This is the ninth consecutive decline this year

In November 2023, housing starts in Japan fell by 8.5% year-on-year, more than the 6.3% drop in the previous month and worse than market forecasts of a 4.3% drop. 

This was reported by Trading Economics.

This was the ninth decline in new construction since the beginning of the year and the fastest since August due to a decrease in the construction of housing for own use (-17.3% vs. -17.2% in October), rental housing (-5.3% vs. -1.0%), housing for sale (-5.2% vs. -1.2%) and duplex housing (-2.1% vs. 0.8%). 

At the same time, the volume of prefabricated housing construction increased by 20.0%, down from the previous growth of 24.0%. At the same time, the volume of new housing construction increased sharply (72.3% vs. -52.3%).