Top-floor units in high-rise condos sell for over 200 million yen… With the highest land price growth rate in the prefecture, Hashimoto in Kanagawa Prefecture is buzzing with a “maglev bubble”!

The Added Value of the “Future Potential Premium”

On a vast 13.7-hectare site surrounded by high walls, sandbags piled high form a series of hills. And beyond them, high-rise apartment towers stand side by side—

This scene, which could easily be mistaken for downtown Tokyo areas like Shinagawa or Shinjuku, unfolds in Hashimoto, Midori Ward, Sagamihara City.This town of about 70,000 people, located in northern Kanagawa Prefecture, is currently buzzing with an unprecedented economic boom. Driving this boom is the “Kanagawa Prefecture Station” (tentative name)—a station for the Linear Chuo Shinkansen—which is being built right in front of the south exit of Hashimoto Station, served by the JR and Keio lines.

The station will have three underground floors, reaching a depth of approximately 30 meters. Once operational, it will take 10 minutes to reach Shinagawa Station and less than 60 minutes to reach Nagoya Station.

“On July 7, Shizuoka Governor Yasutomo Suzuki (68) announced at the prefectural assembly his intention to approve the start of construction on the Shizuoka section of the Maglev line, and on July 18, he signed a ‘Natural Environment Conservation Agreement’ with JR Tokai, which effectively grants permission to begin construction.“This means construction will now proceed along the entire Shinjuku–Nagoya route,” said a social affairs reporter for a national newspaper.

Construction on the Kanagawa Prefecture Maglev Station has been proceeding steadily since the construction plan was announced in 2013, even before work began on the Maglev construction section itself. In parallel with this, the area around Hashimoto Station has also undergone a significant transformation.High-rise apartment buildings now line the north side of the station, and the 13.7-hectare area centered on Kanagawa Prefecture Station—which stretches along the south side of the station as introduced at the beginning—is undergoing redevelopment under the name “Hashimoto Station South Exit District Land Readjustment Project.” Plans call for the concentration of offices, business incubators, commercial facilities, and welfare and medical institutions in the area.

Land prices have also fluctuated significantly. Housing journalist Yumi Fukuoka states:

“Land prices around Hashimoto Station have been rising since the announcement of the Kanagawa-ken Station project. The commercial area near the south exit has seen the highest rate of increase. The change in the standard land price for 2025 was +10.5% (compared to the Kanagawa Prefecture average of +4.39%), making it one of the highest rates of increase in the prefecture.

With unit prices per tsubo reaching over 3.1 million yen at their peak, I get the impression that the real estate industry’s expectations are focused not merely on the opening of a new station, but on the ‘Kanagawa Prefecture Station future potential premium.’ Once the station is completed, it is conceivable that a trend could emerge where some of Kanagawa Prefecture’s economic functions shift from Yokohama to Hashimoto.”

High-rise condominiums are already being built one after another, and a high-rise building completed this past June on the west side of Kanagawa Prefecture Station (29 stories, 458 units total—the building in the far left background of the first photo) is being marketed at a high price: a top-floor unit exceeding 100 square meters is listed for a staggering 233.98 million yen(approximately 7.24 million yen per tsubo).

“The large-scale apartment complex ‘Le Jade City Hashimoto I, II, and III,’ whose construction began on the west side of Kanagawa Prefecture Station in ’22, served as the catalyst for driving up land prices in the Hashimoto area.The third building was completed in January ’25, and all 236 units have been almost entirely sold out. While some high-rise apartments are now priced over 200 million yen, I don’t think they’re overly expensive given the market conditions,” said a local real estate agent.

On the north side of Hashimoto Station, traditional alleyways and a residential neighborhood of single-family homes stretch right next to the high-rise apartment complex.

“Land prices are rising not only in the commercial district in front of the station but also in residential areas. One of the areas with the highest land prices is north of Hashimoto Station; the price per tsubo in the Hashimoto 6-chome area, which extends around the municipal Asahi Elementary School, is approximately 1.26 million yen (’26).The rate of increase is +5.8%, ranking among the highest in Sagamihara City. It is a quiet residential neighborhood, and there are quite a few detached homes with the charm of traditional Japanese architecture, featuring large gardens on spacious lots,” said Mr. Fukuoka, mentioned earlier.

“A Ray of Hope Is on the Horizon”

How do residents who have lived in this area for many years feel about the changes in Hashimoto?

“It’s been more than five years since construction began on the Kanagawa Prefecture Linear Station, and ever since then, there’s been construction going on somewhere in the city all the time. We’ve gotten used to the noise. We can’t help but wonder, ‘Will it really be finished in our lifetime?’ That’s the feeling we have. However, a lot of high-rise apartment buildings have been built in the last few years. The number of children and young people has increased significantly, and the city is full of vitality—it’s definitely not a bad atmosphere.”

It seems that long-time residents are embracing the changes. The branch manager of a major real estate company—who has been involved in the local real estate business for many years—also welcomes the changes.

“Ever since the construction of Kanagawa Prefecture Station was announced in ’13, this town has continued to develop. I think land prices will keep rising at this pace going forward.It’s said that the completion of the Shinagawa–Nagoya section of the Maglev line won’t happen until 2037 at the earliest, but for the people living here, that’s by no means a cause for concern. The sense of anticipation—that ‘a hopeful future with the Maglev is coming in the near future’—is much stronger. That sentiment is driving the development of this town.”

Mr. Fukuoka, mentioned earlier, says, “Hashimoto’s value will continue to rise.”

“The strength of this area lies not in the fact that a new station is being built in a ‘rural area with nothing around it’—as was the case with Shin-Yokohama Station—but rather in the fact that the functions of Hashimoto Station, which was already a major terminal in Sagamihara City, will be further enhanced.Being incorporated into a wide-area high-speed rail network signifies a ‘station upgrade,’ so the expansion of lifestyle and transportation functions centered around the station will continue to be actively pursued, and convenience should improve even further.

Considering that ‘the city’s functions will continue to improve’ with the opening of Kanagawa Prefecture Station, we can expect real estate demand to rise for both commercial and residential development. Therefore, I believe there is still significant room for growth in land prices around Hashimoto Station.”

The day Hashimoto overtakes Yokohama may not be too far off.