Indians in Japan, Indians in Tokyo, India in Japan

Housing Apartments

All about searching a rental house/apartment in Tokyo
This is the most important aspect where everyone needs to budget and plan very well Real Estate is very expensive in Tokyo City as it is the second expensive city in the world .For Real Estate, facotrs such as place(area), proximity from office, station, market, Schools for children and many other factors needs to be considered before you plan, Follow step-by-step guide as a reference

Here is the step-by-step Guide to help your planning of rental house/apartment
Step 1:
Please Read this Check List carefully for the factors to choose the House

Step 2 : after you finished step 1
Please read this Location, Area(Size), Conventions necessary to understand for house in Japan
Step 3 : after you understood step 2
Please read Budget and Money neccessary to be taken care before and after shifting to rental house
Step 4 : after you planned budget in step 3
Please read to understand Know-how and tips for Real Estate Agent and Application process

This step-by-step guide is intended to make the house hunting simple !
Happy House Hunting !

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Check List for Renting Housing Properties
When you decide to look for your new apartment or house, it will help you and your agent if you consider and check the following conditions:

1. Time
When do you want to move in? When can you start your lease contract?

2. Type
Are you looking for an apartment or house? If it is a house is it a holiday home? Are you interested in a designer apartment?

3. Location
You should try and narrow down the area you are interested in to some degree. It should be near your children's school, you office, the station, and/ or parks. It should be convenient for shopping, quiet, and or a residential area.

4. Station
It will be helpful if you have a good idea of the train line and station you would like to live close to.

5. Rent
How much can you afford to pay each month for the rent?

6. Budget
How much is your total budget either for yourself or from your company?
The costs on top of the rent are a deposit, key money, a parking fee, an agent commission, and residence insurance, etc.

7. Parking
Unless you own a compact car you will need to be careful to make sure the parking space fits your car. Is it flat parking space or machine parking? Especially, you should check the height of ceiling if your garage is on the first floor or in the basement of your house. It would be better to find a parking space included in the rent. Sometimes the parking charge is separated from the rent, and you should make sure of the parking fee.
Also if you have bicycles or motorbike or car, you should check the available parking and spaces available.

8. Lessee
Is this under your company contract or is it a personal contract?
You will need a guarantor for a personal contract. You should find a guarantor beforehand. Basically, a family member is better. Your guarantor may be asked to submit some personal information – employment records and company information, certificate of seal impression, resident's cards (ID) including all members of the house, income certificates, cosigner's income certificates, and may be required.

9. Years Since Construction
The year a building was built is especially important in regards to earthquake safety. The architectural standards and laws governing how earthquake-proof a building needs to be were revised in 1981. Some buildings built before 1981 may have insufficient earthquake proofing. However, there are a lot of buildings where the former property is secure enough.

10. Layout
It is important to know the number of rooms you want. How many members are there in your family?

11. Size
Even if there are enough rooms in the house, doesn't mean all your furniture will fit into the rooms. Please make sure your furniture will fit in the rooms. Some people prefer fewer large rooms than many smaller rooms. You can check the area of the rooms on the floor plan. Room sizes are usually displayed in meters squared or by mat (Jyo=J). 1 J (Jyo) is equal to about 1.62 m squared.

12. Requests
What are your main requirements? Make a list of your requests for your new apartment or house.

13. Pets
If you have a pet, you should look for properties that accept pets. If it's possible to have a pet at the premises, the conditions of the lease contract may be different. Please check the conditions carefully, (in some cases the deposit will increase).

