlier, at an average asking price of ¥56.02 million, up 17.8%.^[5] In the same month the average contract price was ¥42.63 million, down 6.2%.^[4] So the two moved in opposite directions. The two averages also cover different sets of units: the six central wards accounted for about 54% of the new listings (1,080 of 1,985) but about 41% of the sales.^[5]^[11] The gap between them is therefore not a discount you can expect on any one apartment.

In its April–June report, Kinki REINS said that across the Kansai region as a whole, asking prices for resale condos were rising markedly while contract prices rose more gently, that sellers were pricing ambitiously as units bought and resold by dealers, among others, increased, and that the gap between the two was widening.^[12] When you see an asking price, ask your agent for recent contract prices of similar units in the same area, not only other listings.

New-build condos: release prices

The Real Estate Economic Institute counts new condominium units released for sale. These are developers' offer prices, not contract prices, and the units are new, so they cannot be compared directly with resale figures.

In January–June 2026, 2,773 new units were released in Osaka City, 15.5% more than a year earlier. The average price was ¥48.13 million, down 2.9%, while the average per square metre was ¥1.159 million, up 0.2%. The share of units that found buyers in the month they were released (the initial contract rate) was 79.2%. These totals include units built as investments, and units on fixed-term land leases are counted separately.^[13] The average price fell while the price per square metre rose because the average floor area of the units released was smaller: 41.5 m² on average, down from 42.8 m² a year earlier.^[14] That is one more reason to look at per-square-metre prices and floor areas as well as average prices.

Monthly new-build figures can swing widely because so few units are involved. In August 2026, only 182 new units were released in Osaka City, at an average of ¥52.10 million (up 18.4%) and ¥1.14 million per square metre (up 20.5%). Across the Kansai region, 517 units were released, the lowest August figure since 1993.^[15] At that scale, a monthly average depends heavily on which projects happened to be released.

Osaka property price index: MLIT's quality-adjusted series

MLIT's residential property price index uses a statistical (hedonic) method to adjust for differences in the properties sold, such as location and age, so it is less affected by the mix problem described above. It is based on the government's transaction price data, mainly from questionnaires, and the condominium series mainly covers resale units.^[16]

The latest figures published before September 29, 2026 are for December 2025. Seasonally adjusted (with regular swings within the year removed), and with the 2010 average set at 100, the condominium index stood at 233.1 for Osaka Prefecture, 224.2 for the Keihanshin area (Kyoto, Osaka and Hyogo) and 225.1 for Japan as a whole.^[17] A higher index means a larger rise since 2010 in that area, not a higher price level. On the unadjusted series, the Osaka condominium index in December 2025 was about 13% higher than in December 2024; that is a single month, and for January to November 2025 the year-on-year rise ranged from about 5% to 10%.^[18] These are preliminary values, revised for three months after first release.^[17]

The index is not current. On September 28, 2026, MLIT said that the release for June 2026 and April–June 2026, planned for September 30, 2026, was postponed while it checked a fault in the program used for the calculation; the releases for January to May 2026 had also been postponed, and no new date had been set.^[19] Until it resumes, the index tells you about 2025, not 2026.

Land prices: the 2026 official surveys

Two official surveys price land at selected sites each year. MLIT's land price publication (地価公示, chika kōji) values sites as of January 1; the prefectural land price survey (地価調査, chika chōsa), run by each prefecture's governor, values sites as of July 1. MLIT describes the two as complementary in timing and location.^[20]

As of January 1, 2026: the average change in residential land prices in Osaka Prefecture was +2.8% (+2.3% a year earlier); in Osaka City it was +6.5%.^[2]
As of July 1, 2026 (published September 16, 2026): the prefecture's residential average was +3.0% (+2.7% a year earlier). Osaka City averaged +6.7% (+6.1%), the northern Osaka area +4.1%, the eastern area +1.8% and the southern area +1.2%.^[3] In both surveys, it was the fifth annual rise in a row for residential land in the prefecture.^[2]^[3]

The rises were uneven. The wards with the fastest increases in residential land were Tennoji (10.7%), Chuo (9.6%) and Fukushima (9.3%). At the other end, 52 of the 479 residential sites that can be compared with a year earlier (10.9%) fell in value; the largest fall by municipality was in the town of Misaki (-2.2%), and the prefecture noted that prices were still falling in some areas with poorer transport links.^[21]

Land prices are a guide to the value of land, not to the price of an apartment. A condominium unit's price also reflects the building's age, size, management and the floor the unit is on.

Limits of the data

Coverage. Kinki REINS counts only properties registered with it: listings brokered under agreements with its members, and properties its members sell themselves or as agents. It notes that a system change from January 2025 may have affected the number of contracts recorded.^[6] Both years compared above fall after that change; sales counts for earlier years may not be fully comparable.
Averages. The resale and new-build figures are averages that move with the mix of properties sold or released. The price index adjusts for quality, and the land surveys compare the same sites from one year to the next.
Timing. The index is months behind and currently delayed; land prices are fixed at one date a year; monthly figures cover a single month.
Currency. If you earn in another currency, a move in the yen changes what a yen price means to you, in either direction. None of these statistics account for that.

Where this reading stops holding

This article's reading: as of September 29, 2026, resale contract prices in the April–June quarter and land prices were higher than a year earlier, while the two most recent months of resale contract prices were lower. That reading could change:

If later quarters come in below the same quarter a year earlier, and not only for the city as a whole but within each ward group.
If you are looking in the central wards. In August the six-ward average was 0.8% below a year earlier, and more than twice the average for the other 18 wards.^[10] Use the figures for your area, not the citywide number.
If you are buying new, a house or a whole building. Release prices are the reference for new condos. Kinki REINS also publishes contract prices for resale houses, and for purchases where the land is a large part of the value, the land price surveys matter more than condominium averages.
When MLIT resumes the price index. Its 2026 figures will show whether a quality-adjusted measure agrees with the averages above.
If later reports show asking and contract prices moving further apart. The comment on a widening gap covered the whole Kansai region; check it against contract prices of similar units in your area.

Use the numbers on real listings

Statistics describe averages; a listing is one unit. When you find an Osaka listing on our site, set its price beside the figures for its own ward group rather than the city average, and ask the agent for recent contract prices of similar units nearby and where each figure comes from. For the areas and stations behind those ward names, our Osaka prefecture guide is a starting point.