Adventurasia Community

(Written back around 2002~2003)

Off and on, I’ve been thinking about moving to my own apartment for at least a year. However, I’ve always managed to put it off due to too much or too little in terms of work / travel / or financial situation. What makes it especially difficult is that I’ve met many wonderful people (both foreign and Japanese) at my current abode, people that I would never have met otherwise.

When I first came to Japan, my previous company acted as my guarantor (I’ll describe the terminology a bit later) and they helped to get me a nice, relatively large 1 room apartment with unit bath/shower and unit kitchen. But I decided to leave the company, and while they said that I could keep renting the place, I didn’t feel comfortable knowing that they still had a bit of influence on my private life / housing.

At this point in time, I did not have a lot of money saved up, and was in the midst of changing jobs, so I moved into a shared house with a common kitchen/dining room area. The place wasn’t that nice, but it was cheap, and convenient. The landlord was a bit wacko, but I guess some people gave them a hard time. (I would say more about this, but won’t - at least not in a public place such as this). Because the place was relatively inexpensive, the barriers to entry were quite low - and as a result we sometimes got tenants that were real problems. One person in particular, worked opposite schedules from the rest of us. The person would get home in the morning, around the time that the rest of us needed to get ready for work.There was only one shower, and there was always some sort of conflict - we put up schedules etc… But then if you missed your time, there would be a problem.

Anyways, I eventually got out of this place.

So I was looking for another place - but didn’t have much time to look as it was the busy season at work. I took a look at three places, and finally decided on the place where I currently am. It’s quite surprising how long I stayed at the current place, given that initially I only planned a few months until I found my own apartment. But, the people here are super cool, and the place is clean and tidy, and in a nice quiet residential type area - with parks/river and temples nearby.

So after approximately two years of being in the same place, I’ve decided to make a new concerted effort to begin looking for an apartment. For the past week or so, I’ve been scanning the various Web sites for pricing information; have picked up a real estate guide published by Recruit; and have picked up brochures from nearby real estate agents. The problem is that most of this information is in Japanese - but at least they include the floorplans which is nice… Today, I even checked out several apartments offered by a couple of agents.

I suppose the big question is:
How much and how big are apartments in Tokyo?

Well, in the Suginami-ku area [this is the area west of Shinjuku] apartments start from about 40,000 Yen, with a typical price being about 65,000 ~ 85,000 Yen for a 15~25 square metre place. However, like anywhere else, you get what you pay for. Some questions that you probably need to keep in mind include:

• How old is the building? Has it been refurbished?
• How far is the apartment from the station(s)?
• What train / subway lines are nearby? (anything near the Yamanote line is more expensive)
• How long will it take to commute to work?
• What sort of amenities/shops/parks are nearby?
• Is it a busy, bustling location or a quiet residential area?
• What type of building is it - eg. Apartment, Mansion which is usually made out of concrete, house
• What type of flooring - tatami, linoleum, wood flooring
• What is the layout of the apartment? eg. 1R, 1K, 1DK, 1LDK, 2K, 2DK, etc…
• What other costs are involved?

The following is a quick glossary of the typical layouts that are available (small to big):
1R: stands for 1 room, and typically includes a self-enclosed bath/shower/toilet unit plus a unit kitchen which is basically a single element, small sink, and a bar sized fridge.
1K: stands for 1 room + separate kitchen (a bit larger than the unit kitchen, often with a door to separate the rooms) + bathroom
1DK: stands for 1 room + kitchen combined with a dining area
1LDK: stands for 1 room + living room + kitchen
2K: stands for 2 rooms + kitchen
2LDK: stands for 2 rooms + living room + kitchen
Some apartments will include a loft - which is similar to having a second floor of a house / bunk bed. Usually the loft will be over the bathroom/kitchen area - and is a good place to sleep; leaving the ground floor to put your other stuff. Quite often the floorplan will include measurements in either square metres, or in Japanese units of measure - Tsubo (3.3 square metres); Jyou (1.65 square metres) Now the

big question

- What is the cost of moving into an apartment?It is not uncommon to have to pay up to 6 months rent before you are allowed to set foot in the apartment. This is quite often broken up into the following constituent parts:

Shikikin (Deposit): 2 months (you may as well kiss it goodbye)
Reikin (Key/Gift Money): 2 months
Agent Fee (commission): 1 month
1st Month Rent: 1 month

In addition, you may have to pay:
Maintenance Fee
Insurance

Contracts are generally for 2 years, and you may have to pay another 1 or 2 months or Reikin to renew the contract.

All of these fees really add up - for a 75,000 Yen apartment - you might have to pay up to 500,000 Yen just to move in! Then you still have to furnish the place, hook up the gas, water, electricity, cable, and telephone (about 30,000 ~ 70,000 yen for the license).

And if this isn’t enough, quite often you need a guarantor. If you don’t pay your rent, or cause damage and don’t pay, then it becomes the guarantor’s responsibility. This really doesn’t make much sense to me as you are already paying about 2 months of deposit which theoretically should be refunded to you unless you cause damage or don’t pay your rent. The guarantor also generally has to be a Japanese resident.

Having said all this, there are places that cater to foreigners - that may relax some of the above rules/regulations. Some places for example, do not require a guarantor, or do not require the key money / agent fee etc… However, generally, your monthly rent will be a bit more expensive; and the location / place may not be as nice.

Well my goal for March is to decide on a place, and hopefully move in April or May. It probably won’t be too much larger than my current place - but it will be nice for a change. If you are looking for a place as well - good luck!

Filed under: Japan, Personal