Sekisui House Ltd. expects sales of its small houses powered by sunlight to rise fivefold in two years as buyers take advantage of government subsidies encouraging the use of renewable energy.
The sales of houses fitted with solar power panels may jump to 10,000 units in the year ending in January 2011 from 2,071 last year, Hidehiro Yamaguchi, Sekisui's executive officer in charge of investor relations, said in a recent interview in Tokyo. Sales in the five months that ended in June matched last year's total and may reach 6,000 units by next January, he said.
Daiwa House Industry Co. and Sumitomo Forestry Co. are among firms building environmentally friendly dwellings even as overall housing starts slump amid the recession.