What the data says
Karuizawa is Tokyo's classic summer-villa town, and the official data show a clear step up since 2020. In the buyer survey (取引価格・アンケート), the median land-only plot was ¥15,700–17,400/㎡ every year from 2015 to 2019, ¥20,000–24,400/㎡ in 2020–2023, then ¥35,885/㎡ in 2024 and ¥37,857/㎡ in 2025, on a typical 600–660 ㎡ villa lot. Houses with land, measured per ㎡ of land, went from ¥33,333/㎡ in 2015 to ¥80,909/㎡ in 2025 (median price ¥28m to ¥46m). Where you buy matters more than when: in 2023–2025 the median was ¥111,111/㎡ in 大字軽井沢 (old Karuizawa and the station's north side) against ¥45,216/㎡ in 大字長倉 (the Naka-Karuizawa side) and ¥12,727/㎡ in 大字発地 (south Karuizawa). Unlike the ski resorts, Karuizawa also has resale condominiums in brokers' closed prices (成約価格): 335 sales in 2021–2025, median ¥44m for 75 ㎡ (¥550,000/㎡), and ¥692,857/㎡ in 2025. The charts below use the buyer survey only, so the condo sales are not in them.
Prices by year
Median sale price, all land & house sales, buyer survey
Median price per ㎡ of land, by type (buyer survey)
Table view: prices by year
Buyer survey (取引価格・アンケート) only. 350 closed-price (成約価格) records for 2021–2025 are left out rather than mixed in.
| Year | Sales (all types) | All-types median price | All-types ¥/㎡ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 311 | ¥15.0m | ¥22,000 |
| 2016 | 301 | ¥14.0m | ¥21,778 |
| 2017 | 274 | ¥17.5m | ¥22,727 |
| 2018 | 321 | ¥14.0m | ¥23,373 |
| 2019 | 251 | ¥16.0m | ¥24,667 |
| 2020 | 395 | ¥19.0m | ¥26,000 |
| 2021 | 454 | ¥20.0m | ¥23,958 |
| 2022 | 348 | ¥20.0m | ¥30,303 |
| 2023 | 320 | ¥26.0m | ¥36,667 |
| 2024 | 318 | ¥26.0m | ¥43,167 |
| 2025 | 308 | ¥31.5m | ¥45,455 |
By property type, 2015–2025
Medians across all years (buyer survey, 取引価格・アンケート). The ¥/㎡ basis differs by type (floor area for condominiums, land area for houses and land), so compare ¥/㎡ only within a type. There are no resale-condominium sales in this area's data.
| Type | Sales | Median price | Median ¥/㎡ |
|---|---|---|---|
| House / building with land 宅地(土地と建物) | 1,532 | ¥30.0m ≈ US$190,000 | ¥44,784 per ㎡ of land area |
| Land only 宅地(土地) | 2,069 | ¥14.0m ≈ US$88,558 | ¥20,202 per ㎡ of land area |
| Forest land 林地 | 7 | ¥3.40m ≈ US$21,507 | ¥167 per ㎡ of land area |
| Farmland 農地 | 2 | ¥1.70m ≈ US$10,722 | ¥2,292 per ㎡ of land area |
Table view: ¥/㎡ by type and year
| Year | House / building with land ¥/㎡ (n) | Land only ¥/㎡ (n) |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | ¥33,333 n=115 | ¥17,391 n=196 |
| 2016 | ¥38,000 n=129 | ¥16,833 n=172 |
| 2017 | ¥36,000 n=119 | ¥15,729 n=155 |
| 2018 | ¥37,460 n=132 | ¥16,431 n=189 |
| 2019 | ¥35,417 n=121 | ¥16,473 n=130 |
| 2020 | ¥42,764 n=171 | ¥20,101 n=224 |
| 2021 | ¥43,732 n=171 | ¥20,000 n=283 |
| 2022 | ¥55,556 n=132 | ¥24,394 n=216 |
| 2023 | ¥69,231 n=147 | ¥23,438 n=173 |
| 2024 | ¥66,417 n=148 | ¥35,885 n=170 |
| 2025 | ¥80,909 n=147 | ¥37,857 n=161 |
Where in Karuizawa: districts and stations
Most price reports stop at city or ward level. MLIT records the district and nearest station for each sale, so we can show how much prices differ within Karuizawa.
