Compalyze Inc. (Headquarters: Kusatsu City, Shiga Prefecture, CEO: Takashi Suzuki), which operates the corporate database "Compalyze," conducted a survey by structuring data on construction business licenses and real estate transaction business licenses released by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and consolidating it by corporate number for analysis.

The results showed that there are 20,652 companies nationwide that hold both a construction business license and a real estate transaction business license, accounting for approximately 1 in 5 (19.4%) of real estate transaction businesses linked to corporate numbers. The ratio of these "dual-license" holders is higher in rural areas, revealing a reality where the structure of the real estate industry varies significantly by region.

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Source: 20,000 Companies Hold Both Construction and Real Estate Licenses -- Examining "Acquire Land, Build, and Sell" Companies Through Licenses and Vertical Integration More Advanced in Rural Areas

Survey Summary

Construction business licenses nationwide: approximately 483,464 (Tokyo 44,778 / Osaka 41,809, closely trailing); Real estate transaction businesses nationwide: approximately 131,947 (Tokyo 28,024 outstanding, about 1.8 times Osaka 15,357).

Companies holding both construction business licenses and real estate transaction business licenses: 20,652. Approximately 1 in 5 (19.4%) of real estate transaction businesses linked to corporate numbers also hold a construction business license.

"Dual-license" holders are distinct from single-function businesses. The median company age is 36 years (construction only: 12 years; real estate only: 7 years), and the financial disclosure rate is 11.7% (vs. 3.8% and 5.1% respectively). They are essentially core regional companies, mostly stock corporations.

Map is inverted. The proportion of dual-license holders is high in rural areas such as Yamagata (41%) and Akita (38%), while it is low in urban areas such as Tokyo (10%) and Okinawa (11%). Rural areas show vertical integration, while urban areas show specialization.

Construction: Osaka Closely Trails; Real Estate: Concentrated in Tokyo

For businesses holding construction business licenses, Tokyo is the top (44,778), but Osaka (41,809) in second place is close behind with a difference of about 3,000. Kanagawa, Aichi, and Saitama follow.

Despite Tokyo significantly surpassing Osaka in population and economic scale, the difference in construction business licenses is small. This is likely because the construction industry is widely distributed across the country, not only in Tokyo where headquarters are concentrated, but also by businesses undertaking construction work in various regions.

Top 10 Prefectures by Business Holding Construction Licenses (Surveyed by Compalyze)

On the other hand, real estate transaction businesses present a different picture.

Out of approximately 131,947 nationwide, Tokyo leads with 28,024, about 1.8 times the second-place Osaka (15,357). Real estate opportunities tend to concentrate in urban areas with high land prices and large transaction values, leading to Tokyo's significant share.

While construction spreads to "where the sites are," and real estate concentrates in "where transactions occur," the location trends are contrasting, even though they deal with the same land and buildings.

Top 10 Prefectures by Real Estate Transaction Businesses (Surveyed by Compalyze)

"Companies Holding Both Construction and Real Estate Licenses" Were Regional Cores

When cross-referencing construction business licenses and real estate transaction business licenses by corporate number, 20,652 companies were found to hold both.

This means that approximately 1 in 5 (19.4%) of real estate transaction businesses linked to corporate numbers also hold a construction business license. This group is believed to include developers who handle the entire process of acquiring land (real estate license), building (construction license), and selling (real estate license), companies that buy used homes, renovate them, and resell them, and real estate companies that have internalized their construction functions.

However, not all "dual-license" holders are involved in speculative housing development; their activities vary, including proposing rental housing construction, renovating and reselling properties, real estate divisions of local construction companies, and in-house construction by developers.

Comparison of "Dual-License" Companies and Single-Function Businesses (Company Age, Financial Disclosure, Scale / Surveyed by Compalyze)

When the data is laid out, it becomes clear that dual-license holders differ significantly from single-function businesses.

The median company age is 36 years, which is 3 to 5 times longer than for construction-only (12 years) or real estate-only (7 years) businesses. The proportion of companies making financial disclosures is 11.7%, about 3 times higher than for construction-only (3.8%) or real estate-only (5.1%) businesses.

Almost all are stock corporations, and the proportion of micro-enterprises with 10 or fewer employees is 56.7%, lower than for construction-only businesses (70.2%). Holding two licenses simultaneously indicates "business depth" in handling land, buildings, and transactions end-to-end, rather than simply adding business categories.

However, this is a representative image drawn by the median; only a little over 10% of dual-license holders make financial disclosures. There are likely a certain number of long-established companies that maintain their licenses with little actual activity, so it's not uniformly "core companies" but has varying degrees of substance.

"Build and Sell by One Company" More Common in Rural Areas -- Inverted Map

When looking at dual-license holders by prefecture, an inversion appears that is not visible in the ranking of absolute numbers.

The percentage of companies holding a construction business license among real estate transaction businesses (corporations) is high in rural prefectures in the Tohoku and Japan Sea regions, such as Yamagata (41%), Shimane (39%), Akita (38%), Iwate (37%), Aomori (35%), and Fukushima (34%).

