The number of condominiums put on the market in the Tokyo metropolitan area in the first half of 2005 fell 5.3 percent from the year before to 38,398 units, the Real Estate Economic Institute said Wednesday.
The figure fell below 40,000 for the first time since 1997 for the first half of a year.
The institute said the decrease was due to condo builders focusing on units already on the market, particularly in Tokyo's 23 wards, instead of building new condo buildings.
The number of condos on the market rose in Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama prefectures as well as in Tokyo's outlying areas. But the shrinkage in central Tokyo more than offset these increases, it said.
"The condo supply for all of 2005 is expected to reach 86,500 units, because sales tend to gather steam in the latter half of each year," an institute official said.