By district
Districts with at least 10 recorded land and house sales in 2015–2025, largest first. ¥/㎡ is per ㎡ of land. “Change” compares the median ¥/㎡ of 2015–2017 with 2023–2025, shown only when both periods have 10+ sales; it mixes land and houses, so read it as a rough direction. Buyer survey (取引価格・アンケート) only.
| District | Sales 2015–25 | Median ¥/㎡ 2015–25 | Median ¥/㎡ 2023–2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nagakura 大字長倉 | 1,811 | ¥31,250 | ¥45,216 n=494 | +86% |
| Hocchi 大字発地 | 578 | ¥10,753 | ¥12,727 n=147 | +27% |
| Karuizawa (Aza) 大字軽井沢 | 572 | ¥68,246 | ¥111,111 n=128 | +113% |
| Oiwake 大字追分 | 532 | ¥20,000 | ¥35,938 n=138 | +154% |
| Karuizawa-Higashi 軽井沢東 | 50 | ¥186,125 | ¥333,333 n=15 | +121% |
| Mozawa 大字茂沢 | 36 | ¥13,636 | ¥24,545 n=18 | — |
| Naka-Karuizawa 中軽井沢 | 16 | ¥45,739 | ¥48,000 n=5 | — |
By nearest station
Nearest stations with at least 10 recorded land and house sales in 2015–2025, largest first. ¥/㎡ is per ㎡ of land. “Change” compares the median ¥/㎡ of 2015–2017 with 2023–2025, shown only when both periods have 10+ sales; it mixes land and houses, so read it as a rough direction. Buyer survey (取引価格・アンケート) only.
| Nearest station | Sales 2015–25 | Median ¥/㎡ 2015–25 | Median ¥/㎡ 2023–2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naka-Karuizawa 中軽井沢 | 1,476 | ¥29,897 | ¥45,298 n=397 | +81% |
| Karuizawa 軽井沢 | 1,087 | ¥41,381 | ¥61,111 n=263 | +77% |
| Shinano-Oiwake 信濃追分 | 1,004 | ¥21,667 | ¥36,000 n=278 | +131% |
| Miyota 御代田 | 30 | ¥15,136 | ¥43,000 n=8 | — |
In your currency
Converted at ECB reference rates of 2026-10-06: ¥158.09 = 1 USD, ¥110.38 = 1 AUD, ¥20.14 = 1 HKD, ¥123.78 = 1 SGD. TWD, which the ECB does not publish, at the U.S. Federal Reserve H.10 rate of 2026-09-18 (via FRED): ¥4.93 = 1 TWD. The same rate is applied to every figure, so these are today's-money conversions of yen prices, not what was paid at the time. Your bank's rate and fees will differ. Buyer survey (取引価格・アンケート).
| JPY | USD | AUD | HKD | SGD | TWD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median price, 2025 (all types) | ¥31,500,000 | US$199,000 | A$285,000 | HK$1.56m | S$254,000 | NT$6.39m |
| Median ¥/㎡, 2025 | ¥45,455 | US$288 | A$412 | HK$2,256 | S$367 | NT$9,220 |
| Median price per ft², 2025 | ¥4,223 | US$27 | A$38 | HK$210 | S$34 | NT$857 |
Exchange rates matter as much as prices. At each year's average rate (¥121 per US$ in 2015, ¥150 in 2025), the median ¥/㎡ for all land & house sales, buyer survey went from about US$182 to US$304 per ㎡: +67% in dollar terms, against +107% in yen. Dollar-based owners who bought in 2015 have seen a smaller gain than the yen figures suggest, and dollar-based buyers today pay less in their own currency than the yen trend implies.
Read this before relying on the numbers
- Hotels, lodges and ryokan can't be separated. The data has no hotel/ryokan category; any such sales are mixed into “house / building with land” or land.
- Small numbers. A few dozen sales a year means one or two unusual deals can move a median a lot. Treat single-year jumps with caution and prefer the three-year district and station figures.
- Mix effects. The all-types median moves with the share of land vs. houses sold each year; that is why we chart land and houses separately for ¥/㎡.
