Deal list
Three to five a month, from seven regions.
Price, gross yield, Cap Rate and the market Cap Rate sit on the same row, so the gap to the market reads at a glance.
Real Estate by the Numbers Japan
Real Estate by the Numbers Japan
Choose a property, arrange financing from one of five banks, hold it, sell it. A simulation game where you build the criteria behind real estate investing decisions by making them, month after month.
You can start without knowing what any of the acronyms mean. Nineteen chapters of explanation and a glossary are built in, and the “?” on any screen opens the right one without leaving what you were doing.
iPhone or Android — the contents are identical.
¥1,500, one time. No in-app purchases, no subscription, no ads.
This app is an educational simulation game, not investment advice.
The clock starts in January 2020. Choose a run of 5, 10, 20 or 30 years and compete for the same properties as two AI investors. The final standings are decided on net worth.
All captured on device. The figures are exactly what the game was showing at the time.
Two financial institutions quoting on the same property. When the rate, the term and the LTV differ, so does the cash you keep each year — and the return measured all the way through to the sale. A figure in red means you do not have enough cash on hand to take that option.
Projected IRR assumes an in-game property held for 10 years and sold at the start of year 11 at the same Cap Rate as at acquisition, stated before tax. It is not a forecast of future results.
The test behind the “positive leverage / negative leverage” verdict on this screen, and the full definition of every metric, are in the in-app manual (19 chapters plus a glossary).
Price, gross yield, Cap Rate and the market Cap Rate sit on the same row, so the gap to the market reads at a glance.
PBR, ROE, CCR, FCR, K%, LTV and the crossover — the point where principal repayment overtakes depreciation — all update monthly. Two or three of them are enough to begin with.
Cash flow closes in the order GPI → EGI → NOI → BTCF → ATCF, and the income statement and balance sheet line up across the whole portfolio. The same order the profession uses.
Screens are from a development build. Every property, company, lender and figure in the game is fictional and does not reproduce real market pricing or real lending terms.
Now put your own thumb on these screens.
A 12% gross yield on an old building, or 8% on a newer one. In a game you can buy both and see both ten years out. With one real building, the ten years you did not choose never show up.
What makes you buy, and what makes you walk. You put IRR, CCR, FCR, K% and DSCR to work inside actual decisions and assemble a yardstick of your own. Once it exists, it carries to the next property.
Rent comes in, the loan is repaid, something breaks, the tax falls due. That single month lands on the cash flow statement, the income statement and the balance sheet at once — and the figures show you why cash kept and profit booked are not the same thing.
Set them to amateur, semi-pro or pro. Raise your hand on the same building and the higher bid takes it. Their holdings and their financials are open to you at any time, and the final ranking is decided on net worth.
Most months you will not buy anything. That is a decision too.
Price, gross yield, Cap Rate, and the gap to the market.
Annual income and costs, depreciation, and the cost-basis valuation.
Terms from five financial institutions, lined up side by side.
First-come deals and sealed bids. The other two want the same building.
Rent, repayment, repairs, tax. Run out of cash and the run is over.
Nobody uses the whole thing on day one.
The worst outcome is buying it and finding it was not what you pictured, so here it is up front.
Everything written above describes features of the game. None of it applies to real properties, real markets or real lending terms.
If that sounds like you, this is where to start.
For more than twenty years the author has worked as a management consultant: corporate strategy grounded in market analysis, new business development, business and financial due diligence for M&A, and support for structuring and running real estate funds. An investment decision is something you arrive at after studying the market and building criteria — and his own rental business has run that way for over ten years. He took the CCIM designation to learn U.S.-style investment analysis systematically, and the CPM designation for the management side.
Lately he hears more often about properties chosen with barely any study of the market, on whether the yield is high and whether the loan will clear — and nothing else. Population, household formation and the local economy differ enormously from one part of Japan to the next, so an entry chosen badly makes both the operating years and the exit harder.
A yardstick for investment decisions, once built, works on the next property and the one after that. For the price of one paperback, get your hands on the basic investment KPIs — and enjoy the process. That is what this was built to be.
You can start without knowing what IRR or K% are. Nineteen chapters and a glossary are built in, and pressing “?” anywhere on screen opens the meaning of the metric in front of you.
At the beginning you can decide buy or pass on nothing but gross yield and the gap to the market Cap Rate. There is no need to read all 25 metrics up front. Keep getting the calls wrong, though, and the cash runs out and the run ends. That part is not softened.
No. There is no way to enter your own figures, and everything that appears is a fictional in-game property. It also cannot tell you how much a real lender would advance against your income or your assets.
What it does is let you watch, as many times as you like, how the in-game numbers move when the terms change. The same building bought on five different loan structures, ten years later, side by side. With one real building, the outcome you did not choose never appears.
You compete with two AI investors for properties in the same market. Opponent strength is amateur, semi-pro or pro, and when you both raise your hand on a building, the higher bid takes it. Their holdings and financials are open to you at any time, and the final ranking is decided on net worth.
Once every 8 to 11 years a financial crisis or a supply shock arrives, and running out of cash means insolvency. Starting equity ranges from a small provincial timber-frame budget up to money that reaches central Tokyo.
No. ¥1,500, one time, and that is the whole of it. No in-app purchases, no subscription, no ads, no stamina meter, nothing you can pay to become stronger.
There is a firmer check than taking our word for it: look at the store listing and see that it carries no In-App Purchases line.
The game does not use the network during play (store-side handling such as purchase and restore aside). There is no account, no login and no email address. Data is stored on the device only, and no advertising or analytics SDK is included.
Again, not just our word for it: you can check the App Privacy section on the App Store listing.
No. We take no email address and no messaging ID, and neither the app nor this page links to a seminar, a consulting offer or a paid community. We do not collect contact details in the first place, so there is no way for us to reach you.
A yardstick for investment decisions, once you have built it, works on the next property and the one after that. On a phone, tap a button. If you are reading this on a computer, scan the QR code.
¥1,500, one time. No in-app purchases, no ads, no subscription.
Price is subject to change without notice.
Look at a building, raise the financing, hold it, work it, sell it. Not until you succeed — until you can explain, in your own words, why you decided what you decided. The game begins in January 2020.
The price of one paperback: ¥1,500, one time. No in-app purchases, no ads, no subscription.
¥1,500, one-time purchase