Message from the CEO
Himawari KK aims to be the number one company in delivering not only quantity but quality in the resort property market.
Business Summary (The end of our 19th business year and a look towards our 20th year in business)
The hot summer has now finished and the Echigo (Niigata) plain has turned golden yellow, the mornings and evenings are becoming cold as it starts to feel more like autumn
Himawari accounts are completed annually in August each year, yesterday we successfully completed the 2006 accounting period the 19th in the company’s history.
We bought and sold 730 properties a record number since the establishment of the company.
We would sincerely like to thank all our clients for your warm hearted support during this period.
We enter the 20th year of Himawari with young energetic staff that holds a strong heartfelt loyalty and respect for their work.
As we continue to be positive and take firm steps forward with our business we are sure we can achieve a significant “takeoff” in growth this year.
In our 20th year we look forward to your continuing support and patronage
Himawari KK Chief Executive Officer Shinbo xxxx
Himawari KK is a property company with a core business concentrating on the buying / selling and lettings of resort apartments and resort properties. Himawari has a total of 7 offices covering various resort areas these include; Yuzawa, Karuizawa, Boso, Atami, Tokyo and Nagaoka. Presently we have a total of 800 properties on our books for sale and 200 properties registered for lettings.
Although our business offers the core business of buying, selling and letting we also ensure we can support information on resort life in general, covering topics such as; daily weather forecasts, transport guides, food guides, shopping, hospital information. Our staff will always make themselves available in the resort locations to help and support all information on living in these resort areas.
As we look towards our 20th anniversary we sincerely offer our gratitude to our clients and the resort areas for helping us grow to where we are today. To help our clients further enjoy resort areas and resort life, we have established a lifestyle/listings website portal “Yuzawa Navi” [www.yuzawa-navi.co.jp. Whilst this site is at present in Japanese language only, we would be happy to invite you all to share any information, opinions or feelings on how we should develop this site
Shimbo@himawari.com
I established the company in June 1988 and now look forward as we speedily approach the 20th year of business. Our company aim is to be the number one company delivering not only quantity but quality resort property in the market. In 1990 we opened our Tokyo office, in 1993, Atami, 1997 Boso and karuizawa. During the last 1 year to August 2006 we had bought and sold some 730 properties, let 613 and transacted with an extremely large client base. In fact since we have been established we have bought and sold a total of 5358 properties and let 3375, please feel free to view our company outline for further details
We again thank our clients for their support in helping us to grow through the years and into the business we are today.
The property market has reflected the bursting of the bubble economy and associated economic downturn, with property prices falling between 70% and 90% since 1988. Taken altogether there are properties available at a price more usually associated with the price of a car or luxury electrical goods; the market has been significantly discounted.
Recently there have been the first signs of price rises in equities and urban commercial property, there is a feeling that prices have hit a low and are extremely cheap. Schools, companies have started to introduce a regular 5 day work week, (2 day holiday), the baby boomer generation is looking to retire, all these factors we believe will support resort property prices. We have experienced a rise in the number of property transactions, buying selling and lettings are all higher. Compared to 2 years ago we have seen some properties changing hands at 20% to 30% higher prices, in fact in the last 3 years we have bought and sold 1,900 properties. Property prices as well as transaction volumes are moving the market in a healthy way.
Company restructuring, the improvement in bank non performing loans are a few factors which have led to some people reviewing weather prices are too cheap and review when to sell their properties. There is also a growing feeling not to miss the opportunity resulting in increased demand for the property stock available. We have seen evidence to support this; experiencing a drop in the amount of property on our books of 20% from 700 properties in 2003 September to 560 in 2006.
It is very difficult to forecast weather report property prices will rise from here but we would invite you to also consider the lifestyle price delivered by living the dream associated with resort life.
In March 2002 we established “Apartment / Mansion Shop Network” (Apaman Shop Network) a franchise specializing mainly in buying and selling property which offered opportunities mainly in the lettings market but also property brokerage and asset management. We opened the first apaman shop in Nagaoka, Niigata with the aim of expanding the resort lettings market; this was followed in July of the same year with the opening of apaman shop Yuzawa, on the floor above the existing office.
In April last year because of the support from our client base we decided to open the second Nagaoka area apaman shop, this will be on the east side of the mainline Nagaoka station.
For all the up to date property buying and selling information and resort area information please check our daily updated website or subscribe to our mail service
Thanks to all the great support from our clients we now have more than 1000 unique visitors to our site everyday. We have seen a very large increase in the amount of property buying and selling and lettings with the amount of contracts concluded up by 60%. We would like to again sincerely thank all our clients who have supported and guided us in achieving this. When you enter our home page please feel free to enter your name and property requirements our staff will be extremely happy to answer any of your questions.
Since we established our company we have always considered our clients extremely important and like old friends. We will never make inquiries, visit or make uninvited calls instead we welcome our client’s inquiries.
Firstly as an employee of the company I have a drive to improve, to take our level of specialty higher, to develop our business practices and as professionals aim to make us the most reliable company in the resort property market.
We look forward to your support and guidance
1st September 2006
Zip Code 949-6101 Niigata-Ken Ooaza Yuzawa 2448 Yuzawa Machi
Himawari KK Chief Operating Officer Shinbo xxxx
Whatever your enquiries please feel free to contact us directly by e-mail at
info@himawari.com
Himawari KK http://www.himawari.com