- Buyer-survey data only. Every figure on this page comes from MLIT's buyer survey (取引価格・アンケート). Brokers' closed prices (成約価格, published from 2021) contain almost no sales here (350 in 2021–2025), so those few records are left out rather than mixed in. Compare with the closed-price figures on our Tokyo and Kyoto pages only roughly.
- Condominiums. Karuizawa's resale condos appear only in brokers' closed prices (2021–2025: 61, 66, 76, 68 and 64 sales a year; median ¥/㎡ ¥433,333 in 2021 and ¥692,857 in 2025). Many are resort condominiums with shared onsen or management services, so they are not directly comparable to a detached villa.
Methodology
- Data: The buyer-survey transaction prices (不動産取引価格情報), 2015Q1–2025Q4 (350 closed-price records left out) for Karuizawa (軽井沢町; municipality code 20321), from the MLIT Real Estate Information Library. Fetched 2026-10-07.
- Median, not average: a few very large sales (whole buildings, development land) would distort an average.
- ¥/㎡: price divided by recorded area: floor area for condominiums, land area for land and land-with-building sales.
- Coverage: MLIT publishes prices reported through its buyer survey and, from 2021, brokers' closed prices. Here we use the survey only, selected by MLIT's price-type field (価格情報区分). It is not every sale, and prices and areas are rounded.
- Year: the quarter of the transaction recorded by MLIT, grouped by calendar year.
- “All property types” = land, land with building, and resale condominiums. Forest land and farmland are shown only in the by-type table.
- Excluded as non-market: sales flagged by MLIT as between related parties, court auctions/mediation, or purchase of adjoining land.
- Plots recorded only as “2,000㎡ or more” / “5,000㎡ or more” are counted in price medians but not in ¥/㎡.
- The latest year shown is the last complete calendar year; newer quarters are held back until the year is complete.
- Newest data available at fetch time: 2026Q1.
Can you get a mortgage to buy in Karuizawa? It depends on your residency status: permanent residents borrow like Japanese nationals, a few banks lend to foreigners living in Japan on a visa, and buyers living abroad have only a handful of options (mostly for Taiwan and Hong Kong), usually with 30–50% down. See Japanese mortgages for foreigners: lenders by residency status (updated monthly), or estimate the monthly repayment: permanent resident · living in Japan, no PR · living abroad. We are not a lender and receive no fees from banks.
Source: MLIT Real Estate Information Library (processed by Japan House Prices). https://www.reinfolib.mlit.go.jp/ — 出典：国土交通省 不動産情報ライブラリ（https://www.reinfolib.mlit.go.jp/）のデータを加工して作成. Original content: Transaction prices (不動産取引価格情報) and contract prices (成約価格情報). We filtered, grouped and took medians of the published records; the resulting figures are our own and are not published or endorsed by MLIT (国土交通省).
Exchange rates: ECB euro foreign exchange reference rates of 2026-10-06; TWD (not published by the ECB): U.S. Federal Reserve H.10 rate via FRED, 2026-09-18. Past transaction prices do not predict future prices; this page is not a valuation, an offer of property, or investment advice. Last reviewed 2026-09.
Thinking of buying in Karuizawa?
We can introduce you to licensed local brokers who work with overseas buyers. We are not a real estate broker; we introduce you to licensed Japanese brokers. We don't describe, recommend or negotiate properties, and we don't charge buyers. Brokers may pay us a referral fee.
More price pages
Niseko property prices · Hakuba property prices · Furano property prices · Myoko property prices · Rusutsu property prices · Nozawa Onsen property prices · Central Tokyo apartment prices · Chiyoda apartment prices · Chuo apartment prices · Minato apartment prices · Shinjuku apartment prices · Shibuya apartment prices · Kyoto property prices · Osaka apartment prices · Osaka Kita-ku apartment prices · Osaka Chuo-ku apartment prices · Osaka Nishi-ku apartment prices · Osaka Naniwa-ku apartment prices · Tokyo price per square metre, by ward · Tokyo condo prices — monthly tracker · Tokyo property price history since 1985
New to buying in Japan? Read our step-by-step guide for foreign buyers. Rules for foreign buyers are changing: see the foreign ownership rules tracker. Planning to rent it out short-term? See Airbnb (minpaku) rules by city. Need a loan? See mortgages for foreigners by residency status. Worried about earthquakes and floods? See Tokyo earthquake & flood risk by ward (with prices).