Aman Residences, Tokyo

Freehold title to a flat, held as unit ownership under Japan's Act on Building Unit Ownership, Act 69 of 1962. Three things transfer together: ownership of the flat itself, an undivided share of the common parts, and a right in the land the tower stands on. The share of common parts follows the floor area of your flat. Every owner belongs to the management association that holds meetings, appoints a manager and sets the house rules the whole building lives by.

There is no allocation of nights or weeks. The flat is yours to occupy year round, and it can be left empty. Short stay letting is a different matter. Japan's Housing Accommodation Business Act caps short lets at 180 nights a year and requires notification to the prefecture, and local ordinances can narrow that further. The building's own rules govern whether letting is permitted at all. Aman publishes no rental programme here, so any letting of an owner residence runs through the owner and the managing agent, subject to availability.

The annual service charge is not published and is confirmed for the specific residence before you commit. Under the Act, each owner bears the cost of the common parts in proportion to that floor area share unless the house rules say otherwise, so the charge tracks the size of the flat. Two annual taxes then apply to the registered assessed value: fixed asset tax at 1.4 per cent and city planning tax at 0.3 per cent, billed together in 4 instalments in June, September, December and February.

Residents have their own floors at 54 and 56, and their own spa, with no hotel guests to share them with. Housekeeping and a 24 hour concierge run from the building. The estate below adds the shops, the market, the art museum, the school and the clinic. The services list sets out what is there.

Azabudai Hills Mori JP Tower rises 64 floors and about 330 metres, the tallest building in Japan, on a steel frame that is partly steel reinforced concrete. Pelli Clarke and Partners shaped the tower and its exterior, the work of the late Cesar Pelli and Fred W. Clark. Yabu Pushelberg designed the residence interiors, the office entrance and the sky lobby. The tower was completed in June 2023. The 91 residences take the top 11 floors, 54 to 64, in layouts of 2 to 6 bedrooms, each with its own lift lobby.

Azabudai Hills covers about 8.1 hectares, 20 acres, with about 861,700 sq m of floor space and about 24,000 sq m of planting, more than 5 times what stood here before. Around 1,400 homes sit across two further residence towers. On site are about 150 shops and restaurants, a market, the Azabudai Hills Gallery, the Mori Building Digital Art Museum housing Epson teamLab Borderless, which opened in February 2024, The British School in Tokyo, and a preventive medicine centre run with Keio University. Mori Building started assembling the site in 1989 with more than 300 rightsholders.

Minato ward, between Roppongi Hills and Toranomon Hills and close to Ark Hills, in a quarter thick with embassies and hotels. Kamiyacho station connects directly at exit 5, as does Roppongi Itchome at exit 4. Roppongi and Azabu Juban are both about a 10 minute walk. The residences look across Tokyo Tower, and some face Mount Fuji. Haneda airport is about 30 to 45 minutes by the airport limousine bus, which stops at Toranomon Hills. Narita takes about 80 to 145 minutes the same way.

The unit ownership Act sets no nationality condition, and it expressly contemplates an owner with no address in Japan, who may appoint a manager here to receive meeting notices and cast votes. All 91 residences were sold from the developer, so the route now is a resale from an owner. Expect to sign a confidentiality agreement and produce identity and proof of funds before a residence and a price are released, then a letter of intent. Real property acquisition tax of 3 per cent of the assessed value falls due on a dwelling bought by 31 March 2027.

Avory deals with the Aman Residences sales office in Tokyo and with owners and their brokers. Every residence sold from the developer, so the route is a resale. After you enquire we confirm what is genuinely available, then the seller's side asks for a confidentiality agreement, identity and proof of funds before releasing a residence and a price. Owner stays are arranged directly with an owner, subject to availability. There is no rental programme and no published price list. Request access.