14. School
Which school are your children going to attend? Please make sure of this before looking for your house.

Location : reference for distance of the place near or away from city/office
Area : reference to amount of space for house calculated in Sq. mt or Sq. Ft
Budget : reference to money paid for the rental price

By now you must have got the idea how much expensive the real estate is?
If not then do remember that there is shortage of space in main city Tokyo,
Real estate has been always expensive, Even after paying high price the rooms are small and not spacious enough ,So plan very well before you decide the area :
1.) Main City Location in Tokyo : Most Expensive
2.) Around main City but a short distance away from tokyo around 20/25 min by Train: Moderate Price
3.) Away from city around 45 min to 1 hr by Train : Economy Price, Value for money

Many People prefer the location away from city so they can get advantage of economic price as well as Spacious Area at cost of travellling time. Some Expats prefer to stay within the city, near to the office to reduce travel time, they opt either smaller space or sometimes bigger one also
Above examples mean that for a Equal Area say example 50 Sq mt with 3 room the price will vary based on locality near and around metropolitan area, Same amount of area will be available at a cheaper price at a far location from city.

Now the Most important Conventions for Rooms(Living, Dining, Bed, Kitchen) etc

LDK is the abbreviation usually used by Real Estate Agent to describe House/Apartment

L : Living room
D : Dinning
K : Kitchen

There is not abbreviation like BHK or something like that....... But LDK or DK is used

Example : 1 DK : means 1 Bed Room with a Dinning and Kitchen (No Living room)
Example : 2 DK : means 2 Bed Room with a Dinning and Kitchen (No Living room)
Example : 1LDK : means 1 Bed Room with a Dinning, Kitchen and Living Room
Example : 2LDK : means 2 Bed Room with a Dinning, Kitchen and Living Room

Example : This is an example not to be quoted , Say an agent will show you apartment which is 1LDK and indicate you size as 55sq mt along with price
For pricing and stuffs check Budget section in Step-by-Step Guide, Real Estate Agent will also provide a lay out to you for your reference before
you visit the house, also you can refer the layout always even later on after you have seen the House, Check with him all the other factors listed in
the check List in Step-by-Step guide(Factors such as distance to station,market, school) all this is provided by Real Estate agent.

SIZE & MEASUREMENTS IN JAPAN

Many properties in Japan use the traditional "tsubo" and "jyo" system to calculate the size of properties.
1 tsubo
equates to approximately 3.3 square meters.
1 jyo
equates to approximately 1.65 square meters and is also the size of 1 tatami mat (a traditional mat made of straw and common in many Japanese households, having multiple functions.).

1 tsubo ~ 3.3 sq mt ~ 2 jyo ~ 35 Sq ft
1 Sq mt ~ 10.75 sq ft
Now a days Real Estate agents provide Foreigners measurements of House Layout in Sq mt which is easy from which you can calculate the sq ft
Tatami is type of tiles or flooring for you to understand, which is made up of straw , Some old japanese house have tatami flooring and not the Normal flooring or carpet style, So please check before buying if you dont want to have Tatami flooring, Indicate the same to your real estate agent
(Please scroll below to understand the conventions )

Budget and Money : Section 1
This section takes you through BUDGET PLANNING before shifiting to new house

You should consider following factors for Planning Budget :

1.) KEY MONEY or Thank you money(reikin)
Still existent in Japan, key money is a non-refundable payment made to a landlord as an inducement to assure a rental. Key money was almost certain following the shortage of accommodation right after 1945 and is more prominent in the more traditional parts of Japan.
In Tokyo, many higher-end properties that are aimed at expatriates have the key money already divided up by the lease term and added onto the rent.
A maximum of 2 months rent is standard for key money

2.) DEPOSIT (shikikin)
A security deposit is mandatory for most rental properties in Japan. For most residential leases, the deposit is 1/2/3 months rent.
For office/commercial space leases, it is usually 8-10 months rent. The deposit is returned to the lessee after the lease term expires minus indemnification for any damages and/or cleaning

3.) AGENT FEE
Fee paid as commission to the real estate agency for their consulting services once the tenant moves in.
The amount is in most cases equivalent to one month's rent.

