Housing starts in Japan rose by 4.2 percent year-on-year in January of 2018, easily beating market expectations of a 0.5 percent gain and following a 1.1 percent growth in a month earlier. It marked the third straight month of increase in housing starts and the steepest since January 2017, when the reading showed a 12.8 percent rise. New construction starts accelerated strongly for both owned (9.9 percent vs 3.3 percent in January) and issued (40.3 percent vs 18.2 percent). Also, housing starts rebounded for both two-by-four (0.2 percent vs -8.5 percent) and prefabricated (2.9 percent vs -10.6 percent). In addition, construction starts for rented fell much softer (-5.1 percent vs -12.3 percent). Meanwhile, starts for built for sale grew at a softer pace (11.4 percent vs 19.8 percent). Housing Starts in Japan averaged 2.48 percent from 1961 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 67.63 percent in March of 1972 and a record low of -43.96 percent in September of 2007.