New Niseko real estate companies

SEVERAL new real estate companies have been formed in Niseko in over the past year.

Kicking off the new arrivals is Tracks Real Estate, whose sister companies Hokkaido Tracks Development and Hokkaido Tracks Management were local pioneers in their fields.

While this is TRE’s first season, sales manager Grant Mitchell said it already had a healthy stock of more than forty properties.

“Worldwide, few ski resorts can rival Niseko, and even fewer have the quality of Hirafu’s real estate,” says Mitchell.

TRE’s listings range from luxurious penthouses to more modest apartments and feature a selection of houses in fashionable Middle Hirafu.

Makoto Begley and Michael Davenport will be joint operators of North Star Projects.

Their main focus will be on design and construction, working with Makoto’s construction experience in Niigata and Niseko, and Davenport’s experience working for a development company and overseeing several construction projects in Niseko.

“We are both bilingual, have good connections in the area and it made sense to work together,” says Davenport.

“We’ll work on smaller jobs (renovations, extensions) through to much larger jobs (new houses, apartments) and take clients from inception to completion. We’ve been working together for about a year already but we’ve decided to formalize things in this new venture.”

Jason McGregor has just started his own company, JBuild Niseko.

McGregor is a licensed Australian builder who has been working in construction in Japan for the past 18 years.

In that time he was hands on for over 250 various projects. He discovered Niseko five years ago and settled here in early 2007.

An ex project manager with Hokkaido Tracks, McGregor decided he would venture out on his own and offer his construction services which include renovations, management of construction projects, pre-purchase inspections and general consulting.