4.) GUARANTOR
Most lease properties require a surety or guarantor in order to successfully proceed with the lease contract. If the contract is under a company's name, a guarantor is not necessary (depending on the size and financial status of the firm) Private contracts under one's name require a guarantor which is usually one's company or an individual. The landlord's management company usually conducts the standard background checks on both the lessee and guarantor. A standard gauge as to whether an entity can stand as guarantor would be:
1) the entity has to be a Japanese national or a firm with at least one registered office in Japan.
2) the entity has to have a minimum monthly income of approximately 3 times the monthly rent of the property concerned.

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Budget and Money : Section 2
This section takes you through BUDGET PLANNING after shifiting to new house

You should consider following factors for MONTHLY Budget :

1.) Monthly Rent
2.) Monthly Maintainence (Paid by tenant)
The above two components are to be paid to Owner directly
3.) Parking
(If you have one in your apartment then it needs to be paid to owner, else you leese private parking near your area, you need to pay to that company)
4.) Monthly Electricity bill
5.) Monthly Water and Sewage bill
6.) Monthly Gas bill

All this items in #4, #5 and #6 are to be paid by the Tenant

For a example : (This is an example not to be quoted)
Example A: Mr XYZ is with his family , His family comprise of his wife and two kids and he has bought an apartment 30 min away from tokyo city as he needs bigger space for his family

His estimate total sums up like this
1.) Monthly rent : 2DK or 1LDK : 50 sq mt : 110,000 Yen rent
2.) Monthly maintainence : 10,000 Yen

Total Mr. XYZ pays to owner : 120,000Yen

3.) Monthly Electricity bill : 7000 Yen, this is an average considering he has a moderate but sufficient usage throughout the year

4.) Monthly Water Sewage bill : 5000 Yen , Considering he uses as much as water he wants

5.) Monthly Gas bill : 7000 Yen, this is an average considering he has moderate but sufficient usage throughout the year

So round about 20,000 Yen he has to pay extra in the monthly rent
So in all Mr. XYZ spends 140,000 yen on housing and stuffs in a month

Real Estate Agent & Application Process :

1.) Real Estate agent is usually called as “Fudosan” in Japanese Language

2.) Write down your requirements which you learned in Step 1 to 3, then tell all your requirements to Fudosan(Real Estate Agent)

3.) Try to get a English speaking agent, these days many Real Estate company have english speaking employees, Request Real Estate agent for the same or Find a company which has english speaking employees, It is recommended to have English speaking person as your agent/guide/facilitator from Real Estate company unless you speak Japanese to make your search or hunting easy

4.) Dont restrict yourself to one agent or one Real Estate company, Try out as much as you can

5.) After you provide your requirements to them , They will send you the layout of the house with all neccessary details such (Location, area, price, proximity from station, market, school etc etc ) or they will show the layout if your requirement matched at the time of your visit

6.) Arrange and fix up an appointment with agent and see the house , Respect the timings of the agent as Japanese people are discplined and very punctual

7.) Explore as much as you can before you make a final decision to shift to your new house

8.) If you like the house then indicate the same to Fudosan, Indicating doesnt mean that you will get the same , As the owner will do the background check such as income, company as well as the GURANTOR , which is usually a must

9.) After you indicate to Fudosan(Agent) your choice, He will fill the application form for you and send to the owner, where owner will do background check either by himself or through his known agent

10.) If the deal is finalised then be prepared to pay following cash straight away before moving to house during the agreement sign up, For example if the rent of house is 110,000 Yen

Then at the time of signing you need to pay
a.) 110,000 Yen rent as 1st month rent
b.) 220,000 Yen as key money if it is agreed as 2 months rent (It is negotiable )
c.) 220,000 Yen as Deposit if it agreed as 2 months rent (It is negotiable)
d.) 110,000 Yen as Agent fee which is standard to 1 MONTH Rent(Fixed)
e.) Plus an Yearly Insurance which is mandatory , it is approximately 20,000 Yen
Insurance may vary based on the company you buy from and the area ofcourse

All above figures are example and not to be quoted

The agreement and the insurance is prepared by the Agent .