Conversely, it is low in large cities and metropolitan areas such as Tokyo (10%), Okinawa (11%), Kumamoto (14%), Hyogo (15%), and Fukuoka (16%) (Kyoto at 31% is an exceptionally high figure among cities).

Ratio of "Construction and Real Estate Combined" Among Real Estate Transaction Businesses (Higher in Rural Areas / Surveyed by Compalyze)

This indicates that the "form" of the real estate business differs by region. In rural areas, it appears to be standard for a single company to acquire land, build it themselves, and sell it – a vertically integrated model.

In contrast, in urban areas, especially Tokyo, most real estate transaction businesses specialize in brokerage, with construction handled by separate companies, forming a division of labor model. While only 1 in 10 real estate transaction businesses in Tokyo also engage in construction, in Yamagata, 4 out of 10 do. The overlap in licenses highlights these regional differences.

It should be noted that the data has limitations in capturing national licenses that span multiple prefectures, and primarily reflects prefectural licenses, thus showing the profile of businesses rooted in their regions. The "division of labor" in urban areas also needs to be interpreted with the caveat that broad-area brokerage under national licenses is not fully reflected.

"Renewal Count" of Licenses Reflects Metabolism

Real estate transaction business licenses are assigned a number that increases with each renewal (e.g., "5" in "Tokyo Governor (5)"). Licenses are generally renewed every 5 years, and this count roughly reflects the history of the business.

When divided by renewal count, new businesses (0-1 renewals) have a median company age of 4 years, while established businesses (10+ renewals) have a median age of 57 years. Both young companies entering the market and established businesses that have lasted for half a century coexist.

Notably, older businesses are more likely to hold construction business licenses. While 15% of new businesses do, this rises to 22% for mid-sized and established businesses. This suggests a trend for longer-standing real estate companies to internalize construction and deepen vertical integration.

Licenses are Tags Indicating What a Company "Can Do"

Licenses are not sales. Holding a license does not indicate how much revenue is generated from that activity. However, a license indicates what a company is legally "able to do."

Companies with a construction business license can, in principle, undertake construction work exceeding minor repairs (generally over 5 million yen per project for non-architectural work, and over 15 million yen for architectural work). Companies with a real estate transaction business license can engage in the brokerage of real estate sales and rentals as a business.

However, the "number" of licensed businesses does not necessarily match the "volume" of transactions. According to the Real Estate Information Network System (REINS), completed transactions for used condominiums in the Tokyo metropolitan area in 2025 are projected to be 49,114, and for detached houses, 21,632, totaling about 70,000.

On the other hand, there are over 40,000 real estate transaction businesses in the Tokyo metropolitan area (1 metropolitan prefecture and 3 prefectures). However, the business of real estate transaction businesses extends beyond brokerage of used property sales to include rental brokerage, management, new property sales, and sales of their own properties, the majority of which do not appear in REINS used transaction data. The numerator (used transactions) and denominator (all real estate transaction businesses) do not correspond in the first place, so a simple division is not accurate.

Nevertheless, as a very rough scale, there is a considerable gap between the number of real estate transaction businesses and the number of used housing transactions. The map of "where businesses are concentrated" and the map of "where transactions occur" need to be viewed overlaid, recognizing that they do not correspond. Licenses also have significance in M&A situations. Acquiring a company with a license also means inheriting the human and organizational systems that maintain that license. Viewing licenses as tags that indicate the scope of business a company can legally enter, before looking at sales figures, provides a very different perspective on the industry map.

▶Details of all data and analysis here

20,000 Companies Hold Both Construction and Real Estate Licenses -- Examining "Acquire Land, Build, and Sell" Companies Through Licenses and Vertical Integration More Advanced in Rural Areas

Survey Overview

Survey Organizer

Compalyze Inc.

Survey Target

All registered corporations in Japan (approx. 5.8 million corporations) based on the National Tax Agency's Corporate Number Public Data. New incorporations are counted for the 5 types of companies (stock, limited liability, limited partnership, general partnership, unlimited partnership).

Collection Period

Annual trends for new incorporations are from 2016 to 2025 (since the corporate number system began in October 2015, annual tracking is possible from 2016 onwards).

Data

Corporate Number data (establishment, corporate type, location), organizational changes in registration, and supplementary information on business content and employee size for companies identified by Compalyze.

Methodology

New incorporations, continuations, and organizational changes are aggregated by corporate type code. Ratios are calculated with the 5 types of companies as the denominator (the denominator differs from the total of newly established private companies, which includes general incorporated associations, NPOs, etc.).

Points to Note

"Number of registered continuations" includes dormant companies and is not the number of active companies. Proportions of employee size and industry are trend values based on the number of companies for which information was available, and there may be variations from the overall picture.

About Compalyze

Compalyze is a corporate database that integrates public data such as registration, financial disclosures, intellectual property, executives, and public procurement on a full-scale basis to support decision-making in corporate analysis, sales, investment, and M&A. (https://compalyze.co.jp)

Inquiries Regarding This Release

Compalyze Public Relations Desk Email: [email protected] URL: https://compalyze.co.jp High-resolution images for press use are available (please contact us).

FACT BOX

  • Source: PR TIMES
  • Category: 法人Survey